Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
HUGGING ON HOLD UP BUT KEEP YOUR DISTANCE
» PM’S social distancing » Fears over variants & warning as rules relaxed surge in European cases
AFTER a long hard winter of isolation, people in England were yesterday finally free to meet friends and family outdoors, but they were last night warned against hugging loved-ones.
PM Boris Johnson urged caution as lockdown rules eased amid fears of a new Covid wave arriving from Europe, and new variants resistant to the vaccines.
He told the No10 briefing: “What we don’t know is exactly how strong our fortifications are, how robust our defences are against another wave.
“We have seen what is happening with our European friends. Historically, at least there has been a time lag and then we have had a wave ourselves.
“That is why I stress the importance of everybody maintaining the discipline people have shown for so long.”
Sir Mark Walport, former government chief scientific adviser and a member of the SAGE advisory group, warned social distancing “still does matter” outdoors.
He said: “The virus gets from one person to another by proximity and proximity can happen outside as well.”
Asked when it would be safe to hug elderly relatives, he said: “When the evidence shows that the case numbers are really, really low indeed, that’s the point, and so some degree of caution makes sense.” Government minister Nigel Huddleston also urged people to resist hugging loved-ones.
He said: “I want to hug my mum so, believe me, politicians are human beings, too. We are desperately as keen to do this as everybody else.
“Please, uncomfortable as it is, please don’t do the hugging because what you’re doing is risking the health of the very people you love.”
Ministers are nervous public behaviour could ease at a faster rate than the roadmap amid plummeting cases and the success of the vaccine.
The new rules allow two households or six people to meet outdoors, and open-air sport, such as football, can now resume.
Mr Johnson said he was looking forward to returning to the tennis court, while Labour leader Keir Starmer was playing five-aside football with friends last night.
The “stay at home” order also ended in England yesterday, letting people travel further to meet up, but not stay overnight. It was lifted in Wales on Saturday and Scotland will follow on Friday.
Health Secretary
Matt Hancock declared “the door is not shut” on foreign holidays this summer after reports the ban could stay in place until August. He said that would depend on the evidence in the next weeks.
Ministers will today study the rise in cases in France “very closely” at an official Covid O meeting, where they could consider adding the country to the UK’S banned “red list”.
France currently has 36,000 Covid cases a day.
The UK recorded 4,654 cases yesterday and 23 deaths, while the number of first vaccine doses topped 30 million.
Chief medical officer Prof Chris Whitty admitted there was a “high likelihood” of a spike in cases as restrictions were eased, but said these would be “modest” if social distancing was maintained.
He said there was still “some degree of vulnerability” for elderly people until they had a second vaccine, and that the “wall of vaccination” was “kind of leaky”.
Mr Johnson said schools reopening had caused the graphs to “curl a bit like old British Rail sandwiches” among younger age groups, but he saw no need to “deviate from the roadmap”. He said: “We need to remain humble in the face of nature.”
We don’t know how strong our defences are against a new wave BORIS JOHNSON PRIME MINISTER YESTERDAY
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