MIDSUMMER’S DREAM
SOLSTICE DAY IS PENCILLED IN BY PM AS THE END OF ALL LOCKDOWNS
LOCKDOWN could end on midsummer’s day June 21 with pubs and clubs open, holidays allowed and crowds filling sports stadiums as Boris Johnson promised: ‘The end really is in sight.’
He said the country was on a ‘one way road to freedom’ thanks to the success of the vaccine rollout – but revealed five key dates along the way.
On March 8, schools in England would reopen for all pupils and care-home residents would be allowed a visitor.
On March 29, two households or up to six people can meet outside, including in gardens, and amateur sport returns.
From April 12, pub gardens, shops, hairdressers and nail salons can open, as well as campsites and holiday lets.
‘There will be no curfew and the Scotch egg debate will be over,’ the prime minister said. ‘There will be no requirement for alcohol to be accompanied by a substantial meal.’
On May 17, international travel will be allowed, pubs, restaurants, hotels,
cinemas and indoor gyms reopen, and up to 30 guests can go to weddings.
Finally, on June 21 – the summer solstice – restrictions lift on sports events and theatres.
‘No earlier than June 21 we will aim to remove all legal limits on social contact and on weddings,’ he told MPs.
‘We will re-open everything up to and including nightclubs and enable large events, potentially using testing to reduce the risk of infection.
‘The end really is in sight and a wretched year will give way to a spring and a summer that will be very different, and incomparably better, than the picture we see around us today.’
But, as modelling from the government’s Sage groups warned of at least 30,000 more deaths under the ‘ most optimistic scenario’, the PM warned each stage must pass four safety tests on vaccine numbers and effectiveness, falling rates and mutant strains.
And he said at least five weeks would be allowed between some stages to allow scientists to analyse their effect.
He admitted: ‘We cannot escape the fact that lifting lockdown will result in more cases, more hospitalisations and sadly more deaths. There will always be some vulnerable people who are not protected by the vaccine.
‘There is, therefore, no credible route to a zero-Covid Britain and we cannot persist indefinitely with restrictions that debilitate our economy, our physical and mental well-being, and the lifechances of our children.’
Yesterday, 10,641 new cases and 178 deaths were reported – both down over a week – with 17.7million jabs delivered.
As primary schools in Scotland reopened yesterday, the PM also said tiers would be scrapped, with England leaving lockdown together. But regional lockdowns could return if cases surged.
At a Downing Street briefing last night, he insisted Britain must get used to coping with Covid like the annual flu.
But he added: ‘Our great cities will bounce back, along with the rest of the economy, once we deliver this road map.’
For the first time he admitted official vaccine passports may be introduced to help venues open. But he added: ‘We are are mindful of concerns surrounding exclusion, discrimination and privacy.’
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer told him the third lockdown ‘has to be the last’.
‘Each time, we’ve emerged without listening to the science,’ he said. ‘As a result, we’ve ended back at square one. This time there are no excuses.’