Britons look forward to hugs and pubs

It was a tense week in the UK. The country is scheduled for further easing of lockdown restrictions from Monday May 17, after a first phase of opening from March 29. But that plan is looking dicey as infections resurge with the new Covid-19 Indian variant.

With the success of the vaccination programme in combination with the lockdown in controlling the spread of the virus, the government set in place a road map with a view to dropping all restrictions on “Freedom Day”, June 21. The March reopening saw nonessential shops resume trading, with restaurants and pubs allowed to serve seated meals outside. Meetings between friends and family are now permitted, though only outside to a maximum of six.

These small freedoms after more than four months in a tough winter lockdown coincide with longer days and spring. Many people are slowly recovering from big struggles with their mental and physical health, as the National Health Service was pushed to its limit attending to Covid-19 patients hospitalised in the deadly second wave over New Year.

While the work-from-home guidance remains in place, from May 17 meetings will be allowed indoors, with restaurants and pubs also allowed to serve seated meals indoors. Crucially, non-essential international travel will no longer be banned. Hugging friends and family is also no longer illegal from Monday.

The anticipation of Freedom Day is driving Brits wild with excitement, though some are understandably anxious about reopening after almost a year in lockdown and false starts. Indeed, the further lifting of restrictions now hangs in the balance, with the new Indian “variant of concern” seeing infections increase at an alarming rate in the UK. Four deaths have been attributed to the strain over the past week.

Conservative estimates say more than 10,000 people could end up hospitalised each day in a third wave in July should the Indian variant not be kept under control.

The country banned travel from India on April 23, imposing a 10-day £1,850 (R31, 400) government hotel quarantine on all incoming passengers from the country.

But it seems the variant is still circulating in the UK, particularly in London, Bolton and Formby, in family clusters with members who have recently travelled to India.

Again, as so many times during the pandemic, the government implemented this too late. Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s scientific advisers have asked him again to think carefully about the next steps amid enormous pressure from businesses and the right-wing media to open up and live with the virus.

Johnson addressed these concerns in a media statement on Friday, saying the plan to open up a little further from Monday would proceed as scheduled, but the June total opening may now be in jeopardy.

The long-term uncertainty is almost unbearable, the most difficult aspect of the lockdowns. The constant reopening and restarting has placed everyone in limbo, making planning almost impossible.

I do feel for the government despite its litany of mistakes over the past year — it is damned if it does and damned if it doesn’t. But having lived through the recent tough lockdown, I think as a society we are going to have to find some way of living —cautiously — with the virus, since the social and economic effects of hard lockdowns have been extremely damaging.

Looking at the harrowing scenes in India, I can only hope the vaccine rollout here has been swift enough to prevent a similar set of events occurring, and that the vaccines prove resilient to emerging strains.

All of this shows why achieving global vaccine equity is our most urgent task, as it will prevent transmission and mutation of the virus in vulnerable countries and consequently lower the risk of new strains crossing borders.