A taste of normal life has returned
WHAT a weekend it’s been. We’ve had the funeral of the Duke of Edinburgh. And it’s the first weekend that pubs, restaurants and most shops have been open, for a long time.
Even if you’re not a pub-goer or an avid shopper, it feels like a milestone. Life is beginning to get back to normal.
We’re not there yet. For example, if you want to go out to dinner, you need to find a restaurant or cafe with outdoor seating.
But according to Boris Johnson, we’re still on track to follow his “roadmap” for ending the lockdown. That means the next stage takes place on May 17.
This is when hospitality venues will be able to allow customers indoors. Perhaps most importantly, we’ll be allowed to visit each other indoors again.
As things stand, you’re still not allowed to meet anyone from another household indoors, unless they are in your “bubble”. That is set to change on May 17 – and even then, there will be a limit of two households meeting at once.
So if you have elderly parents, for example, you’ll be allowed to meet them indoors. But if you have a brother or sister (assuming they live separately), they’re not invited – because that would make a total of three households, which still won’t be allowed.
I have a suspicion the rules won’t be adhered to by everyone.
It will be hard to explain to people why they can’t have the whole family round for Sunday lunch when the pubs are packed.
But there’s a discrepancy in the Government’s plans.
It’s succeeded in rolling out vaccines quickly, and met its target of offering a vaccination to everyone aged 50 and above by April 15.
However, it will take until the end of July to ensure every adult has been offered a vaccine.
In other words, society will largely reopen, on May 17, a good 11 weeks before everyone has
been vaccinated.
There is a final stage in ending the lockdown, due on June 21. This is when nightclubs will be able to re-open, for example.
But even this comes before everyone is vaccinated.
It’s a gamble. Reopening society will lead, as Mr Johnson has said, to the infection rate rising. And that’s something we’ll eventually just have to accept, while depending on vaccines to keep the death rate down.
But the government plans mean there will be a period when the virus spreads almost unhindered while much of the population is still waiting to be vaccinated.