Freedom Day delay looks certain as Boris warns of ‘worrying’ Covid data

BORIS JOHNSON has warned that ‘worrying’ data pointing to a third wave of Covid infections has made it virtually inevitable that he will announce a four-week delay to ‘Freedom Day’.

The Prime Minister used a series of interviews to explain that plans to remove the final social-distancing restrictions on June 21 are likely to be delayed until July 19 because of ‘serious, serious’ concerns about a spike in hospitalisations due to the spread of the Indian variant.

Public Health England data showed there have been 42,323 cases of the Indian variant – also known as the Delta variant – confirmed in the UK, up from 12,341 the previous week.

Mr Johnson is expected to use a press conference tomorrow to set out his decision on the final stage of his roadmap out of lockdown.

Speaking at the G7 summit in Cornwall, Mr Johnson was gloomy about the prospects of relaxing the final restrictions, saying: ‘It’s clear that the Indian variant is more transmissible and it’s also true that the cases are going up, and that the levels of hospitalisation are going up. Now, we don’t know exactly to what extent that is going to feed through into extra mortality, but clearly it’s a matter of serious, serious concern.’

Although Mr Johnson insisted that no final decision will be taken until tomorrow, he said: ‘We are seeing some worrying stuff in the data, clearly. We are seeing the Delta variant causing an increase in cases, we are seeing an increase in hospitalisations. The whole point of having an irreversible roadmap is to do it cautiously and that’s what we are going to do’.

The decision could be reviewed halfway through the four- week delay, but most No 10 advisers have argued that a full month is needed to let the vaccination programme catch up with the spread of the variant.

A poll yesterday suggested that only a third of Britons want the total lifting of restrictions to go ahead. The British Medical Association is among those calling for a delay to allow more people to get their second jabs. It came as: The number of new Covid infections recorded yesterday reached 7,738 – an increase of 34.2 per cent on last Saturday’s figure of 5,765. The number of Covid hospital admissions was 187 – up from 154 last Saturday, while the number of patients in hospital in the week rose from 936 to 1,089. The number of Covid- related deaths was 12, down by one on last Saturday’s figure of 13. The vaccination programme continued apace with 202,846 people receiving their first jab, meaning that just under 41.3 million have received one shot. A further 285,513 second doses were also given, bringing the total number of people who are fully vaccinated to almost 29.5 million Senior Tory MPs backed former PM Theresa May’s savaging of the Government’s ‘chaotic’ travel rules. Fears grew that overseas tourism to Britain is unlikely to recover before 2025.

However, s e ni o r backbench Tory MPs criticised the looming delay. Writing in The Mail on Sunday, Sir Graham Brady – chairman of the powerful 1922 Committee of backbench Tory MPs – condemned the prospect of a delay to the June 21 relaxations, saying: ‘There is no excuse for this further catastrophic delay. It is unacceptable to restrict people’s most fundamental rights.’ Former Conservative leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith said he was ‘stunned’ by reports of a four-week delay and warned that Mr Johnson seemed to be basing his roadmap on ‘ fake forecasts and manipulated data’.

He told The Mail on Sunday: ‘At this rate, lockdown will become a near-permanent process.

‘If any virus, whether it’s flu or anything else, arrives you can now see they are going to call for another lockdown.’

Meanwhile Tory MP Steve Baker, the deputy chair of the Covid Recovery Group, said: ‘ We now need to learn to live with the virus, which, as the scientists tell us, will be with us forever, and start focusing on delivering the Prime Minister’s plan to lead the way in vaccinating vulnerable people around the world.’

Kate Nicholls, chief executive of industry body UK Hospitality, said: ‘It is time to lift the restrictions that are crushing businesses.’