U.K. will reopen more businesses in a week
The government says coronavirus tests will be provided en masse in an effort to stamp out new outbreaks.
LONDON — Britain’s slow but steady march out of a three-month lockdown remains on track even as coronavirus cases surge elsewhere in Europe, Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced Monday, as he confirmed that businesses from barbers to bookstores will be allowed to reopen next week.
Johnson said it’s too soon to decide, however, whether U.K. residents will be able to have summer trips abroad. He confirmed that the government will test out a contentious “vaccine passport” system — a way for people to offer proof they have protection from COVID-19 — as a tool to help travel and large events return safely.
Four weeks after England took its first step out of lockdown by reopening schools, Johnson said Britain’s vaccination program was proceeding well and infections were decreasing. He said the next step would come as planned on Monday, with
the reopening of hairdressers, beauty salons, gyms, nonessential shops and bar and restaurant patios.
“We set out our road map and we’re sticking to it,” he said during a news conference.
But, he added, “We can’t be complacent. We can see the waves of sickness afflicting other countries, and we’ve seen how this story goes.”
A ban on overnight stays away from home in England will also be lifted Monday, and outdoor venues such as zoos and drive-in cinemas
can operate again.
Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are following similar but slightly different paths out of lockdown.
Britain has had more than 127,000 COVID-19 deaths, the highest toll in Europe. But infection and death tallies both have fallen sharply during the current lockdown and since the start of a vaccination campaign that has given a first dose to more than 31 million people.
The government aims to give all adults at least one shot of vaccine by July, and
hopes that a combination of vaccination and mass testing will allow indoor socializing and large-scale events to return.
It says all adults and children in England will be encouraged to have routine coronavirus tests twice a week as a way to stamp out new outbreaks. The government said free lateral flow tests will be available starting Friday by mail, from pharmacies and in workplaces.
Lateral flow tests give results in minutes but are less accurate than the PCR swab tests used to officially confirm the presence of the coronavirus. But the government insists they are reliable and will help detect the virus in people who don’t have symptoms.
Britons are currently banned by law from going on holiday abroad under the extraordinary powers Parliament has given the government to fight the pandemic. The government said Monday that it won’t lift the travel ban before May 17 — and maybe later.
“The government hopes people will be able to travel to and from the U.K. to take a summer holiday this year, but it is still too soon to know what is possible,” it said in an official update.
Once travel resumes, Britain will rank countries on a traffic-light system as green, yellow or red based on their level of vaccinations, infections and worrying new virus variants. People arriving from “green” countries will have to be tested but won’t face quarantine.
The government also is testing a system of “COVIDstatus certification” — often dubbed “vaccine passports” — that would allow people seeking to travel or attend events to show they either have received a vaccine, tested negative for the virus, or recently had COVID-19 and therefore have some immunity.