The British Prime Minister Boris Johnson called on his compatriots to be careful before tomorrow the lifting of almost all restrictive measures in England, introduced because of the new coronavirus, Reuters reported.
“Please, please, please, be careful,” he appealed in a video message after isolating himself due to contact with an infected person, added BTA.
British Health Minister Sajid Javid tested positive for coronavirus the day before. Today, Prime Minister and Finance Minister Rishi Sunak decided to isolate himself as he had been in contact with an infected person, abandoning his original plans to continue working according to a pilot scheme after being criticized by the Labor opposition.
Tomorrow is “Freedom Day” in England. Almost all anti-epidemic measures there will be lifted, despite the growth of new infections due to the spread of the Delta variant of the coronavirus. British ministers have said they are relying on the national vaccination campaign, which is one of the most advanced in the world.
Nearly 88 per cent of adults in the UK have received at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine, and more than two-thirds have been fully vaccinated. The progress of the campaign has largely put an end to the link between the number of infected and the dead, Reuters notes.
Housing Minister Robert Jenrick recalled that “the last time (cases of coronavirus) were at the current level, the number of people dying from the virus was 30 times higher than today.”
“If we don’t lift the lockdown now, when will we do it at all?” Prime Minister Johnson asked succinctly.
Today, the British government reported more than 48,000 new cases of coronavirus and 25 died infected in the last 24 hours. By comparison, before the widespread spread of the Delta variant, the number of new cases had dropped to several thousand and the number of deaths to single digits as the vaccination campaign progressed.
In the UK, with a population of 66 million, a total of 5.433 million cases of coronavirus have been reported. The country ranks seventh in the world on this indicator.
More than 128,700 of those infected in Britain have died. The country ranks second in mortality in Europe after Russia.
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