LONDON – British Prime Minister Boris Johnson yesterday gave his strongest hint yet that a plan to lift all coronavirus restrictions would be delayed, due to concern over the spread of a new variant.
The Delta variant, which first emerged in India, has caused a surge in Covid cases in Britain, throwing into doubt government plans to ease curbs from June 21.
Speaking on the sidelines of the G7 leaders’ summit in Cornwall in southwest England, Johnson said the spread is a matter of “serious, serious concern”.
Reports have indicated the government is expected to announce a delay of up to four weeks to the final date for unlocking.
“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,” Johnson told Sky News.
“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.”
Asked if he was less optimistic than he was at the end of May that restrictions could be eased as planned, a downbeat Johnson responded: “Yes, that’s certainly fair.”
He added that while some data was “still open to question”, a formal announcement would come tomorrow.
On Friday, the government said the Delta variant is 60% more transmissible in households than the variant that forced the country into its last complete lockdown in January.
The research from Public Health England also showed there had been 42,323 identified cases of the Delta variant in the UK, according to data – up from 29,892 on June 2.
The Alpha variant, first identified in Kent, southeast England, drove a huge surge of Covid cases in January, and hit early in Britain’s mass vaccination campaign.
It caused a wave of Covid cases that stretched the state-run National Health Service (NHS) close to breaking point.
Johnson said the current situation is “dramatically different from what it was in either of the first two waves of the pandemic” because of what he called the “effectiveness of the vaccine roll-out”.
Faced with the Delta variant, the UK has stepped up its vaccine programme, and has now administered nearly 71 million jabs, with more than 40% of the total population fully vaccinated. – AFP, June 13, 2021
