British Prime Minister Johnson: If We Don’t Open Up Now, Then When?

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has announced far-reaching relaxation of the corona measures in England. Keeping a distance, wearing a mouth mask or limiting contacts: from July 19, it is no longer necessary. “If we don’t reopen our society now, when will we?” Johnson asked. He does keep a lid on the arm: the light for the relaxation will only really be green on July 12.

They were wearing face masks, keeping distance, limiting contacts. From July 19, it should no longer be in England. The old normality is also being returned to the workplace: teleworking is no longer recommended.

“If we can’t reopen our society in the coming weeks, with the summer and school holidays helping us out, then we need to ask ourselves when we will be able to return to normalcy,” Johnson said in a press conference. He does, however, have hand in hand. The light for the relaxation will only really be put on the green on July 12, so next week.

The proposed relaxations are remarkable because corona infections in the United Kingdom are increasing due to the more contagious delta variant. And they will continue to rise considerably, says Health Minister Sajid Javid.

“It is important that we play open cards with the British population. Therefore, we assume that the infection figures on July 19 will be much higher than today.”

Still, the British government believes the time has come to live with the coronavirus. Although the infections are increasing, the number of hospital admissions and deaths is significantly growing less quickly. A result of the vaccinations: 86 percent of Britons have now received at least one shot.

“They fear that this will lead to more infections and then to more variants. One scientist said that England has a variant factory in this way, which could cause it to get out of hand again in the autumn.” To be clear, the announced relaxations only apply to England, although they will not come into effect immediately in areas where the infection rates are very high. Wales and Northern Ireland will not review the situation until next week. Scotland also maintains the current restrictions.

Johnson had actually wanted to announce the relaxation earlier. Still, he was forced to postpone them by four weeks last month due to the increasing number of infections due to the more contagious delta variant of the virus.