{"id":21087,"date":"2021-06-17T12:11:18","date_gmt":"2021-06-17T10:11:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/praag.org\/?p=21087"},"modified":"2021-06-17T12:11:18","modified_gmt":"2021-06-17T10:11:18","slug":"uk-braces-itself-for-a-third-covid-wave-as-it-may-delay-lifting-of-lockdown-restrictions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/praag.org\/?p=21087","title":{"rendered":"UK braces itself for a third Covid wave as it may delay lifting of lockdown restrictions"},"content":{"rendered":"

Johanna Ross is a journalist based in Edinburgh, Scotland. <\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s being hailed perhaps the \u2018hardest UK policy decision of the last 18 months\u2019 by senior government advisor Jeremy Farrar. Britain is at a critical juncture in the coronavirus pandemic, as Boris Johnson must decide whether to lift Covid restrictions on the 21st of June with a \u2018third wave\u2019 looming on the horizon. Despite any criticism one may have of the government, you cannot but appreciate the quandary it faces. If restrictions are lifted, it risks another escalation of the pandemic; if it keeps the social distancing measures in place it will deeply harm the hospitality and tourism industries which are already hanging by a thread.<\/span><\/p>\n

We have, of course, been here before. In December people were busy making preparations for Christmas when the government announced further restrictions at the last minute. Instead of enjoying the usual festivities, families learned they would not see loved ones again for some time as a second lockdown was put in place. Indeed, experience to date indicates that you take risks with Covid at your peril. On Saturday the UK recorded its highest daily number of new Covid cases for two months – 6238 – as the \u2018R\u2019 number has risen now to 1.2, which indicates that the epidemic can grow exponentially.<\/span><\/p>\n

On a positive note, the uptake of vaccine in Britain is comparatively high – almost 40 million Brits have been vaccinated at least once – 75% of the adult population. It has now been announced that 12-18-year-olds will be vaccinated from this summer, in a bid to reduce the spread of the virus. Although children and young people do not suffer greatly from coronavirus, they transmit the disease, so it is important that they are also part of the vaccination programme. <\/span><\/p>\n

Former Prime Minister Tony Blair said on the <\/span>BBC<\/u><\/span><\/span><\/a> on Sunday that he believed vaccine passports were the way forward for combatting the pandemic, as it would allow the vaccinated population to move freely, while those not vaccinated would have to abide by restrictions. A domestic vaccine passport scheme however does not curry favour with the current Labour leader, Keir Starmer, who earlier this year blocked Boris Johnson\u2019s proposals for such an initiative in parliament. The government plan, which <\/span>said such passports would \u201clikely to become a feature of our lives\u201d and would \u201cpotentially\u201d enable people to attend nightclubs, festivals and sporting events, was branded by Starmer as un-British and \u2018wrong in principle\u2019.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Tony Blair believes however that the vaccination programme is the only way to get on top of the virus and in response to suggestions that it was \u2018discriminatory\u2019 and would lead to a \u2018two-tier\u2019 society he stressed it was the only way to combat the pressure from new variants. He said:<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u2018When it comes to risk management it\u2019s all about discrimination. The reason we vaccinate the elderly is that they\u2019re more at risk; the reason why we ensure people are vaccinated is that it reduces the risk of transmission.\u2019 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Mr Blair said it wasn\u2019t acceptable to reject the jab unless you had a \u2018good medical reason\u2019 and that people need to have an incentive to vaccinate, such as being granted a vaccine passport and freedom of movement. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

However, while huge emphasis is being placed on the vaccine, there are concerns emerging about its overall efficacy. A <\/span><\/span>study<\/u><\/span><\/span><\/a> carried out this year by the UK Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies showed that 1 in 14 participating patients was admitted to hospital with Covid after having received at least one dose of vaccine. Since early December a total of 500 coronavirus patients were hospitalised who had received either Pfizer, AstraZeneca or Moderna vaccines. It has been suggested that these individuals were infected with Covid at the time of vaccination, but this cannot be known for sure. The NHS states that people will have good protection from coronavirus 3 or 4 weeks after their first jab, but the study findings revealed that 526 people received their injection at least 3 weeks before they were admitted to the hospital. 113 of these patients subsequently died from Covid. Such \u2018vaccine failures\u2019 as they were referred to by the research team, do not boost confidence in the efficacy of the vaccination programme.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Given the continued virulence of the disease, the government is likely to maintain a cautious approach to lifting restrictions. There are therefore doubts now raised about whether Boris Johnson will put an end to lockdown on 21st June. If there is an increase in hospital admissions in the coming days, it is possible, according to Matt Hancock, that the restrictions will be in place for longer. However, this will put further strain on the UK economy, which according to a parliamentary report published on 1st June was suffering a \u2018severe recession.\u2019 GDP declined by 9.8% in 2020, and consumer spending in shops and restaurants will be key to its recovery. The government now has to weigh up whether the economic cost of delaying an end to lockdown is one the country can endure.<\/span><\/p>\n

You can follow her on <\/span>Twitter.<\/u><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Johanna Ross is a journalist based in Edinburgh, Scotland. It\u2019s being hailed perhaps the \u2018hardest UK policy decision of the last 18 months\u2019 by senior government advisor Jeremy Farrar. Britain is at a critical juncture in the coronavirus pandemic, as Boris Johnson must decide whether to lift Covid restrictions on the 21st of June with … Continue reading “UK braces itself for a third Covid wave as it may delay lifting of lockdown restrictions”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2961,"featured_media":21088,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21087","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"cc_featured_image_caption":{"caption_text":"Boris Johnson will have to take one of the most difficult decisions of his tenure as he must choose between public health and the economy...","source_text":"","source_url":""},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/praag.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/B-Covid-UK.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21087","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2961"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21087"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21087\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21090,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21087\/revisions\/21090"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/21088"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21087"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21087"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21087"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}