UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson confirmed Monday that the next planned relaxation of coronavirus restrictions in England will be delayed by four weeks from the original June 21st date to July 19th.
Johnson affirmed that after this delay he had confidence that there would be no other delay to the plan to lift restrictions on social contact further, citing the potential millions more UK citizens that will be vaccinated.
“I think it is sensible to wait just a little longer. Now is the time to ease off the accelerator, because by being cautious now we have the chance in the next four weeks to save many thousands of lives by vaccinating millions more people.”
“It’s unmistakably clear the vaccines are working and the sheer scale of the vaccine roll out has made our position incomparably better than in previous waves” he added.
Originally announced in the governments four-stage plan for lifting the lockdown in England in February Johnson did stress at the time that the June 21st date was not carved in stone
On Monday, the British government reported 7,742 new confirmed cases, one of the highest daily numbers since the end of February. Daily infections have increased threefold over the past few weeks thanks to the Delta Variant however the number pales in comparison to the nearly 70,000 daily cases recorded in January.
The news was preemptively met with disappointment voices from many business particularly from the hospitality and entertainment.
Johnson also said the government will bring forward the date by which everyone over the age of 18 will be offered a first dose of vaccine, from the end of July to July 19.
