According to the Telegraph, Boris is about to announce a new policy: no more national lockdowns. Yet another tease of Tuesday’s speech, but who’s complaining? They’ve all been good so far, save for the determination to press on with vaccinating healthy 12-15 year-olds. Although, as with the other “announcements”, Boris is hedging, leaving the door open to doing a reverse ferret.
Boris Johnson will make clear this week he is “dead set” against another national lockdown as he rips up the old system of Covid rules and adopts a new approach for winter.
The Prime Minister is expected to argue to Parliament and in a press conference that the UK must learn to live with Covid-19 now that all adults have been offered a vaccine.
Covid laws that are no longer required will be ditched and plans for vaccine passports for nightclubs and other large crowd venues have been shelved.
The travel traffic lights system will be scrapped, PCR tests will not be required for fully vaccinated travellers and, The Telegraph understands, the red list will be significantly reduced.
In a sign of the importance placed on the jabs program, vaccinations for children aged 12 to 15 and autumn boosters for scores of adults will also be rolled out, pending approval from scientific advisers.
But some restrictions, such as new face mask mandates and guidance urging people to once again work from home, will remain as options should the virus surge in the months ahead.
Discussing Mr Johnson’s new approach, sources in his inner circle said it would reflect both the success of the vaccine rollout and the continued threat from Covid.
A senior Government source told The Telegraph of the argument Mr Johnson would make: “This is the new normal. We need to learn to live with Covid.
“The vaccines are a wall of defence. The autumn and the winter do offer some uncertainty, but the Prime Minister is dead set against another lockdown.”
Worth reading in full.
The Telegraph describes this as a “major pivot” in the Government’s approach to COVID-19. (Polite term for U-turn?) Time will tell.
