Come Monday the UK Minister will likely be in a pub
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said: “On Monday the 12th, I will go to the pub myself and carefully but irreversibly lift a pint of beer to my lips” as the next phase of COVID-19 restrictions is lifted.
- Starting Monday April 12th, the UK will begin the next phase of easing COVID-19 restrictions.
- At the same time, the UK government is trying to prevent travelers from re-importing COVID-19 from popular vacation destinations.
- Foreign trips are therefore closed at least until May 17th.
The UK Minister will be in a pub to celebrate as he stepped England into the next phase of easing COVID-19 restrictions today. This means that non-essential retail stores such as outdoor shops and restaurants can reopen from Monday April 12, 2021.
However, a date has not yet been set for the country to reopen to international travel, so the British will have to work hard on creating summer vacation plans through at least May 17. With COVID variants gaining a foothold worldwide, there are up to 39 countries on the UK Red List, including the United Arab Emirates, Brazil and South Africa. Popular destinations like France and Spain have been put on lockdown due to the high number of new infections, and it’s precisely a strict lockdown coupled with a rapid vaccination schedule that has kept the spread of COVID-19 down recently. To date, almost half of the country’s population has received the vaccination.
PM Johnson said, “We hope to get started on May 17th. We are hopeful but I don’t want to take luck hostage or underestimate the difficulties we see in some of the target countries people might want to leave. We do not want the virus to be returned to this country from abroad. Obviously there is an upswing in other parts of the world and we need to be aware of it. “
Currently, travelers coming to the UK from non-red list countries are required to take a pre-flight COVID test and 10 days of home isolation (including 2 tests on days 2 and 8 after arrival). According to a new system, travelers returning from “green” countries must undergo tests before departure and upon return without the need for quarantine. The test requirements for “amber” countries remain the same, while “red” countries are restricted areas.
Dr. Michael Head, Senior Research Fellow in Global Health at the University of Southampton, told ABC, “If you go to France or Spain or wherever it is, people from other countries will be there too. And their countries may be at higher risk and have higher fall rates and so on. That wouldn’t necessarily get picked up on the UK dashboards as they only focus on the country you are traveling to. In this way, some of the virus has even spread around the world. “
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