The UK
government plans to restart international travel and open sections of the
economy.
The UK government will on Monday, set out plans to restart
international travel and open sections of the economy using a traffic-light
system for countries based on infection and vaccination levels.
This
is as the government said that everyone in England will be able to take a
Covid-19 test twice a week in a new drive to track the pandemic as society
reopens and the vaccine rollout continues at its rapid rate.
The UK government will
on Monday, set out plans to restart international travel and open sections of
the economy using a traffic-light system for countries based on infection and
vaccination levels.
This is as the
government said that everyone in England will be able to take a Covid-19 test
twice a week in a new drive to track the pandemic as society reopens and the
vaccine rollout continues at its rapid rate.
According to a report from Reuters, this
disclosure was made by the British Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, who said in a
public statement that the new mass testing programme would break the chain of
transmissions and spot cases without symptoms.
According
to reports on the new plan, international travel is not expected to resume
until May 17, 2021, at the earliest with Johnson not expected to set out a
specific timeframe.
The British government is encouraged to pursue the reopening plans
after it gave AstraZeneca and Pfizer shots to well over half the adult
population in addition to the fact that reopening of schools in March has also
not yet led to a spike in cases, despite increased testing.
The
staggered plan by the UK, which is one of the worst-hit countries during this
pandemic, to ease restrictions in the coming months, is coming at a time when
most European countries are enforcing another round of lockdown due to a spike
in infections.
Johnson,
in his statement, said, “As we continue to make good progress on our
vaccine programme and with our roadmap to cautiously easing restrictions
underway, regular rapid testing is even more important to make sure those
efforts are not wasted.’’
Junior health minister
Edward Argar said the tests would be sent to homes or businesses or picked up
from pharmacies or test centres. He said he was confident people would isolate.
The increased testing is expected to assist health officials to
track the pandemic as the country slowly reopens from a strict four-month
lockdown.
Johnson
is expected to also confirm that all retail, outdoor hospitality and
hairdressers can reopen on April 12 in England.
What you should know
·
International travel is currently banned except for a handful of
permitted reasons with people currently arriving from abroad to the UK required
to self-isolate for 10 days.
- British
nationals who arrive from a banned “red list” of high-risk countries face
costly quarantine in government-approved hotels.
- The
government urged people not to book summer holidays, saying it was “too
early to predict” which would be the green-lighted countries.
- The UK
government also announced that it will allow a number of people to attend
public events such as football matches from this month in trials of a
virus certification system.
- The UK,
which has recorded over 126,000 deaths from the pandemic, the highest in
Europe, has already given out more than 31 million first vaccine doses and
over 5 million second doses.
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