Boris Johnson confirmed today that the UK is moving onto phase 2 of the roadmap out of lockdown as of April 12th. This next step includes outdoor hospitality, pub gardens and hairdressers among other facilities. He confirmed that he and the medical advisors “think these changes are completely justified by the data”.
Around 60% of the adult population (36.9 million) have had one dose of the vaccine, with a further 5.4 million having had both doses.
Evidence suggests there is an 80% reduction in hospitalisations of those who have taken the second dose, and the average number of rolling deaths is 47 a day, down from a peak of over 1300 earlier in the year.
Johnson and Whitty also used tonight’s announcement to advocate for mass use of the NHS testing facilities, as 1 in 3 people with the virus have no symptoms. They expressed on several occasions the sentiment that “it is together that we make this roadmap achievable”.
The ability to move through the steps of the plan is still based on the main tests: the vaccine rollout, evidence of vaccine protection, protecting the NHS from a surge of cases, and the risk posed by new variants of the virus. Continuing to lift restrictions is based on the capacity to maintain the progress made so far and preventing regression.
More cases are being picked up now due to border testing enabling health services to pick up on new variants before they enter the UK, and due to this increased control “there is no reason to feel this fundamentally changes our position” at this point.
This progress suggests that as long as the UK continues as carefully as it has so far, this might actually be the final lockdown.
Written by Jessica Craighill
Artwork by Delicia
