COVID: ‘WE’VE GOT TO WAIT A LITTLE LONGER’ SAYS UK PM BORIS JOHNSON

Wed 2 June 2021:

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Wednesday that he would wait “a bit longer” before confirming that all COVID-19 restrictions would be lifted on June 21, as data on the success of vaccination is still “ambiguous.”

“I’m sorry that’s frustrating for people, I know people want a clear answer about the way ahead for June 21, but at the moment we’ve just got to wait a little bit longer,” Johnson told reporters when asked if the government would go ahead with the fourth and final stage of its roadmap out of lockdown.

Despite the cautious note, the primer minister stressed that so far, there is nothing to suggest that his plan for “freedom day,” as June 21 has been dubbed, would be disrupted.

“I can see nothing in the data at the moment that means we can’t go ahead with step four, all the reopening on June 21, but we’ve got to be so cautious,” he said, after admitting that the latest data from the Office of National Statistics showed infection rates are increasing.

The UK has recently seen a rise in daily COVID-19 cases due to the prevalence of the coronavirus variant first identified in India, prompting calls from experts to delay the lifting of all restrictions until more people are vaccinated.

According to the latest data from the Department of Health and Social Care, 39.6 million people in the UK have had their first dose of a coronavirus vaccine and 26 million are fully vaccinated.

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