Amid plenty of speculation, UK housing secretary Robert Jenrick said on Sunday data is looking “very positive” for the government to kick off the final step of a four-step roadmap out of lockdown. Citing the data, Jenrick told Sky News that the country can move away from many of the restrictions which are underway in order to contain the virus.
“The data that we’re seeing that the Prime Minister is reviewing at the moment ahead of his decision point on the roadmap looks very positive,” Jenrick said. “It does seem as if we can now move forward and move to a much more permissive regime where we move away from many of those restrictions that have been so difficult for us,” he added.
The United Kingdom is witnessing another surge in coronavirus disease (Covid-19) cases, driven by the highly transmissible Delta variant first detected in India. The surge had earlier prompted the government to extend the lockdown easing by four weeks when the country was reporting around 7000 new coronavirus disease cases per day.
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While there has not been a spike in virus-related deaths, Britain is currently reporting around 25,000 new confirmed Covid-19 cases daily. The UK, however, is counting on its vaccination coverage, which is among one of the highest in the world, to ease almost all restrictions from July 19. Almost half of the British population has been fully vaccinated, and about 66% of the population has been administered at least one shot of the Covid-19 vaccine.
The UK housing secretary indicated that the country is ready to move into a phase where there won’t be legal restrictions but individuals would “want to exercise a degree of personal responsibility and judgment.” “The prime minister will set out more detail on the national policy on some of those restrictions in the coming days,” he added.
