Most covid restrictions to be lifted on England’s ‘Freedom Day’

Tomorrow a huge experiment will begin in England. “Freedom Day” is what many Aussies are dreaming of, but there’s a price.

Tomorrow a huge “experiment” will begin in England: Freedom Day.

Mandatory mask-wearing will be abandoned, social distancing will be reserved for only those who've tested positive for the virus and at airports, and limits on the number of people who can come together inside and outside will be done away with. Sporting venues, cinemas and night clubs will be able to open at full capacity.

The hope is that this will bring some more “normality” back to people’s lives, something that many locked-down Australians can only dream about.

As Prime Minister Boris Johnson lifts almost all lockdown restrictions, the world will be able to witness how a country with a large population copes without covid rules.

With most of the UK’s adults double vaccinated and warmer weather on the way, Mr Johnson believes this is the ideal time to take the plunge.

However he understands there will be a price paid for freedom, admitting to CNN that this would mean reconciling “ourselves sadly to more deaths from covid”. But, he continued, “if we can’t reopen our society in the next few weeks, when we will be helped by the arrival of summer and by the school holidays, then we must ask ourselves when will we be able to return to normal?”

However, there’s already been a hitch in his plans, with reports Mr Johnson has shelved his “Churchillian” Freedom Day speech and celebration scheduled for tomorrow as daily covid cases surged to over 50,000 yesterday – behind only Indonesia and Brazil.

A source told the Mail on Sunday: “The plan had been for Boris to effectively declare victory over the virus by summoning the spirit of Churchill, with appropriately stirring rhetoric.

“That no longer feels appropriate.”

While Mr Johnson will no longer speak to the nation, the lifting of covid rules will reportedly still go ahead.

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There are predictions cases will soar. Picture: Supplied.

Boris Johnson will push ahead with the lifting of restrictions. Picture: AFP

Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick told Sky News on Sunday: “We do believe that we’re able to move forward tomorrow with stage four of the road map that’s really been for two principal reasons”.

He said the first reason is that two thirds of the adult population have been double vaccinated, and second is that every adult in the UK has been offered at least one vaccination.

“So that does mean that we’re able to move forward but we will be doing so very cautiously, because cases are rising, hospitalisations are rising, and so we’re all going to have to exercise, personal responsibility and informed good judgment in the days ahead.”

It comes amid predictions that of a third wave peaking in August and potentially September, with England’s Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty warning hospital admissions could reach “scary number” soon.

More than 100,000 daily infections are expected in the UK over during the summer months.

There are predictions of 100,000 covid cases per day in England. Picture: Getty Images

There are concerns from experts that covid infections could spiral out of control without restrictions, and that new variants could emerge.

Some are pleading for the UK to pay attention to what happened in the Netherlands over the last few weeks, where infections increase more than 500 per cent in a week when restrictions were lifted too fast and were reinstated.

More than 1000 scientists have signed a letter to a leading medical journal condemning the England reopening as “unethical.”

Stephen Griffin from the University of Leeds Medical School said: “I signed up to the Lancet letter because I believe that allowing infections to run amok in the country is a dangerous mistake.

“I don’t believe that our vaccines are at a sufficient level yet to allow this to happen safely, and that we should not underestimate the damage that can ensue with high case prevalence in the country.”

Jonathan Ashworth, the Labour Party’s health spokesman, said the government was being “reckless (by) opening up without any precautions in place.”

Brits can’t wait for more normality (pictured on holiday in Spain), but it could come at a great cost. Picture: Getty Images

There are currently more than half a million people in isolation in the country.

A report to be published on Monday by the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change predicts that the number of people forced to isolate from now until August 16 – when a test-to-release scheme is expected for those who have had two jabs of the vaccine – could reach 10 million. The main risk posed by Freedom Day is that the country will be moving in “two completely contradictory directions” by restoring liberties while sending a large number of people home through it’s Test and Trace program.

Mr Blair predicted the number of people being “pinged” via the program’s app would rise further, spelling more chaos for the economy.

“It just doesn’t make any sense,” he said. "You’ve got a situation with Test and Trace where you are closing down large parts of the economy, which runs in completely the opposite direction to what the lifting of restrictions is supposed to do.”

Boris Johnson is isolating after coming into close contact with a covid case.

Meanwhile, the government has been thrown into turmoil by its own rules on covid self-isolation after Mr Johnson and finance minister Rishi Sunak came into contact with a covid case.

Health Secretary Sajid Javid confirmed he had tested positive for Covid-19 and was now self-isolating. He reportedly had a “lengthy” meeting with Mr Johnson on Friday.

Javid also appeared alongside ministers in parliament last week, and one government source said: “I don’t see how half the cabinet doesn’t end up in isolation by the end of the week.” Initially, a Downing Street spokesperson said both Mr Johnson and Mr Sunak were taking part in a government “pilot” that enables them to continue working from their offices, while self-isolating outside of work.

Yet in an update after a storm of anger over the announcement, the spokesperson reversed position and said neither official was participating in the pilot, but would conduct business remotely.

The carve-out for the special pilot had provoked uproar among social media users and opposition politicians, after millions of schoolchildren and workers were forced to stay home under the tracing rules.

“Sorry for the unparliamentary language but this just takes the pi**,” Labour’s deputy leader Angela Rayner said on Twitter.

“This govnt treat the public with contempt and think they are above the law and that the rules don’t apply to them,” she wrote.

Munira Wilson, health spokeswoman for the opposition Liberal Democrats, said Javid’s test result “shows no one is safe from this deadly virus” and urged the government “to rethink its reckless plans for Monday.

“By easing all restrictions with cases surging, they are experimenting with people’s lives,” she said.

– With wires