We must learn to live with Covid, warns Boris Johnson

Boris Johnson has said Britain must learn to live with coronavirus as he delayed the end of Covid restrictions by four weeks.

Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson announces an easing of Covid restrictions will be delayed. Picture: Getty Images.

Boris Johnson has said that Britain must learn to live with coronavirus as he delayed the end of Covid restrictions by four weeks and insisted that July 19 would be the new “terminus date”.

The British Prime Minister pushed back the unlocking by a month as he announced that the vaccination program would be accelerated to protect more people. He said that the decision would save thousands of lives.

Mr Johnson said he was “pretty confident” that restrictions would come to an end on the new date but would not give a “cast-iron guarantee”.

Concern is mounting in the cabinet and on the Tory backbenches that the rapid spread of the Indian variant could force the government to delay the easing of restrictions for more than a month.

Mr Johnson said that it was “sensible to wait just a little longer” and “give the NHS (National Health Service) a few more crucial weeks to get those remaining jabs into the arms of those who need them”.

He said: “Now is the time to ease off the accelerator. Because by being cautious now we have the chance in the next four weeks to save many thousands of lives by vaccinating millions more people.”

The only exceptions will be an end to a 30-person limit for weddings while crowds will be allowed into sporting events such as the European Championhips, Wimbledon and the British Formula One Grand Prix. Care-home residents will be allowed to go on visits without needing to self-isolate for 14 days when they return.

The limit on guests at weddings will be dropped from Monday. Capacity will still be limited by the size of the venue and the need for social distancing. Dancing and stand-up drinks receptions will not be allowed.

Mr Johnson’s science advisers agreed that little more would be gained by a delay beyond four weeks, with modelling saying that the pause would reduce a peak of cases in August by up to half.

Other leading scientists say that it will be difficult to ease restrictions if infections continue to double at the present pace.

Sir Patrick Vallance, the chief scientific adviser, said that the next few weeks would bring a “double protection” as the over-40s gained the benefit of a second dose and young adults had their first one. Delaying the end of restrictions until close to the school holidays would “also take the pressure off, and that should between them significantly reduce the peak”, he said.

Chris Whitty, chief medical officer for England, said that “no one thinks at the end of the four-week delay the risk has gone – there will still be substantial numbers in hospital”.

He said, though, that this needed to be balanced against the harms of restrictions. The Prime Minister announced a series of new targets to accelerate first and second doses. He said that the gap between doses for people in their 40s would be cut from 12 to eight weeks, meaning that everyone over 40 would have been offered a second dose by the week of July 19. In addition, all adults would have been offered a first dose by July 19.

Mr Johnson’s MPs expressed concern over the delay. Sir Charles Walker, vice-chairman of the 1922 Committee of Tory backbenchers, said it was now likely that “we will end up with some form of lockdown” for the rest of the year.

Jeremy Hunt, a former health secretary, criticised the government for claiming that the path out of restrictions would be irreversible.

THE TIMES