The British Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, said on last Saturday that the advance of the Delta variant of the coronavirus -initially identified in India- is “very, very worrying”. He acknowledged that the country must proceed with “caution” in the last stage of deconfinement in the United Kingdom.
This new delay in deconfining will also postpone the arrival of British tourists to the island of Ibiza.
Speaking to ‘Sky News’ from Carbis Bay, in Cornwall (southwest England), where he is charing the G7 Summit, Johnson said that, for the de-escalation of the confinement imposed in January to be “irreversible”, the Government must be cautious. “It is clear that the Indian variant is more transmissible and it is also true that (positive) cases are increasing, as well as levels of hospitalization“, said the ‘Tory’ leader, who admitted that he is now “less optimistic” about the pandemic situation than at the end of May.
The British media report that the Conservative Government is considering delaying the final phase of its deconfinement plan for at least four weeks, until the end of July in view of the increase in contagions driven by the Delta variant. According to press reports, the Government, which will announce its decision on Monday, is considering as a “first option” postponing the scheduled date of June 21 until approximately July 19 for the total lifting of social restrictions, which would have led to the reopening of nightclubs and the elimination of the limit of people who can gather, as well as possible travel facilities.
Many scientists have expressed in recent days that the end of the de-escalation should be delayed to prevent a third wave of the pandemic in this country, until there are more people vaccinated. Experts estimate that 96% of the new cases of covid-19 in British territory are now due to this variant, which is 60% more transmissible than the perviously dominant variant, Alpha, initially registered in the English county of Kent.
According to the latest official data, between last Thursday and Friday, 8,125 infections of the virus were registered in the United Kingdom, 58.1% more than a week ago, with 17 deaths within 28 days after testing positive, an increase of 10.9%. There are currently more than 29 million people immunized with the two madatory doses of the vaccine, 55.4% of the adult population.