New UK Health Minister Takes Office Amid Alarming Rise in Covid-19 Infections | Replaces Matt Hancock, who resigned Saturday after a scandal with his collaborator

New UK Health Minister Sajid Javid took the reins of UK pandemic strategy on Sunday, at a time when COVID-19 infections are on the rise again and the Delta variant has become predominant in the country. In addition concern is the more than 50 percent increase in infections in children under 14 in the last days. Javid claimed that his priority in power will be for the country to return to “normalcy” after the coronavirus pandemic “as quickly as possible”. The 51-year-old official replaces Matt Hancock, who resigned on Saturday after violating his own recommendations against the coronavirus, having been caught in the act of kissing a collaborator.

“I am honored to hold this position. I also know that comes with a huge responsibility and I will do my best to ensure that the needs of the people of this great country are met, ”he said. Javid in his first statement to the media after taking over the Health portfolio. “We are still in a pandemic and I want this to end as soon as possible”added.

Javid was finance minister in a previous cabinet of Prime Minister Boris Johnson, and resigned in early 2020 due to disagreements over the management of his portfolio. The son of a Pakistani bus driver, he had previously served as Minister of the Interior, the first from an ethnic minority to hold the post, under the Conservative government of Theresa May.

The dilemma of de-refining or not

Javid arrives at health ministry with unknown of how he will approach de-escalation of restrictions. A faction of the Conservative Party is pressuring Prime Minister Boris Johnson to fully reopen the economy as soon as possible, while other sectors are calling for caution. The head of the scientific group that advises the government on respiratory viruses (NERVTAG), Peter Horby, said the executive should not “rush” when the restrictions are lifted. The brand new Minister of Health confined himself to pointing out this Sunday that will work to find normality “so early and as soon as possible”.

The executive’s roadmap sets July 19 as the date on which it plans to remove all social restrictions to avoid infections, a step that should have already been delayed by a month due to the advance of the virus. British health authorities have confirmed more than 18,000 new coronavirus infections on Sunday, an unprecedented number since the end of February, in full improvement due to the appearance of the Delta variant, identified for the first time in India and characterized by its particular virulence.

According to figures released by Boris Johnson’s government, Between the 13th and 20th of this month, the contagion of covid-19 in primary schools, especially among children aged five to nine, increased by 70%. In addition, there has been a 56% increase in cases between the ages of 10 and 14 and more than 16,000 students have not attended school due to suspected coronaviruses during the third week of June, according to the newspaper. Time.

Scandal at the Ministry of Health

Amid the fight against the pandemic, Health Minister Matt Hancock resigned on Saturday after images leaked showing him having an extramarital affair with an aide. The images, in which we can see him hugging the young Gina Coladangelo on May 6, while it was recommended not to hug anyone outside the house, they were captured by a security camera and published by the tabloid newspaper The sun.

The scandal ended with the resignation of the minister, one of the UK government’s best-known faces in the fight against the pandemic. Hancock had been singled out several times and a former Johnson aide Dominic Cummings said he had urged the PM up to 20 times to fire him for lying about nursing homes, testing virus or details on the response to the pandemic.

The Labor Party also denounced the possible conflict of interest that the appointment of Coladangelo, who currently manages the press relations of a chain of stores founded by her husband, could have engendered. This appointment had not been declared before the press revealed it.

“We need to be honest with the people who have sacrificed so much during this pandemic, when we disappoint them as I did by breaking the slogans “, he wrote on his Twitter account Hancock, 42 years old. “The last thing I want is for my private life to distract from the unique approach that is taking us out of this crisis,” he added.

Johnson said he ‘regretted’ the departure of his minister. “He will be able to step down from his post with pride for all he has accomplished, not only in the face of the pandemic, but also before covid-19 attacks us,” he said. It will now be up to the Ministry of Health and Social Affairs to investigate not only the route of the leak, but also why there was a security camera that the minister himself was unaware of. existence.