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LONDON – England set to move forward with its so-called Freedom Day on Monday, marking the end of legal lockdown restrictions and coronavirus-related health restrictions, some of which have been in place since March 2020 .
On July 19, the last remaining closed businesses, including nightclubs, will reopen and wearing masks will no longer be a legal requirement in public places, although they are still “expected and recommended” in crowded indoor spaces. . The government will no longer advise people to work from home.
For some, this day is a welcome step in the fight against the coronavirus, which has ravaged the region. The UK has suffered the highest death toll in Europe, with over 128,000 deaths. But for others, including some doctors and ICU scientists, there are fears that the easing of the remaining measures may backfire as cases of the Delta variant continue to rise.
As of Friday, 36,800 new cases of the Delta variant were reported in Britain during the week of July 14, compared to 54,268 new cases reported the week before. The total number of reported cases of the variant was 253,049, a 17% increase from last week.
Although the number of Delta-variant infections has declined week-over-week, public health officials are still concerned about its spread. They warn hospitals could see an increase in admissions as more social contact is allowed.
“I am incredibly concerned about this, along with many colleagues in the medical profession,” said Amir Khan, a doctor with the National Health Service (NHS). told the news show “Good Morning Britain” Friday when asked about Freedom Day.
“We’re talking about the impact on the NHS. … When a patient with COVID enters intensive care, if he needs ventilation on average, he spends around 20 days in intensive care, which means that this bed cannot be used for anything else ” , Khan said.
“So if you’re planning heart surgery – let’s say if my mom had angina and needed coronary artery bypass grafting, she might need intensive care treatment afterward, she says. cannot have the operation because these intensive care beds are being used for such long periods of time, ”he explained.
The UK government claims its rapid vaccine rollout allowed it to remove remaining lockdown restrictions. He believes that the fact that deaths and hospital admissions remain much lower than they were before, even though cases have risen sharply, is proof that vaccines save lives and that there is now more. sure to open.
So far, two-thirds of adults in Britain have received two doses of a coronavirus vaccine. All adults are now eligible to receive their first dose in England.
“We believe the time has come to proceed,” British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said at a press conference on Monday. “But it is absolutely vital that we now proceed with caution, and I cannot say this with enough force or emphasis – this pandemic is not over yet.”
“To take these steps we need to be careful and get vaccinated,” Johnson said, adding that England will see “more hospitalizations and more deaths from COVID”.
But many British scientists have disagreed with the government’s decision to go ahead, arguing that not enough of the population has been vaccinated and criticizing the so-called wave of exit – the wave of infections expected to follow. increased social interactions.
Dr Stephen Griffin, associate professor at Leeds University School of Medicine, told Yahoo News the decision to reopen on Monday is a “dangerous and irresponsible experiment”.
Griffin, who was one of 122 scientists to sign a scathing letter first published July 7 in The Lancet critical of the policy, added that “everyone I know [in the field] recognizes that what they are about to do on Monday is going to cause us serious problems.
“What’s really, really upsetting is this notion that we have to have this wave of release,” Griffin said. “We don’t need to have a wave of exits because we don’t have to open up like we do.”
“We can be reasonable about it; we know what works, ”he explained. “But we also know what’s going to encourage large amounts of spread, and that encourages people to congregate in large numbers indoors without a mask, and that’s what’s going to happen on Monday.”
Other countries have rescinded orders that had lifted most of their restrictions. Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte acknowledged on Monday that coronavirus restrictions had been removed too early in the Netherlands and apologized after infections hit their highest level of the year. Nightclubs had been open for two weeks before being closed again in the country.
But some British people who have lived through the restrictions linked to the pandemic say they are not concerned about the risks and believe it is time for the country to return to normalcy.
“There will never be a perfect time to reopen, but now a lot of people have been vaccinated, I don’t see why,” Miles Smith, a high school teacher in London, told Yahoo News.
Smith, who was an avid club fan before the pandemic, said he looked forward to the doors opening at midnight on Sunday.
“I’ll be the first in the queue. … [After] the last 18 months is what we all need, ”he said. “I just wanna dance with strangers again.”
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