Photographer: Simon Dawson / Bloomberg
Photographer: Simon Dawson / Bloomberg
The UK is “actively” working on a plan to quarantine travelers arriving at hotels to protect themselves from foreign coronavirus infections, said Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
“We want to be sure that we will protect our population, protect this country from reinfection from abroad,” said Johnson, adding that the United Kingdom must consider that there is “at least a theoretical risk” that a new variant of the disease may prove immune to vaccines your government is implementing. “This idea of looking at hotels is certainly something that we are actively working on.”
At a news conference on Monday, the prime minister also warned that the suspension of the blocking rules too quickly was likely to trigger a new wave of infections in the UK, amid increasing pressure from members of his Conservative Party to define a deadline for the reopening of the economy.
Ministers had already pledged to ease restrictions as soon as the goal of vaccinating nearly 15 million people considered most vulnerable to the disease is achieved, which Johnson said was still underway in mid-February.
Number of dead
But with the total number of deaths in the UK likely to exceed 100,000 this week and infections still high – albeit falling – there are growing indications that the timetable for lifting the blockade is decreasing, potentially even in the summer.
This alarmed prominent conservatives, including Mark Harper and Steve Baker, who led demands for the government to establish plans to lift the blockade, and especially to reopen schools, and the criteria it will use to do so.
“Once the vulnerable are protected, the first priority should be to start reopening schools,” Harper said on Twitter on Monday.
Johnson reiterated that his government’s priority of reopening schools as soon as possible, although he said any suspension of the blockade should be done in a “responsible and cautious manner”.
Infection rate
“There is nothing I want to do more than reopen schools,” he said. “We want to do this consistently with combating the epidemic and keeping the infection rate low.”
The Johnson government sees vaccines as the UK’s way out of confinement and is considering further tightening border controls to try to prevent the entry of any strains that could impair the effectiveness of administered doses. Ministers are expected to make a decision this week on quarantining travelers arriving at hotels, as countries like Australia and Singapore did.
So far, the UK has given the first dose of the vaccine to more than 6.3 million people, leaving some 8.7 million elderly and vulnerable to inoculate in the next three weeks to meet Johnson’s goal.
The UK is using photos developed by Pfizer Inc. in conjunction with BioNTech SE, and AstraZeneca Plc working with the University of Oxford. A third vaccine developed by Moderna Inc. has been approved, but first deliveries are not expected until spring.
“AstraZeneca has committed to delivering 2 million doses a week to the UK and we do not expect any change in that,” Johnson spokesman Jamie Davies told reporters when asked about the vaccine’s launch. Working at the Pfizer plant in Belgium means that “supplies will be lower this month and next” than previously expected, he said, but then increase so that the total volume “remains the same from January to March”.
(Updates with details of the vaccination program in the final three paragraphs)