UK braced for 100,000 daily Covid cases: Javid

(File photo) Sajid Javid, UK’s health secretary.

The UK yesterday announced plans to further relax its pandemic curbs despite warning that the number of daily new cases is set to more than treble to reach 100,000. From August 16, adults in England who have received both doses of a coronavirus vaccine will no longer need to self-isolate if they are in close contact with a positive case, Health Secretary Sajid Javid said. Instead they will need to take a test and isolate only if they are found to be positive, he told parliament. The same rules will apply to under 18s, who are not yet receiving vaccinations in Britain, Javid added. The rules will come in ahead of the return to school for the September term, after months in which entire classes have been sent home to the fury of parents. The health minister was updating MPs a day after Prime Minister Boris Johnson revealed plans to lift most of England’s coronavirus restrictions, including face masks and social distancing, from July 19, urging personal responsibility rather than government edict. The UK’s other nations — Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland — set their own health policy and are moving more slowly. Johnson had initially aimed for a full reopening on June 21, but was forced to push back the date because of a surge in the highly contagious Delta variant. That variant now accounts for nearly all new Covid-19 cases in Britain, and daily infection rates have soared to nearly 30,000 in recent days. Javid said that figure was likely to reach 50,000 a day by July 19, and as high as 100,000 later in the summer. But the vaccination campaign has “weakened” the link with hospitalisations and deaths, he stressed to MPs, saying that inoculations are “our wall of defence”. Johnson is betting that the vaccination programme, which has weakened the link between infections and hospital admissions, can prevent the health service being overwhelmed by a new wave of Covid-19. More than 86% of adults in the UK have received at least one jab, with 64% fully vaccinated, according to National Health Service data. Get a jab, win a Euro final ticket, Londoners toldYoung Londoners getting their first vaccine jabs this week will be entered in a draw to win tickets for the Euro 2020 football final, the city’s mayor announced yesterday. The incentive comes as the vaccine roll-out is now targeting those aged 18 and over, and England are in the last four and on the verge of their first major championship final — and trophy — since 1966. The final will be played at London’s Wembley Stadium on Sunday. Unlike some other countries, Britain has not had to offer anything to encourage take-up of Covid vaccines. But the government is in a race against time to jab as many people as possible to slow the rapid spread of the Delta variant, as the economy reopens. The offer is “an incentive to younger Londoners to receive the jab”, London Mayor Sadiq Khan said.