UK fends off demands to give workers more virus support help

Britain's Conservative government is fending off calls to provide more financial support to businesses and workers who will suffer financially from its decision to delay the relaxation of coronavirus restrictions in England by four weeks to July 19

LONDON -- The British government fended off calls Tuesday to provide more financial support to businesses and workers who will suffer from its decision to delay lifting coronavirus restrictions in England by four weeks until July 19. Although many restrictions have been eased in recent weeks, allowing large parts of the U.K. economy to reopen, a number of businesses, particularly in the hospitality and entertainment sectors, have remained shuttered because it was not financially viable. After months of planning, those businesses had been preparing to reopen on June 21, the date the government had earmarked for the possible lifting of restrictions on social contact. But a recent spike in new infections as a result of the more contagious delta variant upended that plan and fueled concerns that the restrictions may persist beyond July 19. Scientists advising the government reckon that the delta variant, which was first found in India, is between 40% to 80% more transmissable than the previous dominant strain in the U.K. The alpha variant first found in Britain was largely behind a winter surge of the virus that left the country with Europe's highest virus-related death toll at nearly 128,000.