Covid news: UK passes 40m vaccine first doses but expert warns full lockdown easing is ‘foolish’
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Pushing ahead with full lockdown easing on 21 June would be “foolish” and a “major risk”, an expert has warned, amid a surge in new cases of coronavirus.
Professor Stephen Reicher, who sits on the SPI-B advisory committee, said that the rise of the Delta variant meant the government’s own criteria did not support taking the final step to reopening.
It came as reports suggested ministers are considering delaying the full reopening date - or “Freedom Day” - by a fortnight to 5 July.
However further good news arrived on the vaccine front as the UK hit another milestone, with 40 million first doses administered in just six months.
And Chris Hopson, the chief executive of NHS Providers, said data from Bolton suggested that vaccines had “broken the chain” between coronavirus infection and serious illness.
Delta variant hospitalisations are increasing but not “very significantly” and, in Bolton at least, typically involve individuals who are “a lot younger and a lot less at-risk of very serious complication” or death – reducing the demand for critical care, he said.
On Friday daily coronavirus cases surpassed 6,000 for the first time since March and health secretary Matt Hancock said on Friday it was “too early to say” whether current plans could go ahead.
Saturday’s daily figure for new cases was down slightly, at 5,765, but that is still higher than Thursday’s tally.
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UK’s daily infections pass 6,000, the highest level since late March
The number of new daily cases surpassed 6,200 in the UK on Friday, marking the largest daily rise since 25 March and nearly 1,000 more than the previous day.
Separate data released by Sage put England’s R number at between 1 and 1.2 – a slight rise from between 1 and 1.1 last week. An R value above 1 means that the overall number of infections is growing exponentially.
And further figures published by the Office for National Statistics showed that Covid-19 infections in the community had almost doubled in a week.
UK’s daily Covid infections pass 6,000, the highest level since late March
Surging cases lead to renewed calls for pause of lockdown easing
Surge testing deployed in Bradford, Canterbury and Maidstone
On Friday evening, NHS Test and Trace announced it was deploying surge testing in Canterbury, Bradford and Maidstone, “following the identification of a small number of confirmed cases of the Delta variant”.
Everyone who lives or works in these areas, including children aged 12 and over in Canterbury and Maidstone, and 11 and over in Bradford, is being strongly encouraged to take a test, whether they are showing symptoms or not.
‘Too early to say’ on 21 June reopening date, Hancock says as reports suggest two-week delay possible
The sharp increase in cases has led some experts to call Boris Johnson to pause England’s final stage of lockdown easing on 21 June as the Delta variant continues to spread.
Matt Hancock said on Friday that the government always expected cases to rise as lockdown was eased, and that the data was being watched “very carefully”, telling reporters: “The critical thing is the impact on the number of people who end up in hospital for any given number of cases. That link has been broken by the vaccine, but it hasn’t been completely severed yet.
“That's one of the things that we're watching very carefully, and it's too early to say what the decision will be ahead of 21 June.”
However, reports late on Friday suggested that the government was preparing for a potential delay. The Financial Times reported a senior civil servant as saying that England’s final unlocking could be pushed back to 5 July. The Daily Telegraph also said that internal discussions had taken place around a two-week postponement.
21 June reopening could be ‘hard to justify’, government adviser says
The UK faces a different battle in the face of the dominance of the Delta variant, meaning it could be “hard to justify” easing further restrictions this month, an epidemiologist advising the government has said.
Asked whether the 21 June target for unlocking made him “nervous”, Dr Adam Kucharski told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: “I think we have to accept the equation has changed here – we are not facing the virus that we were facing two months ago.
“If we were facing the B.117 [Alpha, or Kent] variant as the dominant one, the fact [the vaccines are] working very well, case numbers are coming down nicely, we could have some more confidence that there could be reopening without seeing those surges.
“But we're not. Everyone is tired of this pandemic, they want this transition back to normality and that will happen, the effectiveness of two doses of the vaccine will eventually get us there.
“But if say in two weeks we're in a situation where hospitalisations have been rising, where local health systems are coming under pressure, I think it will be quite difficult to justify adding more transmission to that kind of situation.”
Dr Kucharski, of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, described the current graph of infections as “U-shaped”, with the vaccines having worked to quell infections from the Kent variant, but the Indian variant is now causing a fresh rise in cases.
Hospitality and nighttime economy chiefs have stated their opposition to a delay or distillation of the 21 June reopening.
“Sorry but leaving social distancing in place in pubs, restaurants, hotels and attractions means that June 21 is not freedom date at all,” Kate Nicholls, chief executive of UKHospitality said.
“It means that those businesses continue to operate at a loss and threatens the long term viability of businesses, jobs and the recovery.”
Sacha Lord, night time economy adviser for Greater Manchester, said he was “up for a fight” over any possible shift.
Pfizer vaccine approved for 12- to 15-year-olds in UK
The coronavirus vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech has been approved for use in children aged 12 to 15 by Britain’s medicines regulator, which said the jab was safe and highly effective in that age group, Samuel Lovett and Sam Hancock report.
The announcement follows a “rigorous review” of the safety, quality and efficaciousness of the vaccine for children, carried out by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA).
The UK’s vaccines committee will now advise on whether children in the age group should receive the jab, which has been used since December to inoculate people aged 16 and over. Under the current policy, 16- to 18-year-olds who are in a priority group or live with a clinically vulnerable individual qualify for vaccination, but there is no routine programme in place across Britain for children aged under 18.
Pfizer vaccine approved for 12-to 15-year-olds in UK
No new side effects were identified and safety data was comparable to that for young adults, MHRA says
Civil servants ‘drawing up plans' to delay end of lockdown
Civil servants are drawing up plans to delay the final phase of lockdown easing, possibly until 5 July, if the data suggests it is necessary, according to a report.
“A variety of options are being drawn up, including a delay to step four and trading off some measures against others,” a senior civil servant closely involved with coronavirus planning told The Financial Times.
Another Whitehall insider was quoted by the paper as saying: “Irreversibility is key to this. The prime minister doesn’t want to go backwards, so if it’s a choice of more measures in the future, I think he can stomach a minor delay.”
Small but ‘not significant’ rise in Delta variant hospitalisations, NHS chief says
The number of people in hospital with the Delta variant is increasing, but not significantly, NHS Providers chief executive Chris Hopson has said.
“Infection rates have been increasing in a number of different places,” he told BBC Breakfast. “We know that the hospitalisations are increasing, the rates of people coming into hospital in those areas are rising. But they are not rising very significantly.”
He added: “Areas that were at the front of this wave, areas like Bolton, what's particularly interesting is that they have now got to the point where their community infections have started to decline.”
The number of people in hospital in Bolton with coronavirus has peaked at 50, Mr Hopson said, compared to 170 in November and 115 in January and February.
Those hospitalised in Bolton are ‘a lot younger’ than before, NHS chief says
Those most recently in hospital in Bolton with coronavirus were “a lot younger” than in previous waves of the pandemic, the chief executive of NHS Providers has said, suggesting this shows vaccination has “broken the chain” between Covid-19 and serious illness or death.
“The people who came in this round this time round were actually a lot younger and were a lot less at risk of very serious complication, less at risk of death, and what that means is that they were less demand on critical care,” Chris Hopson told BBC Breakfast.
“What we think we can start to say now, based on that experience, is that it does look as though the vaccines have broken the chain between catching Covid-19 and potentially being very, very seriously ill and potentially dying.
“There were very, very few people who have had those double jabs and had been able to have that build-up of protection after those jabs.”
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