UK 's Johnson optimistic COVID lockdown can be eased soon

By Michael Holden

 

FILE PHOTO: People queue to receive the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccine, at the St Charles Centre for Health and Wellbeing in London, Britain, January 20, 2021. REUTERS/Hannah McKay/File Photo

 

LONDON (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Saturday he was optimistic he could announce the easing of some lockdown measures soon as the government nears its target of offering vaccines to 15 million people in priority groups.

 

The government says it is on track to have offered an injection by Monday to everyone who is aged 70 and over, as well as those who are clinically vulnerable, frontline health and social care workers and older adults in care homes.

 

With infections and hospitalisations beginning to fall, Johnson is under pressure from some in his own party to set out when strict lockdown restrictions, which have caused the biggest crash in economic output in more than 300 years, will be eased.

 

"I'm optimistic, I won't hide it from you, I'm optimistic, but we have to be cautious " Johnson, who will outline a route map out of the lockdown on Feb. 22, told broadcasters.

 

He said reopening schools remained the priority, with the hope they could return on March 8.

 

"Then working forwards to getting non-essential retail open as well, and then in due course as and when we can prudently and cautiously of course, we want to be opening hospitality as well," he said.

 

Britain, which has recorded more than 120,000 deaths from COVID-19, was the first Western country to begin mass vaccinations in December, and more than 14 million Britons have since received their first dose.

 

But Johnson said the number of new COVID-19 cases remained very high, with more than 15,000 reported on Friday, as did the number of deaths, but "perhaps starting to come down quite fast".

 

Some newspapers reported on Saturday pubs and restaurants might be able to serve to customers outdoors from as early as April, and restrictions on social mixing easing by May, but Johnson declined to be drawn on that timetable.

 

He also echoed health minister Matt Hancock who earlier said the country could live with the virus as it did with flu by the end of the year and make it a treatable disease.

 

"I do think that in due time, it will become something that we simply live with some people will be more vulnerable than others that's inevitable," Johnson said.

 

Hancock also announced that innovative treatments for COVID would soon be fast-tracked through the UK’s clinical trial system, to make them available in months rather than years.

 

(Reporting by Costas Pitas and Michael Holden. Editing by Jane Merriman and Angus MacSwan)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2021-02-14

 

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Lockdown No 4...come on down.

 

He needs to grow a pair and put the likes of Baker in a box.

 

115,000 dead and 100,000's with long covid.....how many more does he want to kill?

 

If he had acted promptly in the first place (instead of sloping off to the countryside to plan his divorce and then to a tropical island for an all expenses paid holiday) we wouldn't be in this mess.

 

He then compounded locking down too late by....

 

opening up too soon,

introducing eat out out to help spread the virus,

ignoring SAGE advice in September to lockdown, then

introduced his Christmas Killerthon.......

 

 

 

1 hour ago, rooster59 said:

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Saturday he was optimistic

They just missed a very vital word before optimistic here. Overly! Hey Boris! Did that darn reality-meter get the hick-ups again?

1 hour ago, Surelynot said:

115,000 dead and 100,000's with long covid.....how many more does he want to kill?

I think I'd point the finger of blame more at China for creating the mess than Boris trying to deal with it

15 minutes ago, RichardColeman said:

I think I'd point the finger of blame more at China for creating the mess than Boris trying to deal with it

 

China may be its source but Johnson is tasked with keeping the UK and its citizens secure. Compared to almost every other country on earth, he has performed woefully, and many people have lost their lives because of his failure. The buck stops with him.

1 hour ago, RichardColeman said:

I think I'd point the finger of blame more at China for creating the mess than Boris trying to deal with it

Of course you can do that. However, Covid-19 is since long time back, something thatevery country have to deal with individually. As a result of that, UK has shown their bad capacity to handle the situation to the rest of the world. I am pretty sure you would blame the Thai government if they had been having the same result as Boris and his government. So, that makes the question: "How many more is enough, Boris?", quite acceptable in my world.

4 hours ago, Surelynot said:

Lockdown No 4...come on down.

 

He needs to grow a pair and put the likes of Baker in a box.

 

115,000 dead and 100,000's with long covid.....how many more does he want to kill?

 

If he had acted promptly in the first place (instead of sloping off to the countryside to plan his divorce and then to a tropical island for an all expenses paid holiday) we wouldn't be in this mess.

 

He then compounded locking down too late by....

 

opening up too soon,

introducing eat out out to help spread the virus,

ignoring SAGE advice in September to lockdown, then

introduced his Christmas Killerthon.......

 

 

 

Isn't hindsight without any responsibility a wonderful thing?

 

As I understand they way he works, is that he listens to, and takes advice from, his medical and scientific advisors and probably the inner cabinet as well. Then having weighed all those opinions he makes his decision.

 

Now, if you and all the naysayers know of a better way then email Boris with your suggestions. I am sure that he would be happy if you took over, with all the responsibilities of course.

13 minutes ago, billd766 said:

Isn't hindsight without any responsibility a wonderful thing?

 

As I understand they way he works, is that he listens to, and takes advice from, his medical and scientific advisors and probably the inner cabinet as well. Then having weighed all those opinions he makes his decision.

 

Now, if you and all the naysayers know of a better way then email Boris with your suggestions. I am sure that he would be happy if you took over, with all the responsibilities of course.

Seriously...better Captain Hindsight ....than Major Disaster......the man is a buffoon .....a third rate journalist, a liar and a cheat.......he has destroyed the UK in a s little as 18 months...for what?....So he could say he was PM.....

5 hours ago, Surelynot said:

Lockdown No 4...come on down.

 

He needs to grow a pair and put the likes of Baker in a box.

 

115,000 dead and 100,000's with long covid.....how many more does he want to kill?

 

If he had acted promptly in the first place (instead of sloping off to the countryside to plan his divorce and then to a tropical island for an all expenses paid holiday) we wouldn't be in this mess.

 

He then compounded locking down too late by....

 

opening up too soon,

introducing eat out out to help spread the virus,

ignoring SAGE advice in September to lockdown, then

introduced his Christmas Killerthon.......

 

 

 

just blowing in the wind under the pressures with so many lives lost and so many more at stake - very ****ing sad indeed...

Just get on with it. The old and the vulnerable have had their  first jab and the hospital numbers are falling.  There is no reason to drag this out to impose more misery on the young and businesses already going  down the drain. 

8 hours ago, RuamRudy said:

 

China may be its source but Johnson is tasked with keeping the UK and its citizens secure. Compared to almost every other country on earth, he has performed woefully, and many people have lost their lives because of his failure. The buck stops with him.

Yet he has massively outperformed Sturgeon on vaccine rollout. 

 

If he is such an imbecile, what does that say about Sturgeon?

15 minutes ago, JonnyF said:

Yet he has massively outperformed Sturgeon on vaccine rollout. 

 

If he is such an imbecile, what does that say about Sturgeon?

 

If Johnson had followed the Scottish Government's strategy in tackling Covid there is no doubt that thousands upon thousands of lives would have been saved. His utter ineptitude has caused this tragedy to be many times worse than it could have been. 

 

 

10 hours ago, billd766 said:

Isn't hindsight without any responsibility a wonderful thing?

 

As I understand they way he works, is that he listens to, and takes advice from, his medical and scientific advisors and probably the inner cabinet as well. Then having weighed all those opinions he makes his decision.

 

Now, if you and all the naysayers know of a better way then email Boris with your suggestions. I am sure that he would be happy if you took over, with all the responsibilities of course.

Listening to and taking advice from doesn't mean following the advice.

From @Surelynot "ignoring SAGE advice in September to lockdown".

Johnsons vaggination programme should ease the UKs priblems.

23 hours ago, billd766 said:

Now, if you and all the naysayers know of a better way then email Boris with your suggestions. I am sure that he would be happy if you took over, with all the responsibilities of course.

Well ignorance is bliss Bill many anti Boris here without an gram of common sense.