15 Feb February Covid-19 Updates
COVID-19 Update 26/02/2021
Well, the last couple of weeks have be relatively quiet in terms of significant announcements however, we do have the Prime Ministers Statement which I’ve summarised below.
PM’s statement 22/02/2021
The PM made his statement to the nation this week setting out a proposed roadmap to bring an end to the restrictions we have been under, in one shape or form, for nearly a full year. The target dates, and I stress they are targets, are as follows:
- 08/03/2021 – Schools and colleges across England will re-open.
- 29/03/2021 – Meet people outside, including in gardens – either as two households or subject to the Rule of Six.
- 12/04/2021 – Non essential shops, hairdressers, nail salons etc. may re-open. Pubs and restaurants would be able to serve customers outside.
- 17/05/2021 – Open all our hospitality sector for service indoors: pubs, bars, restaurants, along with opening hotels and cinemas, along with sporting venues, concert halls and theatres.
- 21/06/2021 – Removal of most remaining restrictions: resuming large-scale events like business conferences and football matches, lifting the limits on weddings and reopening nightclubs.
This forms part of Governments’ 4 step plan, which for those of you who may be interested, the full details can be found here.
Government is regularly updating its guidance to households as the steps to reopening take effect, this can be found here. Full guidance can be found https://www.gov.uk/coronavirus. Please remember that the only thing due to change on the 8th March 2021 is schools returning and Governments’ Stay at Home message is still in effect until 29th March at the earliest.
At the time of writing, the vaccination program is on course to reach around a total of 19 million vaccinations by the end of today 25/02/2021, being around 30% of the UK’s population. This is truly excellent news but we cannot let good news affect how we still need to act. As the Prime Minister stressed the decisions are being very much led by the data and not dates. It cannot be stressed enough that the dates mentioned are targets and until the changes are confirmed by Government we will all need to continue to follow the guidance and the regulations.
As we now have a clear roadmap from Government to work with, albeit one subject to the data, I have decided that my next update due on 12/03/2021 will be the last regular update I will undertake. I will, however, provide updates should there be a significant change in direction.
COVID-19 Update 12/02/2021
It’s been another relatively quiet couple of weeks in terms of announcements so I will dive straight in.
Health Secretary’s Statement 01/02/2021
In his statement the Health Secretary updated us on the vaccine and informed us that 90% of people over 80 had been vaccinated and over 50% of the over 70’s. Government has also agreed to purchase another 40 million doses of a vaccine being developed by Valneva. The Health Secretary also noted that surge testing has been introduced following identification of a strain first identified in South Africa.
International Travel Quarantine
Government has announced that as of the 15th February 2021 those entering the UK from countries on the UK’s Travel Ban List will be required to isolate and take to mandatory COVID-19 tests as part of a required package of measures. This comes with heavy fines of up to £10,000 for those who fail to follow the requirements.
PM’s statement 10/02/2021
In his statement to the nation the Prime Minister updated us on the vaccine roll out with the target to vaccinate 15 million people by Monday 15th February 2021. At the time of his statement just over 13 million had received their first vaccination. The Prime Minister noted that that left approximately 2 million to be vaccinated and also encouraged those in the top 4 priority groups who had not yet been contacted to receive a vaccination to get in contact with NHS 119.
As always stay safe everyone.
Kind Regards;
James Sumner FdA
Associate Director
Warfield Park