UK’s plans to lift up COVID-19 restrictions from England, received criticism from a letter backed by 1200 scientists
LONDON, ENGLAND – Following Italy, many countries lifted the COVID-19 restrictions after the situation was controlled. UK’s announcement to lift up England’s COVID restrictions added England into this list. UK announced to lift up all restrictions in England by 19th July. This announcement surely did made people living in England really happy however it was faced by a large amount of criticism from many health officials.
The start of 2021 wasn’t very pleasant for most countries in the world. The number of COVID-19 cases kept on increasing and even after continuous efforts of governments, results were same. Countries in Europe were also devastated by the spread of COVID-19. Travel bans were implemented in almost all European countries and several restrictions like the wearing of masks, no public gathering and no physical contact were imposed.
In UK, the number of cases throughout January of 2021 were at the all-time highest with an average of 60,000 daily cases and around 1000 daily deaths. This was surely a big number and was an alarming situation for UKs residents and public thus strict lockdown and restrictions were implemented so that the spread of the virus could be controlled.
The efforts did start to pay off in February, when the number of daily COVID cases and deaths decreased by a big percentage and numbers were half of that in January. After February things started to seem good for UK, the number of COVID cases from February till may decreased by a huge percentage with daily deaths reaching the 2-digit range. This consistent decrease was surely a sigh of relief for UK’s government and residents. The decrease in the number of COVID cases meant that the lockdown would finally be lifted however restrictions like masks and maintaining a distance was still there.
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From February to June, the number of COVID cases decreased not only in the United Kingdom, but in the whole Europe. One such European country was Italy, the number of cases in Italy were at their all-time low and in the last week of June, the country decided to lift up all COVID 19 restriction which included the wearing of masks, this meant that people were free to wear or not wear a mask in public.
The decision faced backlash and opposition
A letter opposing this decision was published in a journal named ‘The lancet’, the letter has been backed by around 1200 scientist. The letter explains about how the lifting up of COVID restrictions in England poses a serious threat to the whole world, the letter mentions that UK is a travel hub for the whole world and if any vaccine resistant variant of the COVID virus such as the ”COVID-19 Delta” spreads here it would likely spread in the whole world thus causing much more uncertainties.
The decision also met criticism from different health experts around the world, many health experts believe that the spread of COVID-19 Delta (which is a much dangerous variant of COVID 19) is increasing rapidly and if proper restrictions are not maintained the world might face another disaster. José Martin-Moreno, who is a senior adviser to the World Health Organization (WHO), regarding the decision said, “We cannot understand why this is happening in spite of the scientific knowledge that you have.”
England have eased up the COVID restrictions for now but have not completely ended it mainly due to COVID-19 Delta Variant. Moreover, it has also warned its citizens that they must try to limit public meetings and work from home if possible. The restrictions might have been eased for now however any hint of the COVID-19 Delta Virus being spread might result in a complete lockdown and the implementation of a complete lockdown.