Prime Minister announces four-step plan to lift lockdown restrictions

As the dream of returning to normal starts to materialize after a year under a global pandemic, the Prime Minister – Boris Johnson - has revealed his roadmap plan to ease the country back to usual. He addressed the nation on the evening of February 22, unveiling his 4-step plan starting on March 8th with all English schools reopening, since the Prime Minister says “If you keep children out of school, every single one of them you keep out of school is disadvantaged. The risk to children is incredibly low - from going to school, and indeed catching Covid.” (Johnson, 2021). Bristol Mayor, Marvin Reeves, welcome the plan with open arms, and has said that He encourages everyone in Bristol to stay vigilant of the virus spread and adhere to the guidelines to avoid a slip, we “must continue to do everything we can to keep going and lift some of the pressure from our health care services.”

The announcement specifies that each part of this plan will have a 5-week duration, to allow for data to be compiled and assessed accordingly before moving on to the next. Outdoor social gatherings will be permitted from March 29th with 6 people or two households, and in mid-April, outdoor attractions and hospitalities will be allowed to open. If things go according to plan, it is predicted that by the third week of May, limited crowds will be allowed to attend sporting events and six people will be able to meet indoors. Optimistically, by summer, all remaining restrictions may be progressively lifted. This enthusiastic roadmap is only possible “because of the resolve of the British people and the extraordinary success of our NHS in vaccinating more than 17.5 million people across the UK.” (Johnson, 2021).

PM Johnson has specified that two main conditions must be met before lockdown measures can be fully lifted, starting with the vaccine program rollout continuing as planned. The evidence shows that the vaccine is reducing the number of deaths in infected people, which leads to the second condition, infection rates continuing to drop to prevent overwhelming the health sector.

Although normality seems to loom on the horizon, Bristol residents are divided as to how they react to the restrictions currently in place. On one hand, many are excited for this swift return to normal and plan to follow the guidelines as to not jeopardize the national process of exiting lockdown. On the other hand, many continue to support illegal gatherings and ignore restrictions all around the city. Just this past weekend, the Harbourside was the setting of massive crowds of people on Sunday who were dispersed by police on-site. With a new mutation arriving at Bristol during this month and an infection rate higher than the national average, the Director of Public Health – Christina Gray- emphasizes that “We understand that this roadmap is being led by data rather than dates, and the appropriate measures to unlock our communities will only be taken once the data suggests it is safe to do so.”

Written by Victoria Cornelio