Boris Johnson extends lockdown in England till June 21 as delta COVID variant strikes concerns

Britain’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced on Monday a delay of four weeks to the next phase of England’s lockdown reopening with restrictions being lifted from June 21 due to increasing threat on public health from the newly discovered and rapidly spreading Delta variant of the corona virus which was first discovered in India.

Considering the new figures from the Public Health England showing  42,323 confirmed cases of the Delta variant of the coronavirus across the U.K., an increase of 240% from last week and the country’s transmission rate is at its highest since January, Johnson said at a news conference Monday evening that he thought it was sensible to wait just a little longer.

“As things stand, and on the evidence that I can see right now. I’m confident that we will not need more than four weeks,” he told reporters.

Even though more than 70 million vaccine doses have been administered across the U.K. ,a Public Health England paper in late May showed that the Pfizer and AstraZeneca vaccines were only 33% effective against the Delta variant after a single shot, however, new data on Monday showed much better effectiveness against the Delta variant after two doses.

Now 80% of the country’s population is vaccinated with one shot,Johnson plans to accelerate the vaccination program once again with people over 40 years of age will receiving their second vaccine dose sooner than expected. Another positive news amidst the stressful pandemic is that important public events weddings in England will also be allowed to have more than 30 guests from June 21.

The situation will be reviewed on June 28.