BORIS Johnson will reveal the UK’s roadmap out of lockdown immediately – step one on our gradual return to normality.
The Prime Minister will converse within the Home of Commons at 3.30pm outlining a covid plan he says will prioritise reopening colleges and reuniting households.
The primary date for the diary can be March 8 when colleges will reopen and Brits can as soon as once more meet one buddy or member of the family in an outdoor house for a picnic or a espresso.
Assuming all goes effectively with that easing, the following important milestone can be March 29 when outside gatherings of both six folks or two households can be allowed, reuniting buddies for the primary time in months.
The identical date may even see the return on outside sports activities reminiscent of tennis, golf and even soccer, Boris will announce immediately.
However the information will come as a blow to hairdressers, who can be advised they can not reopen to prospects till April, and in addition to pubs homeowners and restaurateurs who had hoped they’d be capable to serve prospects indoors earlier.
Past that, Boris is predicted to say he hopes for the principles of six may be scrapped altogether by June and the UK return to a real sense of normality, albeit with social distancing in place, by July.
However the PM will clarify that for every step to be taken, benchmark numbers will should be met on Covid circumstances, hospital admissions, vaccinations and deaths.
After his announcement within the Commons, Boris will make a televised announcement to the nation at 7pm this night.
Comply with our reside weblog beneath for the very newest on the UK ‘s path out of lockdown…
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REGIONAL PUBLIC HEALH HEAD CONCERNED ABOUT ALL KIDS RETURNING TO SCHOOL AT ONCE
Regional director of public well being at South East England Dr Mike Gill has expressed issues about all schoolkids returning to the classroom directly.
Dr Gill advised Sky Information that whereas the PM’s roadmap out of lockdown appears to be regular, “the one factor that’s not regular is placing all children again all through the nation or on the identical time”.
He added: “We’re positively an outlier each throughout the UK and the world over.
“I believe in going for the large bang, it is essential to contemplate the knowledge of that whenever you’ve obtained such big variation within the quantity of transmission that is happening throughout the nation in the meanwhile.
“Perhaps it should all come magically down by 8 March”.
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WHO HEAD: ‘DON’T UNDERMINE WORLDWIDE VACCINE PROGRAMME’
The top of the World Well being Organisation (WHO) pleaded with wealthy nations on Monday to verify earlier than ordering further Covid-19 vaccine photographs for themselves whether or not that undermines efforts to get vaccine photographs to poorer nations.
Rich nations have snapped up a number of billion vaccine doses whereas some nations within the growing world have little or none. European nations have given monetary help to the UN-backed COVAX effort to get vaccines to the worlds most weak folks and are contemplating sharing a few of their very own doses although they have not specified when.
WHO Director-Basic Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus thanked the G-7 nations for his or her important pledges. However he stated after talks Monday with German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier that even when you’ve got the cash, if you happen to can not use the cash to purchase vaccines having the cash doesnt imply something.
He stated some wealthy nations approaches to producers to safe extra vaccines are affecting the offers with COVAX, and even the quantity that was allotted for COVAX was diminished due to this. He did not identify these nations or give different particulars.
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BORIS JOHNSON ‘TO SCRAP TIER SYSTEM’
The PM is rumoured to have been persuaded to axe the a lot disliked tier system.
It is believed that he’s scrapping the tiers and implementing a four-step plan to fastidiously staged normality as a substitute.
Choices can be dependent, nonetheless, on the continued fall in loss of life and an infection charges.
That is to minimize the probability of a fourth lockdown, ought to circumstances and fatalities spike once more.
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KEIR STARMER TO LOOK FOR CAUTIOUS APPROACH FROM BORIS
Sir Keir Starmer stated he can be on the lookout for a cautious strategy from Boris Johnson when he units out his highway map immediately.
“I would like the Prime Minister to be taught the teachings of the final two lockdowns,” the Labour chief advised LBC.
“I believe he got here out too shortly, with out warning, and that prompted issues as a result of we went again into lockdown.”
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GIVE US LEGAL RIGHT TO ‘MEANINGFUL’ CARE HOME VISITS, URGES CAMPAIGNER
A lady who has not been in a position to go to her 91-year-old mom since November has known as on Prime Minister Boris Johnson to provide households a authorized proper to “significant” contact with family members in care properties.
Among the many Authorities’s plans for loosening lockdown in England are new guidelines permitting care residence residents to carry palms with a nominated cherished one from March 8.
Sharon Clay, 65, from Hornchurch in east London, stated: “Simply waving at somebody via a plastic display screen, and even if you happen to go in and seize their palms for quarter-hour and also you’re kicked out once more, it isn’t significant.”
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BORIS TO ADDRESS NATION AT 7PM
Boris Johnson will tackle the nation at 7pm immediately to spell out his roadmap out of lockdown.
The PM is predicted to put out a four-step plan to guide Britain again to regular life.
Mr Johnson will first converse to MPs within the Home of Commons at 3pm immediately to elucidate his strategy.
He’ll later tackle the nation at 7pm throughout a Downing Road press convention.
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CAUTIOUS APPROACH
Boris Johnson has confirmed the Authorities’s strategy to easing lockdown restrictions can be cautious.
The Prime Minister stated you will need to be sure that we don’t “undo the progress we’ve got achieved to this point”.
Extra particulars can be revealed at 3.30pm immediately.
Our selections can be made on the most recent information at each step, and we can be cautious about this strategy in order that we don’t undo the progress we’ve got achieved to this point and the sacrifices every one in every of you has made to maintain your self and others secure.
— Boris Johnson (@BorisJohnson) February 22, 2021
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FIVE WEEKS INTERVALS TO EASE RESTRICTIONS
England will progressively ease lockdown restrictions in 5 week intervals, Sky Information reported.
Sky Information stated there could be 5 weeks between every stage of the federal government’s roadmap, 4 weeks of analysing information earlier than every week’s discover that restrictions can be eliminated.
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UNION URGES JOHNSON TO ANNOUNCE ROADMAP FOR NHS WORKERS
Leaders of the GMB union have known as for Boris Johnson to announce a roadmap for NHS employees.
A survey of three,000 well being employees by the GMB discovered greater than half of those that contracted coronavirus stated it had both had adverse or extreme medical influence on their psychological well being.
Rachel Harrison, GMB nationwide officer, stated: “Our NHS members are telling us concerning the horrible toll of working flat out on the entrance line throughout this pandemic and the extreme impacts catching Covid has on their psychological well being.
“These are the individuals who have been saving lives all through the pandemic. Now they want ministers to take care of them. Right this moment, the Prime Minister unveils his highway map out of lockdown. We name on him to stipulate a plan to assist our beleaguered well being employees get better from this pandemic.”
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SYMONDS NOT PLAYING CENTRAL ROLE IN RUNNING COUNRY, CLAIMS DOWNING STREET
Downing Road stated it’s “incorrect” to counsel Boris Johnson’s fiancee Carrie Symonds is taking part in a central function in operating the nation.
Tory suppose tank The Bow Group has known as for an inquiry into her actions following studies of her affect inside No 10.
The Prime Minister’s press secretary Allegra Stratton stated there was “no response to that in any respect” and burdened Mr Johnson was centered on the coronavirus pandemic.
“The Prime Minister is coming ahead with a 60-page plan to get us out of lockdown and that’s his focus in the meanwhile,” she stated.
Requested whether or not Ms Symonds was taking a central function with no authority or accountability, Ms Stratton stated: “It is incorrect.
“The Prime Minister’s fiancee is on maternity depart, she’s elevating their son Wilf and shortly she can be taking over a brand new function on the wildlife charity the Aspinall Basis.”
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SCOTLAND TO RETURN TO GEOGRAPHIC LEVELS SYSTEM
Scotland will return to the geographic ranges system after lockdown is lifted, Nicola Sturgeon stated.
The First Minister is because of announce a highway map out of lockdown on Tuesday in Holyrood.
Talking on the coronavirus briefing in Holyrood, Ms Sturgeon stated it will give indications of the phasing of the easing of restrictions, however it will not present dates for reopening.
She stated: “We are going to search to set out tomorrow an indicative order of precedence and the probably phasing of firstly the gradual lifting of the present lockdown restrictions after which sooner or later, a return to the geographic ranges system once we would resolve whether or not all or components of the nation might transfer out of Degree 4 and into Degree 3, and naturally that is the half the place extra components of the economic system will begin to open up.
“This can be a cautious approach ahead as a result of it is actually essential that as we come out of this lockdown, we accomplish that sustainably.”
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JOHNSON TO CONSIDER ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL IMPACT
Boris Johnson will steadiness financial and social concerns with the most recent scientific recommendation on the pandemic when he units out his roadmap for alleviating lockdown, Downing Road stated.
The Prime Minister’s official spokesman acknowledged the “huge influence” restrictions have had.
Requested concerning the impact on Jewish communities dealing with a second Passover in lockdown subsequent month, the Prime Minister’s official spokesman stated: “As we’ve got seen all through the pandemic, it has had an enormous influence on folks’s lives and their means to satisfy up with family and friends.
“The Prime Minister has referenced that and the big efforts that the British public has gone to to make sure that we proceed to drive down the transmission fee of the virus.
“The roadmap is designed to deliver us out of lockdown cautiously, because the Prime Minister will state later.
“At each stage it should search to steadiness out financial and social components with the very newest epidemiological information and recommendation.”
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WELSH PRIMARY SCHOOLKIDS AND YEARS 11 AND 13 TO RETURN TO CLASSES ON MARCH 15
Welsh training minister Kirsty Williams stated if “circumstances proceed to enhance” then all main faculty pupils will return from March 15.
Right this moment youngsters aged three to seven have gone again to the classroom.
She additionally stated that each one secondary faculty pupils in Years 11 and 13 will return on March 15.
“My choice is to get all learners again in class after the (Easter) break,” she stated.
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‘SURE AND STEADY’ COVID ROADMAP FOR SCOTLAND
Nicola Sturgeon has stated Scotland’s roadmap out of lockdown can be “positive and regular – even when it’s a bit gradual”.
Scotland’s First Minister to because of lay out her plans to take the nation out of lockdown tomorrow.
Nonetheless she hailed “that first step in the direction of larger normality in our lives” as Scotland’s youngest youngsters return to high school.
“We hope extra youngsters will be capable to return to training subsequent month, however our means to try this depends upon our means to suppress the virus,” she added.
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SCOTLAND RECORDS NO NEW DEATHS FROM COVID
Scotland has recorded 715 new coronavirus circumstances previously 24 hours and no deaths, Nicola Sturgeon introduced.
It brings the loss of life toll underneath this measure – of people that first examined optimistic for the virus throughout the earlier 28 days – to six,950.
Talking on the Scottish Authorities’s coronavirus briefing, the First Minister stated Scotland’s check positivity fee stood at 6.6%, up from 5.5% the day gone by.
There are 1,141 hospital sufferers with just lately confirmed Covid-19, an increase of 9 in 24 hours, with the quantity in intensive care remaining unchanged at 99.
In the meantime a complete of 1,445,488 had acquired their first dose of a coronavirus vaccine, a rise of 13,546 from the day gone by.
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COVID-19 HOSPITAL ADMISSIONS IN ENGLAND DOWN THREE-QUARTERS FROM PEAK
Hospital admissions in England of sufferers with Covid-19 are down almost three-quarters from their second-wave peak, newest figures present.
A complete of 1,068 admissions have been reported for February 19, NHS England stated.
This can be a drop of 74 per cent from a peak of 4,134 on January 12.
It’s the lowest variety of every day admissions since November 28 – just a few days earlier than England got here out of its second lockdown.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson will immediately announce the primary steps for alleviating England’s third lockdown, which has been in place since January 5.
Hospital admissions are one in every of a variety of components that may decide the velocity of the easing, the Authorities stated.
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CABINET APPROVES COVID ROADMAP
The web Cupboard assembly has completed with Boris Johnson’s roadmap to ease the Covid restrictions given a rubber stamp of approval.
The assembly passed off on-line as ordinary and could possibly be one of many final to be held underneath these restrictions because the Prime Minister prepares to handle the Home of Commons this afternoon.
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JOHNSON’S COVID ROADMAP DOESN’T APPLY TO WALES
First Minster Mark Drakeford has reminded those that Boris Johnson’s roadmap to raise folks out of the Covid restrictions doesn’t apply to Wales.
Faculties have reopened immediately for ages three to seven there and he’s ” choices for reopening retailers and hairdressers”, he stated.
When the Prime Minister units out his roadmap immediately, please word this is applicable to England solely. Right here in Wales, we introduced final week that we’re utilizing the following 3 weeks to get extra college students again to high school/school, and choices for re-opening retailers and hairdressers. Diolch.
— Mark Drakeford (@fmwales) February 22, 2021
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ABBOTT: JOHNSON ‘RIGHT’ TO TAKE CAUTIOUS APPROACH
Labour MP Diane Abbott has stated Boris Johnson was “proper” to take a cautious strategy in easing the lockdown restrictions.
She advised Sky Information: “The worst factor could be to return out of lockdown after which have a fourth lockdown.
“Nonetheless, there may be some concern about all schoolchildren going again on 8 March – there’s a view that it needs to be extra gradual.
“Boris himself stated colleges have been secure after which circled and stated they have been vectors of an infection – and I believe we could possibly be extra gradual about that.”
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LID DEM MP FEARS R RATE COULD RISE
Layla Moran MP advised Sky Information: What we all know from quite a few research is that whenever you shut colleges the R fee begins to plummet.”
She stated she had issues that sending children again to high school all of sudden might push the R fee larger.
“If the R quantity begins to go above 1, the roadmap will get blocked on the first hurdle and we will not have that.
“This must be the final lockdown.”
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Struggling hospitality companies want monetary assist till at the very least March 2022, business chiefs have advised Scotland’s political leaders.
The Scottish Hospitality Group (SHG) can be pushing for VAT on meals and lodging to be completely minimize to five%.
The business, which has been one of many hardest hit by the coronavirus pandemic, made the pleas in a brand new manifesto revealed forward of Might’s deliberate Holyrood election.
Forward of that the Scottish Hospitality Group desires all candidates operating for the Scottish Parliament to acknowledge the important thing function the sector – which employs some 285,000 folks – performs within the economic system.
All these searching for to be elected as an MSP on Might 6 are additionally being urged to go to an area hospitality enterprise – as quickly as restrictions enable – to see the “extraordinary measures” companies have put in place to maintain employees and prospects secure amidst the pandemic.
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EXPERTS URGE GOVERNMENT TO PUBLISH VACCINE DATA
The Authorities has not revealed detailed information on the coronavirus vaccine rollout, regardless of being requested for info a month in the past, an professional has stated.
Statistical regulators requested for extra element concerning the programme, reminiscent of what quantity of sure teams have acquired the Covid-19 jab.
However this information is but to materialise, which is “upsetting” and a “disgrace”, Professor Sir David Spiegelhalter stated.
The statistician from the College of Cambridge, who can be a non-executive director of the UK Statistics Authority, advised BBC Radio 4’s Right this moment programme: “As a statistician, the shortage of detailed information by the vaccine rollout, I discover very upsetting.
“The workplace for stats regulation wrote to the Authorities … greater than a month in the past, saying there needs to be be a lot better publicly obtainable information.”
He added: “We do not know concerning the numbers or the proportions by the precedence teams – teams one to 9; we do not know the proportions by ethnicity; we do not know this damaged down by area.
“I imply they do, any individual does, however we’re not getting it.”
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CARE HOME RESIDENTS TO BE ALLOWED ONE REGULAR VISITOR
Residents residing in care properties can be allowed one common customer from March 8.
However PPE should nonetheless be worn and social distancing measures can be in place.
The Division of Well being confirmed the information in a Twitter message.
From 8 March, care residence residents can be allowed one common indoor customer.
It will assist deliver households and family members again collectively, with a single designated customer who will want a #COVID19 check beforehand, to put on PPE and keep away from shut contact.
Discover out extra 👇
— Division of Well being and Social Care (@DHSCgovuk) February 22, 2021
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MERKEL WANTS A THREE-STAGE PLAN TO LIFT COVID CURBS
German Chancellor Angela Merkel desires a staggered plan to raise pandemic-linked restrictions that’s linked to elevated testing, she advised a gathering of her Christian Democrats management committee in keeping with two contributors.
Merkel desires to reopen components of society in three levels, beginning with increasing the variety of private contacts, adopted by colleges and vocational colleges, after which sports activities teams, eating places and tradition.
She advised the assembly it was essential that steps to raise restrictions didn’t result in renewed setbacks by inflicting virus variants to unfold additional.
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HOW LOCKDOWN RESTRICTIONS WILL BE EASED IN ENGLAND
The adjustments are anticipated to be rolled out in 4 levels.
Earlier than every new step the Authorities will take a look at the Covid-related information to evaluate what influence the enjoyable of measures has had to this point.
Mr Johnson stated the Authorities can be “cautious” in its strategy.
Measures can be eased, step-by-step, throughout the entire of England on the identical time as a result of the virus is seen to be pretty uniformly unfold throughout the nation.
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