By Asitha Jayawardena

After over three months in lockdown in England, on 4 July 2020, women flocked to the hairdressers at midnight while men queued in bars to grab a pint from 6am.

On Super Saturday, declared open in England are pubs, restaurants, cafes, hairdressers, salons, hotels, resorts, theme parks and cinemas. Still night clubs, nail salons and gymnasiums will be open next week. The couples could marry again. Everyone will be happy after being normal again.

The easing of lockdown in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland is slightly different.

Road to recovery, the biggest step

In the evening on 3 July 2020, Boris Johnson held the press briefing. He announced that ‘the biggest step yet on the road to recovery’ but warned people not to get carried out with new freedoms after three months of ‘staying home’.

‘We are not out of the woods yet’, he said, mentioning ministers ‘will not hesitate in putting on the brakes and re-imposing restrictions’ in case of an outbreak. He said that targeted local measures would replace blanketed national ones to avoid a second wave of the coronavirus.

‘There is no perfect, exact way of doing it,’ said Prof Chris Whitty, England’s chief medical officer, who took part in the briefing. Easing was not a risk-free step, he said. ‘… we do have to have a really clear and really disciplined approach to try and maintain social distancing whilst also enjoying pubs.’

Prof Whitty warned that pubs might be spreading coronavirus again if people do not manage social distancing.

The “superspreading” of Covid-19 could be danger occurring in pubs, said chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance, who also took part in the briefing.

Similarly, Health secretary Matt Hancock warned boozers that they end up behind bars if they break the law. ‘I’m no killjoy, but the virus can still kill,’ he said. ‘I don’t want to see bars and pubs have to close again’.

Leicester and parts of London

Meanwhile, Leicester is the only town that underwent in lockdown for two more weeks and the businesses would have to remain closed.

According to Sage, some parts of London have R rate 1.1 and the Midlands, the north east and Yorkshire, the south east and the south west have 1. However, the overall value remains between 0.7 and 0.9 as a whole for the UK.

Moreover, two days ago, 36 places have been indicated with high level of coronavirus infection rates and local lockdown will be imposed the other areas if necessary.

533,000 dead globally

The world picture is as bleak as that in the UK. With 11.4 million cases of coronavirus, 533,000 people have died and 132,000 from the US, 64,000 from Brazil, 44,000 from the UK, 34,000 from Italy, 30,000 from Mexico and 29,000 from France.

The only good point is 6.4 million people have recovered.

This is a small chance of hope until we eagerly await the result of a vaccination against Covid-19. But first, the ease of lockdown will not pave the way for a second wave of coronavirus.

More…

Coronavirus: England lockdown easing ‘biggest step yet’, says PM https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-53279855

In pictures: UK’s ‘Super Saturday’ as pubs and restaurants reopen https://uk.yahoo.com/news/super-saturday-coronavirus-lockdown-pubs-restaurants-105538946.html

Worldometer https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/?utm_campaign=homeAdvegas1?