Britain to ease some covid-19 lockdown measures next week

LONDON — Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Wednesday said he plans to ease some covid-19 lockdown rules next week but warned that lifting measures too early could deepen Britain’s economic crisis.

“We want, if we possibly can, to get going with (lifting) some of these measures on Monday,” Johnson told Parliament, confirming that he will announce the planned changes in a speech on Sunday.

“We have to be sure the data is going to support our ability to do this,” he said.

The government is working with opposition parties, business groups and trade unions to make sure Britain gets “the unlockdown plan completely right,” Johnson told Parliament.

“It would be an economic disaster for this country if we were to pursue a relaxation of these measures now in such a way as to trigger a second spike (in infections).”

Britain reported 649 more deaths linked to covid-19 on Wednesday, bringing its total to more than 30,000. It overtook Italy on Tuesday to record Europe’s highest death toll linked to the virus.

Health data analyst Jamie Jenkins estimated on Wednesday that Britain’s true death toll is more than 54,000, based on seasonal excess deaths.

“That’s not success, or ‘apparent success’ … How on earth did it come to this?” opposition Labour leader Keir Starmer asked in Parliament, quoting Johnson’s claim from last week.

Starmer said many people believed Britain had fared badly because it was “slow into lockdown, slow on testing, slow on (contact) tracing, and slow on the supply of protective equipment.”

Johnson acknowledged the “appalling statistics” of covid-19-linked deaths in Britain and other nations.

“At this stage, I don’t think international comparisons (work) and the data is (not) yet there to draw the conclusions that we want,” he told Starmer.

He said his response to the pandemic had been “governed by one overriding aim … to save lives and protect” the National Health Service.

Rosena Allin-Khan, an opposition Labour lawmaker and a hospital emergency doctor in London, told parliament on Tuesday that many front-line health workers felt that “the government’s lack of testing has cost lives.”

Health Secretary Matt Hancock insisted the government had overseen “a rapid acceleration in testing over the last few months.”

Adding to the pressure on Hancock and Johnson, Neil Ferguson, an epidemiologist at Imperial College London, resigned from his government advisory role after admitting he had breached the lockdown rules.

Hancock told Sky News on Wednesday that he was left “speechless” by Ferguson’s resignation, saying his expertise had been “an important part” of what his department had listened to in responding to the pandemic.

The Daily Telegraph reported late Tuesday that Ferguson had allowed his “married lover … to visit him at home during the lockdown while lecturing the public on the need for strict social-distancing.”

“I accept I made an error of judgment and took the wrong course of action,” Ferguson told the newspaper.