Boris Johnson urges caution against Delta variant as he self-isolates

Boris Johnson will be self-isolating till July 26 as vaccinated individuals who come in contact with Covid-positive ones have to undergo a 10-day quarantine

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who is self-isolating after coming in contact with UK health secretary Sajid Javid, who tested positive for Covid-19, urged caution as the legal lockdown restrictions come to an end in England on ‘Freedom Day’.

Boris Johnson and his minister Rishi Sunak had earlier announced that they will be taking part in a pilot project that will allow them to continue working from Downing Street (AFP)

“If we don’t do it now we’ve got to ask ourselves, when will we ever do it? This is the right moment. But we’ve got to do it cautiously. We’ve got to remember that this virus is sadly still out there. Cases are rising, we can see the extreme contagiousness of the Delta variant,” he said

The UK government has decided to implement the final step from their four-step roadmap to end lockdown, Covid restrictions have now been replaced with guidelines urging citizens to deploy personal judgement and responsibility on face masks in indoor settings and caution in large gatherings.

“We’re doing a big opening up, and that’s quite right. If we don’t do it now we’ll be opening up in the autumn and winter months when the virus has the advantage of the cold weather. We’ll lose the precious firebreak we get with the school holidays,” Johnson said in a video posted on Twitter on Sunday.

“So please, please, please be cautious. Go forward into the next step with all the right prudence and respect for other people and the risks that the disease continues to present,” he added.

Johnson will be self-isolating till July 26 as vaccinated individuals who come in contact with Covid-positive ones have to undergo a 10-day quarantine. Johnson and his minister Rishi Sunak had earlier announced that they will be taking part in a pilot project that will allow them to continue working from Downing Street despite being contacted by the National Health Service (NHS) Test and Trace system to self-isolate following Javid’s positive Covid-19 test. However, he announced on Sunday’s video that the project was scrapped. “We did look briefly at the idea of us taking part in the pilot scheme, which allows people to test daily, but I think it’s far more important that everybody sticks to the same rules and that’s why I’m going to be self-isolating until Monday 26th July,” he said.