E-Paper
Covid-19: Why grandparents can’t see their grandchildren ‘sooner’? UK PM answers
Public Health England had earlier advised people who are aged 70 or over, or clinically vulnerable, and are not symptomatic, to avoid contact with other family members as much as possible.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Thursday revealed the reason behind the restrictions on grandparents seeing their grandchildren even after a “successful rollout” of vaccine programme to provide immunity against the coronavirus disease (Covid-19). Public Health England (PHE) had earlier advised people who are aged 70 or over, or clinically vulnerable, and are not symptomatic, to avoid contact with other family members as much as possible.
“If you cannot arrange for vulnerable people to move out of your home, stay away from them as much as possible,” the guidance said.
School, colleges, childcare, and children’s supervised activities resumed from March 8 as a part of Johnson’s four-step roadmap to lift the lockdown but outdoor gatherings of six people or two households were extended to March 29. In a video posted on the Twitter account of the prime minister’s office, Johnson said that though the vast majority of people over 70s and 80s have been vaccinated, the vaccines are not 100 per cent effective.
“It's very effective, it's not 100% effective, and so what we don't want to see is a great surge of the disease caused by premature mingling of households,” said Johnson. “That's why we are saying that you have got to just be a bit cautious and we are hanging on until 29th March when you can meet your grandparents or grandparents can meet the rest of their family,” he added.
While the ‘stay at home’ rule will end on March 29, many restrictions will remain in place, including travelling abroad. According to the government’s roadmap out of lockdown, holidays abroad will not be allowed, given the risk of imported variants. The UK health agency on Thursday announced that a new variant, B.1.324.1, identified in the UK in two people, who had recently been in Antigua, has been designated as a variant under investigation (VUI).
“The variant contains the spike mutations E484K and N501Y, both usually associated with Variants of Concern (VOC), however it does not feature specific deletions that would lead to a designation as a VOC,” PHE said in a statement.
