England reopens shops and some pubs and restaurants after three months of lockdown.
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Version 0 of 1. Britain reopened large parts of its economy on Monday, allowing people in England back in shops, hair salons and outdoor areas of pubs and restaurants, a long-awaited milestone after three months of lockdown, and a day after the country recorded its lowest daily coronavirus death toll since September. Under the second stage of the government’s gradual reopening, libraries, community centers and some outdoor attractions like zoos will also return, though outdoor gatherings remain limited to six people or two households. For many in England, the return was a hopeful — if not definitive — sign that the worst of the pandemic was behind them, after a new variant of the virus detected last year in the country’s southeast spun out of control around Christmas, overwhelming hospitals and causing tens of thousands of deaths. At its winter peak, Britain reported as many as 60,000 daily cases a day and 1,820 daily deaths, according to a New York Times database. But after months of restrictions and an aggressive vaccination program that has offered a dose to about half of Britain’s population, those figures declined to 1,730 daily cases and seven deaths reported on Sunday. Prime Minister Boris Johnson has so far gone ahead with the gradual easing of measures that he had announced, reopening schools on March 8, reducing restrictions on outdoor gatherings on March 29, and allowing large parts of the economy to reopen on Monday. Mr. Johnson said on Monday that the reopening was “a major step forward in our road map to freedom.” Still, he urged caution. “I urge everyone to continue to behave responsibly and remember ‘hands, face, space and fresh air’ to suppress Covid,” he said. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, where devolved governments are responsible for coronavirus restrictions, have laid out similar plans to reopen their economies. The apparent success represents a turnaround for Mr. Johnson’s government, which struggled to stem cases earlier in the pandemic and at one point reported the greatest rate of excess deaths in Europe. But now E.U. countries — hampered by a vaccine rollout slower than Britain’s and a scare over a possible links between the AstraZeneca vaccine and blood clots — are facing a third wave of coronavirus infections. France, Italy and other countries have recently imposed new lockdown measures. In England, business owners reopened on Monday with hope — and some anxiety that the numbers of infections could go up again. Still, “we’re looking confident we won’t be seeing anything like that again,” said Nicholas Hair, the owner of The Kentish Belle, a London pub that opened its doors to patrons one minute after midnight. |