Crawley MP welcomes Boris Johnson’s ‘roadmap to recovery’

Yesterday Boris Johnson announced that schools and colleges would reopen on March 8, with two people from different households also allowed to meet outside for recreation.

Then from March 29, people will be allowed to meet outside within the rule of six, while the stay at home rule will come to an end with people encouraged to stay local.

Some outdoor sports facilities will reopen and formally organised outdoor sports can also start up again.

Step two, which would happen no early than April 12, would see the reopening of non-essential shops and personal care such as hairdressers.

Step three no earlier than May 17 would see most outdoor social contact rules lifted, while it is hoped step four, no earlier than June 21, would see all legal limits on social contact removed.

Crawley MP Henry Smith said: “With over a third of all UK adults now having received a Covid-19 vaccine it’s welcome news the Prime Minister has set out a roadmap to recovery - and normality by summer - but in a careful, measured way.

“Getting our children and young people back to school in a fortnight is so important for their wellbeing. I also particularly welcome aviation likely able to operate from mid-May; Crawley jobs and our economy have of course been particularly badly impacted by pandemic restrictions.”

Yesterday, Mr Johnson said: “No vaccine can ever be 100 per cent effective, nor will everyone take them up, and like all viruses, Covid-19 will mutate.

“So, as the modelling released by SAGE today shows, we cannot escape the fact that lifting lockdown will result in more cases, more hospitalisations and sadly more deaths.

“This would happen whenever lockdown is lifted, whether now or in six or nine months, because there will always be some vulnerable people who are not protected by the vaccine.

“There is therefore no credible route to a Zero Covid Britain or indeed a Zero Covid World and we cannot persist indefinitely with restrictions that debilitate our economy, our physical and mental well-being, and the life-chances of our children.

“And that is why it is so crucial that this roadmap should be cautious but also irreversible. We are setting out on what I hope and believe is a one way road to freedom. And this journey is made possible by the pace of the vaccination programme.

“In England, everyone in the top four priority groups was successfully offered a vaccine by the middle of February. We now aim to offer a first dose to all those in groups 5 to 9 by 15 April, and I am setting another stretching target: to offer a first dose to every adult by the end of July.

“As more of us are inoculated, so the protection afforded by the vaccines will gradually replace the restrictions and today’s roadmap sets out the principles of that transition.”