www.zerohedge.com By Tyler Durden
Update (1310ET): British PM Boris Johnson has expanded the UK’s controversial COVID-19 lockdown by another four weeks Monday, citing concerns about the “Delta” COVID mutant that first emerged from India. The PM said the delay would allow British adults more time to get vaccinated.
“It’s sensible to wait just a little longer,” the PM said as he claimed that the government is concerned that the link between COVID and hospitalizations “hasn’t been severed.”
The UK’s remaining lockdown measures will now expire July 19, BoJo said. Previously, measures were supposed to expire on June 21, a day the government had deemed “Freedom Day”. Instead, the UK will need to wait another month, as BoJo said Monday, so that the country’s health-care infrastructure will be well prepared for any further acceleration in new cases, hospitalizations and deaths.
Johnson acknowledged that it was a “difficult choice,” but that he wants to give the NHS “a few more crucial weeks” to get jabs in peoples’ arms. He said unlocking now could create the “very real risk that the virus outruns the vaccine” and thousands more could die.
There are exceptions to the extension: weddings and funerals can still go ahead with more than 30 guests provided social distancing remains in place. And pilot events like Euro 2020 and some theatrical performances will continue.
Ultimately, Britons will need to “learn to live with” COVID-19, Johnson said.
In response to the delay, General Secretary Paul Fleming called on the government to introduce grants for venues that can’t open at full capacity.
“They’ve had over a year to protect the industry which shut first and will open last. Not stepping up risks permanent damage to our economy, global standing and, most importantly, the art and entertainment audiences can access,” he said.
The UK recorded 7.7K new cases on Monday, along with three deaths within 28 days of a positive test. The 7-day average of new cases was up 46% compared with the prior seven days.
Readers can watch the full presser below:
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Authored by Paul Joseph Watson via Summit News,
Having first mooted a 2 week delay to lifting lockdown which will today likely become a 4 week delay, government ministers in the UK are already suggesting the lockdown could continue beyond July.
The country was supposed to exit all lockdown restrictions on June 21st, dubbed “freedom day” by the media.
However, Prime Minister Boris Johnson will today announce a four week extension to the restrictions, meaning that Brits had more freedom in July 2020 compared to now despite the vast majority of “vulnerable” people having received the vaccine.
But there’s absolutely no guarantee the lockdown will end next month.
The same advisers who admitted using “mind control” and “totalitarian” fear tactics to terrify the British public into compliance are still fearmongering about the Indian variant of the virus in a bid to prolong restrictions for months longer.
By delaying the lifting of lockdown until September, a “third wave” of COVID will then be pushed into autumn/winter, meaning the narrative that the NHS will be “overwhelmed” can be trotted out once again.
Then it becomes “just one more lockdown to save Christmas” (the same thing Brits were told last Christmas) and around we go over and over again.
The PM has yet to formally announce a four-week delay to the end of lockdown in England, but Government figures have already hinted that restrictions could be extended beyond July 19th and into the month of August. https://t.co/vYCfXRx1ld
— Toby Young (@toadmeister) June 14, 2021
Health Minister Ed Argar said today that “it is of course possible” that yet another delay will be needed beyond July 19 due to the “Indian variant.”
Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab also acknowledged that there was no “absolute guarantee” that restrictions would be lifted on July 19.
As we highlighted last week, former Communist Party member and current government adviser Susan Michie says that mask mandates and social distancing should continue “forever” and that people should adopt such behaviour just as they did with wearing seatbelts.
A doctor who argued that the UK’s COVID-19 lockdown should remain in place indefinitely also revealed his true thoughts by letting slip the comment, “sadly, it can’t be forever.”
It appears increasingly as though lockdown in the UK will never end until the hospitality industry brings massive lawsuits against the government and people just stop complying en masse.
