There are still six days to go before the Prime Minister has to decide whether or not to go ahead with the full reopening of the economy and society on 21 June. But there seems little doubt in which way the government is travelling.
It is reported this morning that, following a pessimistic presentation by Chris Whitty and Sir Patrick Vallance the likelihood is that the reopening will be delayed by a fortnight, the lifting of some measures perhaps a little longer than that.
Is this yet another shifting of the goalposts? It is true that there has been an increase in cases over the past couple of weeks – not so far accompanied by a rise in hospitalisations and deaths. Yet a rise in infections – indeed a rise in hospitalisations and deaths, too – was always baked into the government’s roadmap.
Is this yet another shifting of the goalposts?
On 13 April – the day following step two in the roadmap, when shops and outdoor hospitality was allowed to reopen – the Prime Minister said:
‘So, as we unlock the result will inevitably be that we will see more infections…sadly we will see more hospitalisations and deaths, and people have just got to understand that.
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