When Boris Johnson announces the delay to reopening tonight, he needs to set out what this pause is meant to achieve. If it is to enable more people in vaccination groups one to nine, who account for 99 per cent of all Covid deaths, to have their second jab and receive the full benefit of that then it is an understandable decision.
But if this is the case, Boris Johnson needs to answer the question that Sky’s Beth Rigby asked him yesterday: what percentage of adults need to have had their second vaccine for the government to be convinced that a full reopening would be safe? If he can’t answer that, then people and businesses will begin to lose faith that there will be a full and sustained reopening this year.
One of the other cited reasons for the delay is that it is not yet clear to what extent the link between cases and hospitalisations has been severed.
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