India hits vaccination milestone as European rollout picks up speed and England prepares to open non-essential retail and outdoor areas of pubs
While there is still criticism in scientific circles of the British government’s approach to lifting lockdown measures, overall approval for the government’s handling of the pandemic is now positive for the first time since May 2020, in a new sign that the vaccine rollout has helped transform its fortunes.
The latest Opinium poll for the Observer found that 44% now approve of the government’s Covid handling, with 36% disapproving.
Amid warnings by leading scientists that the UK government is risking a third wave of Covid-19 by easing the lockdown, there are fears on the part of experts that there are still far too many hotspots causing concern.
Stephen Griffin, of Leeds University medical school, told the Observer:
There are areas in West Yorkshire, the Black Country and other regions that still have high infection rates. However, many people there cannot afford to self-isolate. We need to tackle that issue urgently or the virus will come back again.
The test, trace and isolate system that is supposed to contain outbreaks has not worked well, and even when people test positive, they are not isolating.
We need a properly funded system for quarantining infected people. We don’t have that and that raises the risk we could head back into trouble again quite quickly.
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