The Spectator

Portrait of the week: Covid retreats, raves resume and a £165,000 squid

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‘I think we have got a good chance of being able to dispense with the one-metre-plus from 21 June,’ Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister, remarked. By the beginning of the week, 29 per cent of the adult population had received both doses of coronavirus vaccination; 65 per cent the first dose. In the seven days up to the beginning of the week, 107 people had died, bringing the total number of deaths (within 28 days of testing positive for coronavirus) to 127,534. Maldon in Essex reported three cases per 100,000 people, which meant only two people in the whole district. Care home residents in England were allowed to make outdoor visits without having to self-isolate for 14 days on their return. In a medical experiment, 3,000 young people were lured into a Liverpool warehouse for a rave with no social distancing, to see if any could be infected with Covid-19. Manchester United’s game against Liverpool was postponed after 200 fans broke into the Old Trafford ground, from which coronavirus had excluded them, to protest against the Glazer family’s ownership of the club; a policeman’s face was gashed with a broken bottle. Visiting London for the G7 summit, Antony Blinken, the US Secretary of State, said that America had ‘no closer ally, no closer partner’ than Britain.

More than four million people in Scotland over 16, including short-term prisoners and resident foreigners, were invited to elect 129 members of its parliament. More than six million people in London could vote for 25 members of its assembly and a mayor. In Wales fewer than 2.5 million people elected 60 members of its Senedd. In English local councils elections, the Conservatives defended 2,052 seats and Labour 1,621. Twelve mayors were to be directly elected.

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