As the penultimate lockdown easing gets under way, ministers are being asked a question: will the 21 June unlocking be delayed? On Friday, Boris Johnson warned the rise of the Indian variant could ‘pose serious disruption’ to the planned lockdown easing next month, when nearly all Covid restrictions are expected to go. The line from the government hasn’t changed much over the weekend; ministers are keen to say they hope it will go ahead but won’t guarantee it. There is unlikely to be any formal decision until the week before the 21st, when the government will be able to review all the data.
If vaccine hesitancy remains an issue in the government’s calculations, ministers will come under pressure over how much they can delay a national reopening
However, there have been a number of developments that point to the debate that’s coming in the weeks ahead. First, the evidence so far suggests vaccines do appear to be effective when faced with the Indian variant.
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