🔴LIVE: Boris Johnson updates the nation on what Freedom Day will really look like.
The Health Secretary has confirmed that the four tests to move to the next stage have been met - allowing the final stage to go ahead on July 19 as hoped
🔴"We are publishing a plan today, showing a safe and gradual approach we will be taking throughout the summer," the Health Secretary told the Commons earlier today.
Watch Boris Johnson's announcement live👇
The Prime Minister begins the press conference congratulating Gareth Southgate and the England team on their #EURO2020 efforts.
❌Johnson goes on to condemn racist trolls: "shame on you - I hope you crawl back under the stone from which you emerged"
📈The PM then turns to the roadmap - saying that the wave will result in more deaths and hospitalisations, but it was "clearly foreseen" by the forecasters.
The summer creates a "natural advantage" to reopen, he adds
The PM says ministers "expect" people to wear face masks in crowded areas.
They "don't expect the whole country to return to their desk as one" from July 19.
Guidance for extremely vulnerable will also be updated.
The red list border system will be kept
Prof Chris Whitty says the vaccine rollout is going very well.
💉One dose reduces by "a reasonable margin - about a third" the chances of getting infected, while a second dose takes that up to more like 80%
The impact is even greater against hospitalisation and deaths
Pressure on NHS will increase - but not unacceptably, says Prof Whitty.
Whitty notes that the autumn wave and the current wave are tracking on cases - but in terms of admissions, it is "significantly below" previous rates.
📉The mortality rate is "much lower" than other rates
There will be an 'exit wave' - dependent on how slow we move.
The chief medical officer says there has been "very wide agreement" that the delay in reopening was the right thing to do.
⛔️On the exit wave: "the slower we take it the fewer the people will have Covid"
The PM turns to questions from the public - the first about the prospect of restrictions being reimposed.
🗓️The Prime Minister says that all data will be kept under constant review for the rest of the year "probably into next year too" telegraph.co.uk/politics/2021/…
❓Next question: whether the vaccine affects transmission, and if it removes the need for self-isolation.
Vallance says "roughly speaking" it decreases infection by 50% "or so".
Whitty agrees, but notes that you are still 25% likely to pass it on
🩺Next question: about the impact of self-isolation restrictions on the NHS.
Boris Johnson says the Health Secretary is looking into this and will report back soon.
"We are going to want to get the NHS back to operating as close to normal as possible," he adds
🔙Next question: whether Boris Johnson still believes his roadmap is irreversible.
The Prime Minister says the hope has been it will be irreversible.
"What we are saying now is - we will proceed on Monday 19, but we want people to remember this thing isn't over
📊Next question: what level cases and hospitalisations will put the NHS under excess pressure.
Prof Chris Whitty says there "isn't a single number" for NHS pressure.
🔴Covid deaths will likely rise to 200 a day and hospitalisations will "reach at least 1,000 per day" following the easing of restrictions on July 19, Government advisers have warned.
💷"Freedom Day, when it finally arrives, should be about more than lifting social restrictions. It should be about lifting economic restrictions as well" | Writes @mattlynnwriter
❌"If the Prime Minister sounded downbeat as he gave the thumbs up to what was formerly known as Freedom Day on Monday evening, it is because so much of the data he says he is led by is pointing in the wrong direction" telegraph.co.uk/politics/2021/…
'The last few weeks have rather undermined the PM’s lofty aspirations, releasing genies that will be hard to put back in the bottle.
'Hancock’s inexplicable scoring-record accompanied a deluge of England goals, and all the public merrymaking that entails' telegraph.co.uk/politics/2021/…
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🔎In an exclusive extract from the book ‘An Ugly Truth: Inside Facebook’s Battle for Domination’ published in @Telegraph, authors Sheera Frenkel and Cecilia Kang described how engineers would spy on women telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/07/1…
👁️The book details how engineers would access users’ private information – including women they were dating – for over a decade