British Prime Minister Boris Johnson told Parliament members today that coronavirus passports and masking mandates will end by January 26 and that all other COVID restrictions would end by March 24.
In remarks to the House of Commons, the primary chamber of the British Parliament, Johnson called for an end to the nation’s “Plan B” COVID restrictions.
As Infections Recede U.K. to Repeal COVID Laws
Johnson made the announcement on the basis that COVID cases appeared to have peaked in England. Infection cases are also being dominated by the less lethal Omicron variant, against which current vaccines are less effective. His comments were met with cheers from Conservative benches.
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The United Kingdom reported more than 108,000 new positive Covid tests on Wednesday, compared to about 130,000 a week ago. Cases have been dropping most of this year.
Deaths and hospitalization rates have also fallen.
COVID Passports and Masking Requirements Will End
Johnson told lawmakers that the government would no longer enforce COVID passport or masking requirements in businesses or public spaces, including at schools.
The government is expected to announce rollbacks of other restrictions on travel and health care settings shortly.
Politics, Not Vaccines, May End COVID Era in Britain
Johnson made his comments to shore up waning political support due to his handling of the pandemic. Several political parties have called on his government to resign.
As he announced an end of the COVID era in Britain, Labour Party leaders, trade unions and certain doctors’ groups criticized Johnson’s plan even as opponents of the U.K.’s draconian restrictions supported him.
COVID Still Divides the World
The announcement comes at a time of widening divisions across the globe. Nations including China, Australia, Austria and Germany appear to be embracing still more draconian vaccine mandates, masking requirements and restrictions on travel and movement within their borders. Meanwhile nations such as Israel, Spain and Cyprus have entertained easing COVID restrictions in recent weeks.
The United States is deeply fractured in its approach with the Supreme Court having recently struck down President Joe Biden’s vaccine mandates for business with a 100 employees or more even as it upheld mandates for federal health care workers. States and cities are also responding in piecemeal fashion to new pandemic developments, with some, including California and New York, persisting with tight restrictions and others, including Florida and Texas, easing COVID rules.
Britain’s course has had outsized impacts on global COVID responses from the start. As early as March 2020 models presented by Professor Neil Ferguson, head of the MRC GIDA team and director of the Abdul Latif Jameel Institute for Disease and Emergency Analytics (J-IDEA) steered the world toward a new complex of rules and restrictions that drove protesters to the streets and led billions to isolate in their homes and behind face masks.
Now that one of the pioneers of the global COVID regime has changed course, other nations across the world will likely reexamine their policies as well. Regardless of what governments decide the COVID era will have lasting impacts, globally, on democratic principles and more general matters of governance including notions of rule of law, individual liberty, due process and appropriate public health responses.