Mandatory Covid jabs for care-home workers
As Britain’s vaccine roll-out commences, the jabs are to be made mandatory for staff in care-homes, says health secretary Matt Hancock. The move comes after data has been released suggesting that 47% of English care-homes for elderly people still have 1/5 of their staff unvaccinated. If care-home workers do not take the vaccine 16 weeks after parliament approves the law, they could face being redeployed from the front line or losing their job. However, care-homes have warned this could put even more pressure on a sector which is already understaffed.
G7 summit results are out
The G7: Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK and the US, have met at their annual conference, and have agreed on a multitude of policies to tackle COVID-19, China and climate change. The group met in Cornwall, which meant Johnson, as the chair of the event, was also able to try and ease tensions over Northern Island’s role in the EU Withdrawal Bill. The G7 agreed to: provide 1 billion vaccines to poorer countries over the next year, net zero carbon emissions no later than 2050 and to push for infrastructure in developing countries to combat China’s growing power. The idea of a ‘Western Alliance’ has also been reported to have been discussed, to further limit China’s influence. Apart from a small row over the post-Brexit trade deal involving Macron and Johnson, the conference went well.
Lockdown-easing delayed
On Monday the 14th of June, Boris Johnson confirmed during a press conference that the easing of restrictions, previously set for the 21st of June, are to be delayed until the 19th of July. The reasoning behind this is that the Delta variant (the Indian variant) has been accounting for 90% of new cases in the UK – leading to scientific predictions an easing would cause thousands of deaths. Johnson hopes that this 4-week delay can lead to a full opening up of England, with estimates that potential deaths will be cut by a third due to 4 weeks more time for vaccination. Johnson has called this day ‘terminus day’, hoping this will be the final end to Covid restrictions in the UK, however, acknowledged that there may be unforeseen events that hinder this.
