Time to plan my holidays for the summer and my visit to my family back in Italy but…
Oh, no. Not again!
Some government experts, worried by the new waves of Covid-19 infections and by the delays in the vaccination campaign in EU countries and abroad are now thinking twice about letting Brits travel abroad.
They say that the Kingdom would be at great risk if we started having many people going overseas in July and August because it would jeopardize our vaccination campaign so Johnson have made it known that the government fears the consequences of a possible ‘change of mind’ for the summer holidays.
I’m still waiting to plan my holidays as well as my visit to my relatives in Italy because things still seem so uncertain.
We are in June and another surge of three thousands of cases shook the country just a few days ago.
The problem is the variants and primarily the one from the UK itself.
The UK variant is in fact the most contagious, and it seems to be the same strain we still have here among us according to the epidemiologists speaking on TV daily.
The epidemiologists are now saying they see a third wave very likely to happen especially considering the relatively low vaccination rates.
And that is why we must be careful.
I’m surprised, puzzled, sad and frustrated to be honest.
First they told us that the United Kingdom was just behind Israel and the USA for vaccinations and we were the first to completely ‘reopen’ to the world and now, suddenly, they are dropping this bomb on us.
A national survey has established that many Brits have already booked their summer holidays in Spain, France, Greece and Italy but what will happen now?
The epidemiologists believe that this third wave is unlikely to hit the UK as hard as the previous two have thanks to the high levels of vaccination (which seems a contradiction to what previously said but these doctors keep contradicting each other on TV) that will protect those most at risk.
But it does not exclude risks for our country as well as the new variants are more resistant to the vaccines currently available and, if more variants were brought to the United Kingdom, this scenario would compromise the successes achieved so far in eradicating the coronavirus.
London's goal is to give the second dose of the vaccine to all adults by the end of July but holidays abroad may not be guaranteed.
At the moment, the only countries that are actually reachable for the British are Portugal and Gibraltar, as Israel has an ongoing conflict and Iceland still imposes a quarantine upon arrival from other foreign countries.
Anyone arriving in the UK, in addition to completing an online form, taking a test within three days of departure and observing a 10-day quarantine upon arrival, must undergo 2 additional tests during the quarantine period (on the second and on the eighth day after arrival), booked and paid ( about £200) before entering the country through a dedicated portal so nobody is coming here as a tourist right now that I know of.
Meanwhile, a comforting research they spoke about on TV on the effectiveness of the first dose of vaccines says that more than 95% of the Brits who received the first dose of the AstraZeneca or Pfizer Covid vaccine developed the antibodies, a percentage that practically rises to 100% with the second dose.
According to the research, 96% of those who received the first dose of the vaccine developed antibodies after about 4 weeks, a percentage that rises to 99% 7-14 days after the second dose. Both AstraZeneca and Pfizer are considered efficient in developing the immune response against Covid-19.
What can I say? Let’s hope for the best! Fingers crossed.