We are introducing twice-weekly rapid testing for secondary and college pupils - in addition to regular testing for all teachers - to reduce the chance of the virus spreading in schools. Childcare and children’s supervised activities can also resume where necessary to enable parents to work or engage in similar activities. In Step 1, our priority is to ensure that all children and students return safely to face-to-face education in schools and colleges from 8 March. Step 1 - 8 and 29 March Changes on 8 March Education The government will also continue to support families and businesses throughout the steps set out in the roadmap - details of which will be set out by the Chancellor in the Budget on 3 March.įind out more about the current coronavirus (COVID-19) restrictions, including what you can and cannot do. The government will continue to protect the public by ensuring local outbreaks are managed quickly and effectively and that we combat new dangerous variants, both within the UK and at the border. our assessment of the risks is not fundamentally changed by new Variants of Concern.infection rates do not risk a surge in hospitalisations which would put unsustainable pressure on the NHS.evidence shows vaccines are sufficiently effective in reducing hospitalisations and deaths in those vaccinated.the vaccine deployment programme continues successfully.The decision will be based on four tests: Only when the government is sure that it is safe to move from one step to the next will the final decision be made. There will be a minimum of five weeks between each step: four weeks for the scientific data to reflect the changes in restrictions and to be analysed followed by one week’s advance notice of the restrictions that will be eased. For that reason, all the dates in the roadmap are indicative and subject to change. In implementing this plan we will be guided by data, not dates, so that we do not risk a surge in infections that would put unsustainable pressure on the NHS. It will take place in four steps and at each step, we plan to lift restrictions across the whole of England at the same time. While we must all remain vigilant - in particular against the threat from new COVID-19 variants - and continue to protect the NHS, a safe exit from lockdown can begin. Taken together, this means that even though absolute case numbers remain relatively high, we will be able to begin relaxing the current strict lockdown. The public have also risen to the challenge of suppressing COVID-19: by obeying the law staying at home getting tested when needed isolating when required, and following the ‘hands, face, space’ and ‘letting fresh air in’ guidance. The success of the vaccination programme is one factor - so far over 17 million people have had their jabs - but by no means the whole story. A measure only in force in one or two regions contributes less to the stringency index than a nationwide policy, but rules in force in only one or two regions can also inflate a whole country’s overall score.From 8 March, people in England will see restrictions start to lift and the government’s four-step roadmap offer a route back to a more normal life. The Oxford team is not currently collecting any sub-national data, meaning that the index does not perfectly capture local measures in large or federal countries. Most other efforts to track the pandemic response take the form of lists of events without attempting to create comparable measures across countries. These are assigned stringency ratings which are then used to derive a composite score between 0 and 100. More than 100 volunteer academics and students collate publicly-available information on government response measures, across nine policy areas. To enable such comparisons, a team at Oxford university’s Blavatnik School of Government is maintaining a database of pandemic-response policies and using it to derive an index of the measures’ overall stringency. The wide range of measures adopted by different governments poses a challenge to analysts who want to compare these policies over time or between countries.
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