I can see the rationale Sal but I'd keep some of the mitigations such as mask wearing and social distancing in some settings.

A full removal of all restrictions seems a bit of a leap in the dark. Everyone around the world is looking at the UK to see what happens next.

It does appear that we've gone schmidt or bust.
Surely another round of lifting restrictions before we go for herd immunity would have been a more wise option.

I dont really get the "now or never" concept.

It seems more likely that we have hit the "limit" of government borrowing and that "we" aren't prepared to keep on stacking debt.
The expectation of 50,000 new daily cases does seem out of sync with the route that we've had for the last 15/16 months.

Let's hope it works

It's about balancing the negatives of keeping restrictions against the negatives of allowing the virus to spread without any mitigations of the risk. The efficacy of the vaccine helps decide which side you go with.

On the one hand you damage the economy further or on the other you increase the likelihood of more variants emerging.

If things get out of control we could well end up back where we started. It's uncharted territory. I'd be a bit more cautious than this.

It seems that I was wrong with my 50,000 new cases a day.
Sajid Javid has said that "we" will see 100,000 new cases daily, which is an eye watering number.

Those that have chosen not to have vaccines, haven't had the full two doses or who aren't able to have it are going to have some serious issues if we get to 100k new cases a day. Right Said Fred and Ian Brown's next gig might be in HDU/ITU.

They are literally planning on letting the stuff sweep through the nation, regardless of the consequences.
Of which new British variants is by far the biggest issue now that deaths have gone away.

What settings are you thinking - I can't think of many that would benefit both health and the economy - hospitality needs both removing as does sport - perhaps masks on public transport especially if everyone is returning to the office.

Let it rip

Masks on public transport definitely.

Rather than go the whole hog in a couple of weeks I'd gradually increase the capacities allowed in sports grounds, clubs, shops etc and see how we're going. Not requiring check-in at venues seems to be an odd one too. It's going to mean me doing a lot more lateral flow testing before I visit vulnerable relatives, especially it we go to 100k new cases a day.

Having said all that I think a lot of people will continue to be cautious so there won't be a sudden return to how things were as if nothing happened.

Looking at today's graphs I can see a good chance of a return to restrictions before the year is out.

It would be very interesting to see the ages of these getting infected and their Covid jab status. How many are refusing the vaccine?

I agree regarding the return to normality it will be slow - RL can sell out 4k so that suggests people are nervous.

The government need to lay out the criteria that will lead to further restrictions - infections are irrelevant it is ICU numbers. I cannot see all the fuss and about masks tbh - there is zero interest in social distancing even Labour couldn't give a toss about it.

The lack of interest in social distancing comes from the narrative set by the politicians and the media.

2nd lockdown came in on 5th November with 2796 covid patients in a bed in Yorks and Humber peaking at 3841 on 26 January. We've got 376 today.

Like I said, I think we'll be bringing restrictions back at some point. I'd guess probably autumn/winter.

From what I've seen the majority of covid patients in hospital are the unvaccinated and those that have had only one vaccination. There is a smaller proportion that have had both but for who the vaccination hasn't been as effective for a variety of reasons.

To make a judgement based on numbers in "ICU" is a gross oversimplification and thankfully not how we make these decisions.

It’s the fact that with as the number of cases rise so does the risk of it mutating into something we cannot control with the current vaccines.

So If had 100,000 infections everyday but <5,000 hospitalisations we would lockdown again - either this vaccination works or it doesn't?

The government need to give out figures that are more meaningful - yes there was c400 went into hospital but c200 came out - what is the average stay in hospital, what was the vaccine status, how many in ICU etc.

The whole point of lockdown was to protect the NHS - nothing else - surely it is the numbers in ICU that determine what the NHS can provide - it was the bottleneck last time and turned the NHS into the NCS. It had plenty of beds - let's face it the NHS wasn't treating hardly anyone else - it was the lack of ICU wards and trained nurses that was the real issue.

Thankfully those that have been double vaccinated and those <18 don't have to self isolate if pinged by the app - and it looks like we should be able to go abroad and not have to self isolate, no bubbles in schools - progress at least.

Not at all it is impractical almost impossible to achieve when society behaves with any degree of normality - how are kids supposed to observe that - let's get real here.