By Kate Holton
LONDON, April 5 (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Boris
Johnson will set out plans to reopen the economy and eventually
relaunch international travel on Monday when he updates the
coronavirus roadmap, aided by one of the fastest vaccine
rollouts in the world.
As much of Europe enters new lockdowns to tackle surging
cases, Johnson will give an update on his staggered plan to ease
restrictions in the coming months, a huge boost for one of the
worst-hit countries during the pandemic.
Johnson is expected to confirm that non-essential retail,
outdoor hospitality and hairdressers can reopen on April 12 in
England, while he will also give more details on vaccine
passports and international travel.
Airlines are fighting for survival after a year of nearly no
travel, and the government's plan to use a traffic-light system
for countries based on infection and vaccination levels gives a
glimmer of hope that some form of holidays could take place.
Under the current plan international travel will not resume
until May 17 at the earliest. The Financial Times said Johnson
was not expected to set out a specific timeframe.
The gradual relaxation of rules will also be aided by an
increase in testing availability, with everyone in England
entitled to take a rapid COVID-19 test twice a week to prevent
outbreaks and find those people not displaying symptoms.
"As we continue to make good progress on our vaccine
programme and with our roadmap to cautiously easing restrictions
underway, regular rapid testing is even more important to make
sure those efforts are not wasted," Johnson said in a statement.
Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are following their
own, similar paths out of a strict lockdown that was imposed at
the beginning of this year.
Britain is able to pursue a recovery after it gave
AstraZeneca and Pfizer shots to more than half
the adult population. A reopening of schools in March has also
not yet led to a spike in cases, despite a ramp-up in more
testing.
But the United Kingdom has been badly hit by the pandemic.
With almost 127,000 deaths, it has the fifth highest toll in the
world behind the United States, Brazil, Russia and India.
In 2020 its gross domestic product fell by 9.8%, the most in
more than three centuries and one of the deepest contractions in
the world. Households have saved however, and sterling has
gained against the euro ahead of the reopening.
(Editing by Jan Harvey)