Johnson: Stage 4 delayed until July 19

Boris Johnson has announced a four-week delay in lifting lockdown restrictions in England amid rising cases of the Delta variant.

Under the PM’s coronavirus roadmap, England was set to drop all legal restrictions on 21 June – but this has now been pushed back to 19 July.

The UK has recorded more than 7,000 COVID cases on each of the last six days and the Delta variant is now accounting for more than 90% of new cases.

The decision to postpone the easing of measures comes as new analysis by Public Health England (PHE) shows for the first time that two doses of COVID-19 vaccines are highly effective against hospitalisation from the Delta variant.

Johnson also announced from tomorrow over 23 year old will be able to book their vaccine appointment with all over 18s set to be invited by July 19.

Wedding with over 30 guest will be allowed to go aged like planned for the set stage 4, with social distancing required.

Saying that “by being cautious now we have the chance over the next 4 weeks to save many thousands of lives by vaccinating millions more..”