The British prime minister is gradually loosening the corona restrictions. However, the number of new infections remains high. Why is Boris Johnson so careless?
Britain has reached a sad record: in no other country in the world have so many people in relation to the population died from the consequences of the corona pandemic as in the United Kingdom. The authorities still report hundreds of new victims every day, and the statisticians of the crisis team calculate 8,000 new infections. Nevertheless, Prime Minister Boris Johnson is loosening the corona restrictions more and more.

Schools in the UK have reopened since the beginning of the month. In addition to supermarkets, other shops are now allowed to resume. Outdoor sports are allowed again. And everyone who cannot work from home should go back to work. The strict curfew is practically lifted, and the question arises: why isn’t the British government more careful?
According to the latest data from the United Kingdom’s statistical institutes, the number of deaths, which is more than the average of the past five years, has been 61,895 since mid-March. The number is based on data released by the statistical authorities up to May 22 that was compiled by the BBC. The result: the pandemic in the United Kingdom saw 929 deaths per million people more than in normal times. This is even higher than the 921 victims in Spain. In Germany, the level of mortality is comparatively low.

There are many reasons for the rapid spread of the coronavirus in Great Britain: Boris Johnson initially did not take the lung disease Covid-19 seriously. His sentence “I continue to shake hands” is significant. The premier broke the test and trace strategy recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO) to identify and isolate early infected people on March 12 due to lack of testing capacity and did not send the country into the lockdown until March 23. The airports were open all the time. To date, there have been no tests for Covid-19 there. On the other hand, a quarantine requirement for travellers is still to be introduced on Monday.