We have thrown everything at this, but it is now clear to us that we are not going to drive these numbers down, they’re instead going to increase.
Now it’s up to us to make sure they don’t increase too fast and they don’t increase too much relative to the number of people who are getting vaccinated every single day every single week. I much prefer to be here announce that we’re opening up. There’ll be a time for that, but it simply can’t be before we get to 70% double dose and 80% double dose.
There are some things we can do along the way. I have announced some of them today. We will look very carefully at whether there is more that we can do and if we can do that safely, then that will add to the list for the 22 or 23 September.
Until then, please get tested as soon as you have symptoms. Please follow these rules, they’re about your safety as much as anyone else’s. They’re about making sure our nurses and doctors don’t have more work to do and, please, go online and book a vaccination appointment, talk to your pharmacist, talk to your GP.
There’s vaccines there available. Let’s use up all those appointments. This is a race to 80.