Scotland's move puts pressure on Johnson

Pressure is building on Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson ahead of the proposed June 21 lifting of novel coronavirus restrictions across England, after Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon slowed down plans for her country to get back to normal living.

With just 46 percent of Scots having received both vaccine doses, and the novel coronavirus strain first identified in India, now known as the delta variant, a particular cause for concern, Sturgeon told the Scottish Parliament that the country was still in a transition phase, but the change to the plan was "a pause, not a step backwards". Caution, she added, was still needed "to avoid being knocked off course completely" by the delta variant.

While England is currently scheduled to lift restrictions before the end of June, the plan for Scotland was at a slower pace.

On Tuesday, for the first time since the pandemic began more than a year ago, the United Kingdom recorded zero COVID-19 deaths, which scientist John Bell of the government vaccine task force said was "encouraging", adding that "the number don't look too intimidating".However, he advised that caution should still be exercised before a decision was made on June 14 about confirming the final lifting of England's lockdown.

"I do think we need to keep our eye on hospitalizations, serious disease and deaths which is really what we are trying to manage," he told the BBC Radio 4 Today program.

"We do need to keep a bit of balance to the discussion and keep our eyes on the serious disease that we are trying to prevent."

Health Secretary Matt Hancock said the zero deaths figure showed the effectiveness of vaccines, but this was no time for complacency.

"Despite this undoubtedly good news, we know we haven't beaten this virus yet, and with cases continuing to rise, please remember hands, face, space and let in fresh air when indoors, and of course, make sure when you can you get both jabs," he added.

Step four of the government road map out of lockdown would see all limits on social contact removed on June 21, and the reopening of large-scale events and gatherings, with the prospect of proof of health status documentation, which was once being considered, now believed to have been scrapped completely.

The virulence of the delta variant is proving the biggest challenge to plans that are in place.

"We have a variant of concern that's spreading exponentially in the country," Stephen Griffin, a virologist at the University of Leeds, told the Guardian newspaper. "It's not a matter of going back into lockdown, but certainly I think we should be pausing."

The government's color-coded safe travel destination list will be reviewed on Thursday, with hopes that the addition of new countries will give more options for people hoping to go on holiday abroad.

Currently, there are just 12 countries on the list, which do not require quarantine for returning travellers, and of those, Portugal is the only short-haul destination which draws a large amount of travelers from the UK.

Lower rates of infection mean it is likely that many popular Spanish and Greek islands could be added to the safe list, although this has yet to be confirmed, but despite previous comments from Transport Minister Grant Shapps that "I don't think people have a very long time to wait before other countries are able to join the green list", the Financial Times reports that what it called a "big bang" of countries changing status is not expected.

Countries currently on the amber list, which requires returning passengers to quarantine for 10 days and take at least two PCR tests, include China, France, Greece, Italy and Spain. However, some amber list countries, including Malta and Poland, now have higher vaccination levels and lower average daily case rates than Portugal did when it was given green-list status.

One of the major concerns around mass travel not directly related to health is how immigration officials will process large numbers of returning passengers, and how pandemic measures will impact the customs checking process.

This week, many British families have traveled in the half-term break, which means the efficiency of border procedures could be tested ahead of the busier summer travel season.