PM Johnson announces the end of UK restrictions on July 19

  • The pandemic is far from over
  • We are seeing cases rise
  • We must reconcile ourselves to more deaths from Covid
  • Our vaccines have helped to break the link between disease and death
  • if we cannot reopen our society in the next few weeks, then we must ask ourselves when will we be able to return to normal
  • to speed up the vaccine rollout, the dosing interval for those aged under 40 will be reduced to eight week from 12 weeks
  • on social distancing, there will be no limits on how many people can meet socially or where they can meet
  • on facemasks regulations mandating facemasks will be lifted
  • people will no longer be instructed to work from home
  • education Sec. will announce plans to remove school bubbles

UK health minister Javid meanwhile says

  • that cases of Covid 19 will continue to rise significantly
  • all businesses forced to close doors will be able to open their doors
  • some people might get three Covid vaccines in a single year

The GBPUSD is up modestly, with the 200 hour moving average at 1.38616 as the next target.