UK's Tony Blair Says Government's COVID-19 Response 'Not Good Enough'
Former UK Labour Prime Minister Tony Blair said on Monday that the current government response to the COVID-19 pandemic has not been "good enough," as he advocated for a more radical and scaled-up strategy to tackle the spread of the virus
LONDON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 11th January, 2021) Former UK Labour Prime Minister Tony Blair said on Monday that the current government response to the COVID-19 pandemic has not been "good enough," as he advocated for a more radical and scaled-up strategy to tackle the spread of the virus.
"The system will say it's doing the best it can on all fronts. The stark truth is that this best isn't good enough," Blair wrote in an article published by the Evening Standard newspaper.
According to the former Labour leader, who was the prime minister from 1997-2007, the government should concentrate on getting more vaccines produced and more people vaccinated, scaling up mass testing and improving COVID-19 data gathering.
"The faster we are vaccinated, the less the chance of mutation. So, vaccine acceleration is paramount," Blair explained, adding that collecting data on the whole immunization process from checking the response to vaccines to putting in place a COVID pass for travelers or people attending sports and cultural events "is vital.
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Although he conceded that "this is easy to say and supremely difficult to do," he said the government needs to go onto a new footing, because the battle against the disease could possibly last two to three years.
"This crisis isn't ending soon; and the economic and health damage of prolonged lockdown is frightening," Blair added.
The UK government is expecting to step up the COVID-19 vaccination campaign with the opening of the first seven large vaccination centers on Monday, as part of its target to immunize 15 million people by the middle of February with the Pfizer/BioNTech and AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccines.
As of Sunday, the UK had recorded over three million COVID-19 positive cases and 81,431 deaths, with the new fast-spreading coronavirus strain identified in southeast England being blamed for the recent spike in coronavirus cases in London and most parts of the country.