LONDON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 15th July, 2021) UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Thursday that it is "highly probable" the UK had left the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic behind, but warned that there were still difficult days and weeks ahead as the country deals with another surge in coronavirus cases and deaths.
"If we're careful and we continue to respect this disease and its continuing menace it's highly probable - and almost all the scientists agree on this - the worst of the pandemic is behind us," Johnson said in a speech from a battery production center in Coventry, central England.
The prime minister stressed, however, that the pandemic was not over and that there will be more hospitalizations and deaths as a result of the prevalence of the Delta variant first identified in India.
He said that the country's wall of vaccine-acquired immunity goes higher every day, thus allowing the UK economy to recover.
"With every day that goes by our economy is slowly and cautiously picking itself up of the floor," Johnson said, adding that there is every prospect that the country is poised to recover like a "coiled spring."
In his speech, the prime minister set out his vision for levelling up the UK, claiming that he will not make the poor parts of the country richer by making the rich parts poorer.
"Levelling up can only be achieved with a strong and dynamic wealth creating economy. There has got to be a catalytic role for government, and government is there to provide a strategic lead but that requires consistency from government - not chopping and changing," he said.
Johnson claimed that his government is already spending �640 billion ($887 billion) on roads and rail, housing and clean power generation in the poorest areas of the country.
