UK PM Johnson: I do not believe we need to delay reopening

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Friday that he doesn't believe that they need to delay the reopening, as reported by Reuters.

Additional takeaways

"We have seen further clusters of Indian variant."

"There are some important unknowns - this variant is more transmissible."

"If the variant is significantly more transmissible, we will face hard choices."

"Good news is we have no evidence vaccines are less effective."

"I believe we should trust in our vaccines while monitoring the Indian variant."

"It is more important than ever that people get the second dose."

"We will accelerate remaining second doses to over 50s."

"The second dose will be 8 weeks after the first dose."

"There is no evidence of increased cases translating into unmanageable pressure on NHS."

Market reaction

The GBP/USD pair showed no immediate reaction to these comments and was last seen gaining 0.3% on the day at 1.4092.