New UK health minister Sajid Javid makes his debut

LONDON - Britain's newly-appointed Health Secretary has confirmed that coronavirus restrictions will remain in place until July 19 but that the lifting of health regulations after that date will be irreversible.

Addressing Parliament in London on Monday (June 28), Mr Sajid Javid admitted that extending restrictions for three more weeks is not the news the people of Britain would have hoped for.

Nevertheless - and in defiance of a sharp rise in coronavirus infections - Mr Javid told lawmakers that the country will have to "learn to live" with the virus and that July 19 will mark a radical change in Britain's response to the pandemic; the date, he told MPs, is "not only the end of the line but the start of an exciting new journey for our country".

Mr Javid has just taken over ministerial responsibility after Mr Matt Hancock, his predecessor in the post and the man who bore the brunt of managing the pandemic, was forced to resign because of revelations that he had broken social distancing rules by engaging in an affair with a ministerial aide; CCTV camera shots of the two kissing just outside Mr Hancock's government office sealed his fate.

However, unlike previous holders of the health ministry portfolio, who tended to be more junior politicians, Mr Javid is a political heavy-hitter.

The son of a bus driver who immigrated to Britain from Pakistan, the 50-year-old Mr Javid enjoyed a successful career in banking which included a period of work in Singapore before entering politics, where he also experienced a meteoric rise.

A decade ago, he became the first MP of Asian origins to hold a Cabinet-rank post in Britain, and since then, he bagged some of the most significant political appointments, including those of home secretary and, subsequently, the position of finance minister.

His appointment to the health portfolio has allowed Prime Minister Boris Johnson to limit the damage inflicted on the government by the scandal, which derailed the career of the previous minister.

Even the British government's toughest critics acknowledge that the new health supremo is both a competent administrator and a shrewd political operator.

Mr Javid will need all these qualities, for the tasks facing him are daunting. As he briefed MPs for the first time about his priorities, the number of daily new Covid-19 infections in Britain passed the 22,000 mark, about 50 per cent higher than the daily figures recorded during the preceding week and the highest since the start of this year.

Rising figures are being recorded even though around two-thirds of all UK adults aged above 18 are now fully vaccinated, and 85 per cent of adults have had at least a first dose of a vaccine.

The new health minister takes comfort from the fact that deaths from coronavirus infections are now mercifully low, running into single digits daily.

So, although he continues to claim that his choices are influenced only by scientific advice and data rather than artificial target dates to lift all restrictions, Mr Javid is determined to open the British economy after July 19, to "help return the economic and cultural life that makes this country so great", as he told MPs.

Apart from the need to limit any further damage to the national economy, Mr Javid is keen to divert resources away from managing the pandemic to deal with the next ticking health bomb: the huge arrears building up in the treatment of citizens suffering from other medical conditions.

Britain's National Health Service has a waiting list of 5.1 million patients in England alone, the highest figure since records began, and Mr Javid is now left with the unenviable task of asking his government colleagues for even more cash, on top of the unprecedented financial allocations already given to the health sector.

And, even if the necessary resources materialise, the expansion of hospital facilities and especially operating theatres required to deal with the backlog will take time.
Workforce shortages in health facilities are now becoming evident.

In addition, the authorities fear that, as the weather gets colder in a few months, Britain may experience a new nasty flu epidemic that had been - until now - suppressed thanks to the social distancing measures imposed in response to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Britain's new health minister must hope that his promise to take the country on "an exciting new journey" does not hit some new and grim obstacles.