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Liverpool supporters cheer during the English Premier League match against Norwich City on Aug. 14. (AFP/Yonhap News)

What would it mean to create a new routine that accommodates COVID-19? Tough social distancing can’t be maintained indefinitely, but what’s to be done if vaccination can’t get us to herd immunity?

Coexisting with COVID-19 remains a “road not taken” for South Korean society. Perhaps some clues can be gleaned by examining the four-step roadmap that the UK used to wind down its lockdown.

The UK took six months to gradually move out of a lockdown that had confined people to their homes. Schools reopened in Step 1, restrictions on indoor and outdoor gatherings were lifted in Step 2 and Step 3, and all restaurants and stores were reopened in Step 4.

Strikingly, the British government unveiled its blueprint for easing restrictions on Feb. 22, when just 0.95% of the total population had been fully vaccinated. The UK was still reporting more than 10,000 new cases of COVID-19 each day at that point.

Even so, the British government began to relax restrictions, observing the overall damage caused by the prolonged lockdown.

The four-step roadmap was designed with at least five weeks between each step. The British government explained that it would only move to the next step when an analysis of the vaccination rate, the extent of the outbreak, and the case fatality rate had made it confident of safety. Officials also made clear that they wouldn’t tolerate a level of transmission that would endanger the sustainability of the country’s medical system.

Once the UK moved into Step 1, the first places to reopen were schools of all levels on Mach 8. The government said at the time it had made the difficult decision to only restrict in-person education when it was absolutely necessary because returning to in-person education was a top national priority.

However, students in secondary schools and above were given rapid testing at home twice a week and recommended to keep wearing masks in the classroom.

On March 29, the government allowed six people or two families to meet outdoors.

Under Step 2, which took effect on April 12, the public was asked to keep working from home, and restrictions were maintained on gatherings (up to six outside). But restaurants could now serve people outdoors, and hair salons and other nonessential stores resumed operations.

At that time, 11.6% of the UK’s population had been fully vaccinated, and the country was reporting an average of 1,667 new cases a day.

That might seem a little better than the current situation in South Korea, but the UK’s COVID-19 restrictions were even tougher than the Level 4 social distancing currently in place in the greater Seoul area.

The UK advanced to Step 3 on May 17, allowing gatherings of up to six indoors and up to 30 outdoors. That was also when restaurants and pubs resumed indoor table service.

Capacity caps at event spaces and stadiums were also eased to 1,000 at indoor venues and 4,000, or half-full, at outdoor venues.

The daily caseload had risen somewhat, to above 2,000 a day. But the case fatality rate, which had been as high as 3.3% in February, dropped to 0.52%, instilling confidence in the transition to Step 3.

The shift to Step 4 wasn’t easy because of the emergence of a new variable: the Delta variant of the coronavirus.

A COVID-19 vaccine surveillance report published by Public Health England on July 1 found that full vaccination’s efficacy at preventing infection had fallen from an average of 89% for the Alpha variant to 79% for Delta.

But the British government focused on the fact that vaccines remained effective at preventing serious and fatal cases of COVID-19, even under Delta. The efficacy of a single dose actually rose from 78% for Alpha to 80% for Delta, while the efficacy of two doses rose from 93% to 96%.

And so, the UK finally moved to Step 4 on July 19, lifting restrictions on all gatherings and facilities, including nightclubs, and leaving facial coverings to individuals’ discretion. However, masks were strongly recommended on public transportation and other crowded areas indoors.

Nowadays, the UK is once again reporting nearly 30,000 new cases of COVID-19 every day. The weekly case fatality rate on Aug. 17 stood at 0.35%, up from 0.15% at the beginning of Step 4.

But UK Health Secretary Sajid Javid told Sky News on Aug. 6 that COVID-19 isn’t the only thing people should be thinking about. The UK also needs to consider treatment of other diseases, economic troubles, and educational disruptions, he said.

The real crisis would be the appearance of a viral variant that’s resistant to the vaccines, Javid said.

By Choi Ha-yan, staff reporter

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