Scientists clear way to axe 2m rule
They’re happy for Boris to cut it to 1m as UK alert level falls
THE two-metre rule is finally set to be relaxed following a significant lowering of the virus alert level.
A Government source last night revealed that scientific advisers were now ‘totally comfortable’ with reducing the restriction – provided other precautions are in place.
These could include making sure buildings are properly ventilated, greater use of masks or the installation of screens where people might be too close together.
The remarks by the senior source are the biggest indication so far that scientists will not resist if Boris Johnson chooses to relax the two-metre rule. Yesterday, the Prime Minister told the public to ‘ watch this space’ when asked whether the rule would be eased in schools.
Mr Johnson has already announced a review into the controversial guidance in the face of mounting pressure from pub, hotel and restaurant chains and his own backbench MPs.
The indication the rules could be abolished came as the UK’s four chief medical officers announced they would be lowering the virus alert level from four to three following a dramatic reduction in new infections, hospital admissions and deaths.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock hailed the shift as ‘a big moment for the country’. Yesterday Mr Johnson urged the public to ‘start thinking of a world where we are less apprehensive of this disease’.
He said the Government would switch from a ‘one- size fits all’ national lockdown to local restrictions to contain smaller outbreaks.
Meanwhile a Whitehall source said ministers were considering relaxing the even rules further by allowing two families to go into one another’s’ houses in ‘support bubbles’. In a fast-moving day:
■ The Prime Minister said he wanted every child back to school full-time by September;
■ Figures revealed the Government had spent £11million on their beleaguered tracing app which was then scrapped earlier this week;
■ Betting firms were found to have screened 24 adverts during the first two Premier League matches on Wednesday;
■ The Home Office revealed not a single fine had been issued for its controversial quarantine scheme in the two weeks since it was introduced;
■ The Welsh Government announced it would be restarting its tourism industry from next month;
■ South Asians were found to be 20 per cent more likely to die from the virus, partly due to diabetes;
■ Three meat factories which supply supermarkets were closed following coronavirus outbreaks;
■ England’s largest hospital, the Birmingham NHS Foundation trust, reported no virus patients in intensive care for the first time since the beginning of the pandemic;
■ The UK’s overall death toll rose by 173 to 42,461.
Yesterday, Mr Johnson gave a clear indication that the two-metre rule would soon be relaxed for
‘Big moment for the country’
schools. But if it was changed for schools, it would almost certainly be reduced for the hospitality sector, workplaces and throughout the Government’s social distancing guidelines.
Praising the downgrading of the alert level, Mr Johnson told Sky News the pandemic had been a ‘horrible shock’.
He added that ‘the British people are working hard to drive it down but we’re starting to make some real progress with test and trace, with treatments for the disease and I hope that as we go forward into the Autumn people will be much more confident’.
When asked whether the twometre rule would be scrapped for schools, he replied: ‘Watch this space. Watch this space, we will be putting in further changes as the science allows.’
A Government source later said scientific advisers were ‘totally comfortable’ relaxing the rule if ‘mitigation measures’ such as masks were introduced at the same time.
Earlier this week, the Prime Minister announced he had commissioned a review into whether the two-metre rule will be relaxed, which would take advice from scientists, medical experts and economists.
His intervention followed pressure from business leaders and MPs who warned the hospitality sector would totally collapse unless it was overhauled. Pubs, restaurants and hotels could reopen as early as July 4.
But it is not yet clear when the review will be published and whether it will recommend the distance be reduced to one or one and a half metres.
A Lancet study earlier this month found keeping one metre apart reduced the risk of infection to just 2.6 per cent compared to being within a metre. Two metres reduced it even further to just 1.3 per cent. The UK’s two-metre rules are out of step with most other countries and the World Health Organisation.
‘Change when science allows’
A FRACTURED party with confused messages, undeliverable manifesto pledges, and a hard-Left leader despised by its traditional heartland voters.
Not the Mail’s verdict on why Labour was drubbed in the 2019 election, but that of the party’s internal inquiry into its most crushing defeat since 1935.
The election of a new leader would not be enough to win back disenchanted supporters behind the shattered ‘red wall’ of northern seats, it says. Even without the millstone of Mr Corbyn, the party has ‘a mountain to climb’ to restore their faith.
But Labour’s garment-rending misery is the Tories’ opportunity. Having won a historic landslide, in which he captured seats which had been Labour for 100 years, Boris Johnson must press home his advantage. Those red-wall converts believed his pledge to ‘unite and level up’ the regions. Even in difficult times, he must deliver.
Provision of free school meals through the summer holidays and extra tuition to ensure the most disadvantaged children don’t fall even further behind are already proving hugely popular in poorer areas of the North and Midlands.
But he must also proceed with his promised infrastructure revolution and plans to ‘boosterise’ regional economies.
After years of reflexive support for Labour, millions put their trust in Mr Johnson to improve their lives. Betrayal of that trust is the one thing that could drag Labour’s moribund fortunes back from death’s door.