The lockdown rules easing from May 17:

BORIS Johnson has confirmed a huge easing of Covid-19 restrictions will definitely take place next Monday

They include the opening of indoor hospitality and entertainment venues as well as the removal of attendance limits at funerals, the return of indoor meetings and hugging among friends and family who don’t live together.

The Prime Minister says England has met all four tests for proceeding with Step Three of the lockdown-easing roadmap due to the successful vaccine rollout and a massive reduction in the number of coronavirus infections, hospital admissions and deaths.

It means, from May 17, there will be a much wider opening of the economy as well as a significant easing of social contact restrictions. Guidance will also be changed for wearing masks in schools, with face coverings no longer recommended from May 17. Outdoor venues will be allowed to host up to 10,000 people with up to 1,000 permitted indoors too depending on the size and capacity of the venue in question.

The main changes from next Monday are ...

■ ■From May 17 in England, people can meet outdoors in groups of up to 30 people.

■ ■People can meet indoors in groups of up to six people or a maximum of two households or bubbles, whichever is larger.

■ ■That means pubs, bars and restaurants may reopen indoors for the first time since early November in northern Lincolnshire.

■ ■Also opening on May 17 are indoor entertainment such as cinemas, museums and children’s play areas.

■ ■Theatres, concert halls, conference halls and sports stadiums can also reopen to larger events, with capacity limits.

■ ■Organised adult sport and exercise classes will be allowed indoors, and saunas and steam rooms can reopen.

■ ■Domestic overnight stays with friends and family will be allowed, as will staying in a venue with people from a different household ■ ■Hotels, hostels and B&Bs will reopen - previously only selfcontained venues with your own household were allowed.

■ ■The 30-mourner limit at funerals will be axed. Instead, funerals can have any number of mourners as long as it is within the venue’s Covid-safe capacity with social distancing.

■ ■Babies and young children are included in the 30 and six-person

limits on gatherings - they are not exempt.

■ ■One exception to this is for support groups and parent and child groups. These can take place with up to 30 people, plus any number of children under five on top of that limit.

■ ■Care home visiting will be eased further, with residents able to have up to five named visitors and greater freedoms to make low risk visits out of the home.

Hugging

■ ■From May 17, the government will axe guidance in place since March 2020 that says people should socially distance - stay two metres apart - from anyone outside their household or bubble.

■ ■Instead, people will be told they can choose whether to socially distance from family and close friends.

■ ■This means people can choose to

hug, kiss or shake hands with friends or relatives in the park or in a home. ■ ■Importantly, this will be aimed at people meeting within legallyallowed group sizes - six indoors, 30 outdoors.

■ ■It does not apply to people from two different small gatherings hugging, or strangers hugging in the street or a pub.

■ ■People will be told to exercise their own personal judgement in line with the risks.

■ ■They will be urged to remain cautious, because some people are more vulnerable to severe illness than others and vaccines do not eliminate the risk from Covid.

■ ■People do not have to take a lateral flow test before hugging, but it’s one way of reducing the spread of the disease. Likewise people could meet indoors or with the windows open, or wear masks, if they choose to.

■ ■There is no limit to the amount of time you can spend with people in a day, or the time spent in a pub or restaurant.

■ ■Officials characterise the change as a move towards “living with” coronavirus into the future.

■ ■They add it is not in any sense the end of advice around social distancing - and legal restrictions remain.

■ ■They stress close contact with an infectious person is still the most likely cause of spread of coronavirus.

Social distancing elsewhere

(eg pubs)

■ ■Wider social distancing rules and regulations remain in place - e.g. in social care, shops and pubs and restaurants.

■ ■Customers must still scan in with the NHS app when arriving at a venue, and punters and staff must wear masks when moving between tables.

■ ■While cinemas will reopen, people will be expected to wear masks during the film, unless eating or drinking.

■ ■Pubs and restaurants will still be table service only, with no standing at the bar allowed.

■ ■They will still have to obey the one-metre-plus rule, where people stay two metres apart or one metre with mitigations like a perspex screen.

■ ■Laws ordering venue owners to ensure customers are following the rules remain the same, despite the relaxation on hugging within a group. ■ ■Government guidance will remain to work from home wherever possible until at least June 21.

■ ■A review of social distancing rules more widely is taking place no earlier than June 21.

■ ■Government officials are unable to reassure event organisers when the rules post-June 21 will be clear.

Masks in schools

■ ■Face coverings for pupils will no longer be recommended in secondary schools or colleges from May 17.

■ ■This means they will no longer be worn either in classrooms or communal areas, despite pleas by unions.

■ ■Face masks could return in some schools with local outbreaks, as officials admit some discretion will be needed.

■ ■Meanwhile university students return to in-person teaching and learning from May 17 - with twice-aweek testing - despite the fact students’ academic years will be over or nearly over by then.