Pubs need to take register of customers
With plans to reopen on July 4, venues and restaurants will have to store a list of names to help NHS contact tracers in the case of an outbreak
PUBS and restaurants might have to take a register of customers as one of the conditions for allowing them to open on July 4, Matt Hancock, the Health Secretary, has said.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson will announce plans tomorrow for getting the hospitality industry back up and running as part of a widespread easing of the lockdown measures that will also include changes to the two-metre rule.
Mr Johnson has been studying a system used in New Zealand, which has had one of the world’s lowest rates of coronavirus infection, for allowing pubs and eateries to keep track of their customers, so they can be contacted quickly if they come into contact with someone who has the virus.
Customers would need to provide their name and contact details either when booking a table, or on arrival in the case of pubs, enabling NHS contact tracers to stop any outbreaks at source if a customer later tests positive for coronavirus.
Mr Hancock said: “That is the sort of thing that we are looking at for how you make it safe to open things.
“There are all sorts of mitigations you can put in place to be physically closer than two metres but not have the transmission of the virus, or the risk of the transmission, that you would otherwise have.”
He suggested they could include Perspex screens between tables, while leaked government documents have also specified disposable menus should be used, outdoor areas patrolled to ensure people are sticking to social distancing rules and the use of apps to order food and drinks, so that customers do not have to go to the bar.
Mr Johnson is poised to announce the scrapping of the two-metre rule in favour of a “one metre plus” rule, meaning people will be able to stay just one metre apart as long as other precautions are taken, such as face coverings, sitting side by side or the use of screens.
It will enable pubs and restaurants to operate at around 70 per cent of normal capacity, meaning they can break even, which the two-metre rule was preventing.
The owners of more than 400 pubs and bars have told customers they will open on July 4, regardless of what Mr Johnson announces.
They include Urban Village pubs, Albion & East, Oakman Inns and Peach Pubs.
Whitehall sources also confirmed yesterday that hairdressers and barbers will be able to reopen their doors from July 4 as long as they wear the correct personal protective equipment, which will include masks and full-face visors. Mr Hancock said: “A lot of the country needs a haircut.”
Reducing the two-metre rule to “one metre plus” could also enable cinemas to reopen, though Government sources said no final decision on cinemas had yet been taken.
Families will be allowed to go on “staycations” in England, Mr Johnson will confirm, though only in hotels or guesthouses that have en-suite facilities. Campsites and other places with shared washing facilities will not yet be allowed to open.
An announcement on foreign holidays will be made next week when a small number of “air bridges” with countries on short-haul routes, including France and Spain, will be exempted from the current quarantine rules for passengers arriving in the UK.
Air bridges are expected to come into force from July 4, although Ryanair has already started flying holidaymakers to Spain after the country reopened its borders to tourists.
A senior government source said: “The Prime Minister will make it clear that we are trying to get back to as normal as possible – being able to do all the things you could do before – but in a Covid-secure way, so it will be a new normal.
“Changing the two-metre rule to one metre plus will be the key to opening up lots of things that have been in lockdown until now.
“It will mean you can go for a meal with someone from outside your own household, for example.
“The hope is that with test and trace now in place, we will be able to open up the economy and any reintroduction of the lockdown measures will be much more targeted, so that we avoid the need for another national lockdown.
“People are already very used to a lot of these rules and a lot of this stuff is becoming second nature, like keeping your distance, wearing face coverings and using hand sanitiser when you go into a shop.”
Mr Johnson is also expected to announce an expansion of “support bubbles”, so that households can mix freely with a larger number of relations or friends.
The current rule allows for people living alone to join with one other household, meaning a single grandparent can visit their children and grandchildren, hug them, and even stay overnight, as if they lived in the same house. Couples can also spend the night together if at least one of them lives on their own.
Mr Johnson has not yet decided how to expand the bubbles scheme, but one possibility that has been considered is allowing two full households to join together.
‘There are mitigations you can put in place to be closer than two metres but not have the virus transmission’
‘Changing the two-metre rule to one metre plus will be the key to opening up things that have been in lockdown’