PM Johnson announces next step to normality
PEOPLE in England will be able to hug loved ones, dine in restaurants and go on holiday abroad from next week in a ‘considerable step on the road back to normality’, Boris Johnson has confirmed.
The move to the next stage of the road map out of lockdown on May 17 came as the Covid-19 alert level in the UK was downgraded after a ‘consistent’ fall in cases, hospital admissions and deaths.
The PM set out a new approach to tackling the virus, giving people greater responsibility for their own choices on whether to observe social distancing measures with friends and family.
‘Today we are taking a step towards that moment when we learn to live responsibly with Covid, when we cease eventually to rely on detailed Government edicts and make our own decisions,’ he said.
Confirmation that England would move to step three on the road map came from Mr Johnson at a Downing Street press conference after a Cabinet meeting to sign off the change.
The Prime Minister said: ‘This unlocking amounts to a very considerable step on the road map to normality and I am confident that we will be able to go further.’
The road map remained on track for the next stage on June 21 and Mr Johnson promised that later this month the Government would set out ‘what role there could be – if any – for certification and social distancing’.
The Government has been reviewing whether Covid status certification, recording whether people have had a vaccine or negative test result, could be used to help open up businesses and Mr Johnson's comments could be a hint they are no longer a priority.
Mr Johnson said the current data indicated that it might be possible to scrap the ‘one-metre plus’ rule, something which would greatly increase flexibility for businesses to increase capacity.
The easing of restrictions came after the UK’s senior medics said the Covid-19 alert level should be lowered from ‘level 4’ to ‘level 3’, meaning that while the epidemic is in general circulation, transmission is no longer deemed to be high or rising exponentially. But England’s chief medical officer Professor Chris Whitty urged particular caution around the Indian variant which has been detected in increasing numbers in the UK.