Summary

THE changes focus on outdoor activities, as the transmission risk for Covid is greater indoors.

From today, people are allowed outdoors for recreation, such as sitting in a park, as well as for essential purposes, such as food, medicine and exercise.

Non-contact sports such as golf, bowls, tennis, angling, archery, hiking, horse-riding, croquet, and outdoor swimming and water sports can resume, with people allowed to travel for their leisure, although preferably less than five miles from home.

Two households will be able to meet outdoors once a day with a limit of eight people.

However people must bring their own cutlery and crockery to picnics and garden barbecues and avoid using another household’s toilet, making such visits hard with children.

Re-uniting couples are urged to refrain from “intimate contact”.

Some outdoor workplaces will be able to reopen, such as garden centres and drive-throughs, with employers encouraged to stagger shifts to help keep staff safe.

However construction sites must delay reopening until Phase 2, pencilled in for late June.

People should wear face coverings on public transport and in enclosed public spaces.

Staff will return to schools on Monday to prepare for the return of pupils in August. More childcare starts on Wednesday for key workers. Recycling centres can open from Monday.

There will be a gradual return of public services such as social work and some NHS services.