UK PM Boris Johnson plans to revise social distancing rules from July 19

United Kingdom Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Monday, July 5 revealed plans to lift most of England's legal COVID-19 restrictions from the step four of the roadmap. Boris Johnson said that his government plans to scrap laws requiring face masks and social distancing later this month. Johnson said that that the legal restrictions will be replaced by personal responsibility, according to AP. 

UK easing restrictions in the step four 

UK Prime Minister revealed that the legal restrictions will end from July 19. However, he insisted that there will be a final review of the data next week. The change in restrictions will allow people to throw away masks after months of law enforced face-covering. People will no longer have to wear face masks in shops, schools, hospitality, public transport. The people will still be recommended to wear masks in some enclosed spaces such as public transport.

As the limits on social distancing will end, there will be no restrictions on indoor or outdoor gatherings. Weddings, funerals and other events will be able to take place without limits or restrictions. All venues that currently closed due to the COVID-19 restrictions will be allowed to reopen, including nightclubs. There will be no legal requirement for table service in hospitality settings. The work from home will also end, where employers can start planning a safe return to workplaces. The Prime Minister made clear that people have to learn to live with the virus would mean that cases would continue to rise. He set out how cases could rise to 50,000 per day by July 19, with daily hospital admissions and deaths also rising although more slowly but he insisted on easing the restrictions. 

"If we can’t reopen our society in the next few weeks, when we will be helped by the arrival of summer and by the school holidays, then we must ask ourselves when will we be able to return to normal?", Johnson said in a news conference. 

The government postponed the deadline till July 19 due to an increase in COVID-19 cases, mostly due to the more transmissible Delta variant. On July 5, 27,334 new COVID-19 cases and 9 deaths were reported in the UK, according to Public Health England. According to the latest tally by worldometers, 4,930,534 people in the UK have contracted coronavirus, out of whom 128,231 have lost their lives while 4,337,821 have recovered. In United Kingdom, 45,351,719 people have now received the first dose of a vaccine. 33,726,362 people have received two doses of vaccine. 

IMAGE: AP/Unsplash

Inputs from AP