Pub gardens, hairdressers and non-essential shops will reopen from April 12, as Boris Johnson gave the green light to the next step of the roadmap out of lockdown for England.
Speaking from Downing Street’s press briefing room the Prime Minister told the country that the changes were fully supported by the data but we shouldn’t be complacent urging people to be vaccinated when called and to take advantage of free Covid testing
We see nothing in the data said the Prime Minister that will knock us off course in the easing of lockdown timetable adding that he will be going to the pub on the first day of reopening, and will be “irreversibly but cautiously lifting a pint to my lips.”
Pressed on the issue of vaccine passports Johnson said that they would not be used for the opening up of the country in step two being confirmed today, but envisages it being used for international travel and “mass events”.
He added: “There are complicated ethical and practical issues raised by the idea of vaccination status certification. Using vaccination alone, many people for one reason for another may be unable to get the vaccination for medical reasons, perhaps because they’re pregnant, so you’ve got to be very careful in how you handle this.”
On the subject of international travel there was little information on when the current restrictions could be lifted while Johnson said that more information would be released later in the week
