The country will reopen in “stages”, with hospitality likely to be one of the last sectors to reopen fully, Boris Johnson has said.
Speaking during a visit to Wales, the Prime Minister said the country would leave lockdown “in stages, cautiously”, as he stressed the need for progress to be “one way”.
Asked about the prospects for bars and restaurants, said: “You have to remember from last year that we opened up hospitality fully as one of the last things that we did because there is obviously an extra risk of transmission from hospitality.”
Johnson, who will set the path out of lockdown on Feb. 22, said the staged exit plan would be cautious but irreversible, although schools are likely to return on March 8, along with a mass testing programme to monitor the outbreak.
The Daily Mail newspaper reported that while office workers will be told to continue working from home for some time, parts of the economy such as holiday lets and larger hotels will reopen in April.
Outdoor leisure such as theme parks and zoos as well as golf, open-air gyms and tennis could also resume in April, though pubs, bars and restaurants would have to wait until May and a full pub reopening in early June.
“It’ll be based firmly on a cautious and prudent approach to coming out of lockdown in such a way as to be irreversible,” Johnson told reporters.
The UK has reported another 12,718 coronavirus cases and 738 further deaths in the last twenty four hours
Meanwhile a further 315,797 vaccines were given in England yesterday, including more than 312,000 first doses.
13,891,042 Covid-19 vaccinations have now been given in England since the programme launched on December 8
Of this number, 13,395,338 were the first dose of a vaccine, a rise of 312,669 on the previous day, while 495,704 were a second dose, an increase of 3,128.
