Prime Minister Boris Johnson has told MPs in the House of Commons on Tuesday that pubs, restaurants, hotels and hairdressers can now reopen from 4 July.
“All hospitality indoors will be limited to table service and our guidance will encourage minimal staff and customer contact,” Johnson told MPs.
He added, “We will ask businesses to help NHS Test and Trace respond to any local outbreaks by collecting contact details from customers as happens in other countries and we will work with the sector to make this manageable.”
He said that places of worship can now reopen for services and weddings are also allowed to resume with a maximum of 30 guests.
Outdoor gyms and playgrounds will be allowed to reopen, but indoor gyms, spas, bowling alleys will have to remain closed.
Johnson said that households can mix with one other household indoors at any one time, and said that social distancing should be applied when indoors.
When outside groups or no more than six people can meet from several households, and stressed he is not recommending people from multiple households to meet indoors.
Johnson said the two-metre social distancing rules will be reduced, and there will be a “one metre plus” rule where people will be urged to keep two-metre’s apart where possible.
Where it is impossible to keep to the two-metre rule then people are advised to keep to the “one metre plus” rule.
The Prime Minister told MPs that the government does not believe there is “currently a risk of a second peak of infections that might overwhelm the NHS.”
He said the infection rate of coronavirus dropped in June which has been falling by 2% and 4% every day.
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer welcomed Johnson’s statement and told MPs, “We will study the guidance, and there are obviously a number of questions that need to be answered, but overall I welcome this statement.
“I believe the government is trying to do the right thing and in that, we will support them.”
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