UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson confirmed on Monday that the government's road map out of the COVID-19 lockdown in England will progress as planned with the implementation of Step 3 starting May 17
LONDON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 10th May, 2021) UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson confirmed on Monday that the government's road map out of the COVID-19 lockdown in England will progress as planned with the implementation of Step 3 starting May 17.
"Today we are announcing the single biggest step on our road map, it will allow us to do many things we have yearned to do for a long time," Johnson said during a televised press briefing, where he announced that beginning from next Monday, indoor hospitality and indoor entertainment, as well as non-essential foreign travel will resume.
Announcing the road map in late February, Johnson said there would be four prerequisites to lifting the restrictions as scheduled. These included the success of the vaccine program, reductions in deaths and hospital admissions, low infection rates and a low risk from variants of concern.
"This unlocking amounts to a very considerable step on the road back to normality and I am confident that we will be able to go further," the prime minister said, claiming that the "secret of the success" achieved so far lies in the government guiding itself by the data.
As part of the further easing of the lockdown, care home residents will be allowed five regular visitors and greater freedoms to make low-risk visits outside of their home and university students will be eligible to return to in-person teaching and learning.
In secondary schools and colleges, students will no longer be required to wear face coverings in classrooms and communal areas, but they should continue to undergo twice-weekly COVID-19 home testing.
People will also be able to meet outdoors in groups of up to 30 people, and indoors in groups of up to six or as two households, and organized adult sport and exercise classes can restart indoors, but a decision is yet to be made on saunas and steam rooms. Weddings, receptions and other life events can take place with up to 30 people.
Johnson warned, however, that people should be cautious about the risks that come with close personal contact such as hugging, as this is a way the virus spreads.
Asked whether all social distancing measures would be scrapped on June 21, when the roadmap's step four is due to be announced, the prime minister said that no decision has been made on the matter, but argued that he hoped the government plans out of the lockdown are irreversible.
