LONDON – The UK has reduced its blockade with the reopening of non-essential shops and perhaps the most wasted social space – pubs, able to welcome customers to their gardens on Monday.
Hairdressers, beauty and nail salons and indoor leisure facilities such as gyms and spas can be reopened and overnight stays in England are allowed. However, international travel remains illegal, except for essential reasons.
Public buildings, such as libraries and community centers, will also be reopened, as well as outdoor attractions such as zoos and theme parks.
Open at midnight
However, the reopening of the pub gardens as the weather improves is expected to give a much-needed moral boost to the British public and the hospitality industry. It comes after a tumultuous year that has seen pubs, bars and restaurants close for much of the last twelve months.
Several pubs with 24-hour licenses opened as soon as they were allowed to. Kentish Belle, a London micro-pub, for example, opened Monday at 1 minute past midnight. Meanwhile, Newcastle’s Switch bar was doing the same and was fully booked, despite lower temperatures below freezing.
Regular pubs across the country have been fully booked for weeks, as drinkers were counted until April 12th. Evaluators will need to sit outside until the following measures are facilitated in the coming months.
Friends make a toast while enjoying a drink at Newcastle’s Switch bar shortly after midnight following the relaxation of the blockade measures on 12 April 2021 in Newcastle Upon Tyne, England.
Ian Forsyth | Getty Images News | Getty Images
It comes after Prime Minister Boris Johnson confirmed last week that analysis of Covid infection data after schools reopened meant the country’s reopening plan, or “roadmap,” could continue.
The government has based its decisions on lifting the blockade on four factors: that the vaccine deployment program continues successfully, that tests show that vaccines reduce hospitalizations and deaths, and that there is no increase in hospitalizations. In addition, he said his assessment would analyze the risks posed by new variants of the virus.
Buyers line up outside a Nike store in central London as coronavirus restrictions eased across the country on April 12, 2021.
GLYN KIRK | AFP | Getty Images
Johnson said last week that there was currently “nothing in the current data” to deviate from the roadmap, allowing the “step 2” of relaxation to take place on April 12th.
Johnson urged caution, however, saying many restrictions were maintained; outdoor meetings should still be limited to 6 people or 2 households, for example, and people cannot socialize indoors with anyone they do not live with or have formed a support bubble for.
The United Kingdom was especially affected by the coronavirus. To date, more than 4.3 million infections have been reported in the UK and more than 127,000 people have died.
One of the silver lines has been the country’s vaccination program, which has been one of the fastest and most successful in the world to date.
So far, done 32 million people have been vaccinated with a first dose of coronavirus vaccine and more than 7.4 million have received a second dose. The speed of the launch, which began in December before the United States and the EU, largely allowed the country to overcome a third wave of cases in late 2020 attributed to the spread of a more infectious variant of the virus.
The next block reduction will have to be done on May 17, when most mixing rules will be lifted outdoors, with a limit of 30 people. Indoor mixing will also be allowed for up to six people and interior parts of pubs and restaurants, cinemas, museums and group exercise classes will be reopened. The government wants to completely lift all restrictions on social contact by June 21st.