Revealed: Government’s 50-page plan to end coronavirus lockdown
The government has published a 50-page coronavirus recovery strategy that outlines key dates to restart the UK economy after lockdown.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson today advised that “non-essential” English retailers could be allowed to open as soon as 1 June. Some pubs, restaurants and cinemas could open as early as 4 July as a part of a “coronavirus recovery strategy”.
The government’s document details plans to ease the coronavirus lockdown and restart the UK economy.
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It comes after Johnson told millions of construction and manufacturing workers to go back to work last night as a part of the first stage of the strategy.
Other sectors told to return to work this week include food production, logistics, distribution and scientific research.
The so-called coronavirus roadmap said English retail stores could potentially open next month, as a part of the second stage of the lockdown exit strategy. But they will have to follow strict sector-by-sector social distancing guidelines, which will be released this week.
This second stage would also allow cultural and sporting events to take place behind closed doors for broadcast.
The third stage could be as early as 4 July and would seek to further open up the economy.
Pubs, cinemas and religious venues face longer wait
The document said: “The ambition at this step is to open at least some of the remaining businesses and premises that have been required to close, including personal care (such as hairdressers and beauty salons) hospitality (such as food service providers, pubs and accommodation), public places (such as places of worship) and leisure facilities (like cinemas).
“Some venues which are, by design, crowded and where it may prove difficult to enact distancing may still not be able to re-open safely at this point, or may be able to open safely only in part. Nevertheless the government will wish to open as many businesses and public places as the data and information at the time allows.”
The dates given in the guidance are only a first draft and may change depending on the trajectory of England’s coronavirus infection rate.
If the coronavirus rate of infection, known as R, continues to reduce then the next stages of the plan can be implemented.
However, the government has warned it would not hesitate to reimplement tougher restrictions if the rate of infection begins to increase.
This could be on a regional basis.
On a call to journalists, scientific advisor Sir Patrick Vallance said: “We have inputted scientific advice and are strongly supportive of the conditional element of this to make sure the pace at what new introductions occur are consistent with what we know about the epidemic at any one time.
“They need to be data based. We need to monitor – measure and monitor.”