These are:
- Reinforce the country’s vaccine wall of defence through booster jabs and driving take up
- Enable the public to make informed decisions through guidance, rather than laws.
- Retain proportionate test, trace and isolate plans in line with international comparators.
- Manage risks at the border and support a global response to reduce the risk of variants emerging globally and entering the UK.
- Retain contingency measures to respond to unexpected events, while accepting that further cases, hospitalisations and deaths will occur as the country learns to live with COVID-19.
On Monday, the Government is expected to confirm that England will move into Step 4 of the Roadmap. This would mean that from 19 July 2021 changes to the guidance will include:
- All remaining limits on social contact (currently 6 people or 2 households indoors, or 30 people outdoors) will be removed and there will be no more restrictions on how many people can meet in any setting, indoors or outdoors.
- All settings will be able to open, including nightclubs.
- Large events, such as music concerts and sporting events can resume without any limits on attendance or social distancing requirements.
- All restrictions on life events such as weddings, funerals, bar/bat mitzvahs and baptisms will be removed, including the remaining restrictions on the number of attendees.
- The legal requirements to wear a face covering will be lifted in all settings.
- To help reduce the spread of COVID-19, published guidance will advise that wearing a face covering will reduce your risk and the risk to others, where you come into contact with people you don’t normally meet in enclosed and crowded spaces.
- Social distancing rules will be lifted but you should continue to consider the risks of close contact with others, particularly if you are clinically extremely vulnerable or not yet fully vaccinated.
- It is no longer necessary for Government to instruct people to work from home. Employers can start to plan a return to workplaces.
- Businesses must not require a self-isolating worker to come to work and should make sure that workers and customers who feel unwell do not attend the setting.
- In care homes, the Government will lift restrictions that limit each resident to five named visitors. Care homes will need to retain infection prevention and control measures essential to protecting residents from the risk of infection.
Keep up to date with the latest updates at www.GOV.UK/coronavirus
