Boris Johnson has sought to jolt England out of lockdown with an announcement about restrictions being lifted from 4 July that goes beyond expectations and that will allow pubs and restaurants to reopen. He has also said that the 2-metre social distancing rule will be replaced with a 1-metre-plus rule that will allow people to stay just 1 metre apart, provided other mitigating measures are in place. Announcing the rules in parliament, he also said that the new rules would mostly be advisory, rather than having the full force of law as the original lockdown did, and that he would be relying on the common sense of the public to make them work. At his evening press conference – which, in a sign that No 10 is keen to move on from all-encompassing coronavirus crisis management, will be the last of the daily press conferences from No 10 – Johnson was joined by Prof Chris Whitty, the government’s chief medical adviser, and Sir Patrick Vallance, who both struck a distinctly more cautious note. Nicola Sturgeon, the Scottish first minister, and Mark Drakeford, the Welsh first minister, have both stressed that they are not following Johnson’s lead and that they are retaining the 2-metre rule (see 1.03pm and 2.10pm respectively). My colleague Kate Proctor has a summary of what the new rules mean here.
Whitty has said that a second spike is inevitable if people ignore the conditions that are supposed to apply to the lockdown being relaxed. Speaking at the No 10 press conference, he said: If people hear a distorted version of what’s being said, that says ‘this is all fine now, it’s gone away’ and start behaving in ways that they normally would have before this virus happened, yes, we will get an uptick for sure. It is absolutely critical people stick to the guidance that has been given, it’s a changed guidance for there are still very significant restrictions socially and there are very significant restrictions on business of different sorts. Whitty also said people should continue to stay two metres away from others where possible and that the new “1-metre plus” rule did not invalidate this original advice. (See 5.35pm.) And he said that he expected coronavirus to continue to pose a significant risk for another year. Asked when life might return to normal, he said: I would be surprised and delighted if we weren’t in this current situation through the winter and into next spring. I think then let’s regroup and work out where we are. I expect there to be a significant amount of coronavirus circulating at least into that time and I think it is going to be quite optimistic that for science to come fully to the rescue over that kind of timeframe. But I have an absolute confidence in the capacity of science to overcome infectious diseases - it has done that repeatedly and it will do that for this virus, whether that is by drugs, vaccines or indeed other things that may come into play. For medium to long term, I’m optimistic. But for the short to medium term, until this time next year, certainly I think we should be planning for this for what I consider to be the long haul into 2021. Whitty said that, although the government’s test and trace scheme could make an important contribution, he was worried about people not complying with it. He said: The biggest thing I worry about, if I’m honest, is that people don’t report that they have got symptoms - so get a test - and then, if someone is contacted by NHS Test and Trace, that they don’t engage properly with that process. By reporting when people have got symptoms, getting a test and - if it’s positive - isolating, that is a huge service to the rest of society because that is the way that we ensure people who have got the virus or might have the virus get out of circulation temporarily and that reduces the risk to absolutely everybody. The Scottish government has announced that it wants all pupils to return to school in August, abandoning plans for them to return only part time in a “blended learning” model that was unpopular with parents. (See 3.50pm.) The easing of multiple lockdown measures in England at once risks Covid-19 gaining a fresh foothold, scientists advising the government have warned. Priti Patel has promised major cultural and systemic reform of the Home Office, as she accepted all 30 recommendations of the independent review into the Windrush scandal. That’s all from us for tonight. But the coverage continues here, on our global coronavirus live blog.