In March, shortly before he announced the full lockdown, Boris Johnson said that he thought that within the next 12 weeks the UK could “turn the tide of this disease”. It sounded a bit rash, but three months later deaths and infection rates were falling sharply, and the prospect of the lockdown being eased lay ahead. But tides turn, and then turn again, and today it felt as if the clock was going backwards. Johnson, whose entire political persona seems at times to be founded on supercharged optimism, did not look happy. Here are the main points. Johnson said that from Monday a new “rule of six” was being enforced in England, tightening the rules on where people can meet up significantly. He explained: It is safer to meet outdoors and you should keep your distance from anyone you don’t live with, even if they are close friends or family. So in England, from Monday, we are introducing the rule of six. You must not meet socially in groups of more than six - and if you do, you will be breaking the law. This will apply in any setting, indoors or outdoors, at home or in the pub. The ban will be set out in law and it will be enforced by the police - anyone breaking the rules risks being dispersed, fined and possibly arrested. As PA Media reports, he also announced: - Venues where people meet socially, such as pubs and restaurants, will be legally required to request contact details of every member of a party and retain the information for 21 days. Fines of £1,000 could be levied against hospitality venues if they fail to comply. - Passengers travelling to the UK will need to fill out a simplified form with their contact details before they depart, while the Border Force will step up enforcement efforts to ensure compliance with quarantine rules. - Plans to pilot larger audiences in venues later this month will be revised, and the government is reviewing its intention to return audiences to stadiums and conference centres from 1 October. - Opening hours of some venues could be restricted in some local areas. It comes after hospitality venues in Bolton were required to close between 10pm and 5am. - “Covid-secure marshals” will be introduced to help ensure social distancing in town and city centres in a bid to improve the enforcement capacity of local authorities. Prof Chris Whitty, the UK government’s chief medical adviser, signalled that the new restrictions could be in force for months rather than weeks. He said: I think in terms of the existing restrictions, people should see this as the next block of time that may not last for many months, but it is very unlikely to be over in just two or three weeks. Johnson said that he was “hopeful” that by next spring it would be easy for people to use simple, quick tests to show that they were Covid-free, allowing them to attend theatres and sports venues etc. He described these at one point as “passports”, and said they could be the “moonshot” allowing life to return to normal. He said: Our plan – this moonshot that I am describing – will require a giant, collaborative effort from government, business, public health professionals, scientists, logistics experts and many, many more. Work is under way – and we will get on at pace until we get there, round the clock. We are hopeful this approach will be widespread by the spring and, if everything comes together, it may be possible even for challenging sectors like theatres to have life much closer to normal before Christmas. At a press conference in July, Johnson said he hoped Britons would be able to start abandoning social distancing from November. At the time that sounded optimistic, and today it looks fanciful and naive, but Johnson’s “moonshot” comment suggest he is unwilling to let go of the dream of a return to some sort of normality by Christmas. Whitty and Sir Patrick Vallance, the government’s chief scientific adviser, sounded much more cautious about the prospect of mass testing providing Covid-free passports for events. Whitty said you would need a “huge” increase in testing for this to happen. He said: My own view is that I think it is likely that we will have tests of this sort at some point in the not too distant future, but that not too distant future covers quite a wide time range. And Vallance said: There are prototypes which look as though they have some effect, but they’ve got to be tested properly and so there are, as always with technologies, unknowns and we would be completely wrong to assume this is a slam dunk that can definitely happen. I think this needs to be tested carefully. The government’s Scientific Advisory Committee for Emergencies has expressed some reservations about the plan too. (See 5.40pm.) Johnson said the government had to impose restrictions because people were not aware of the risk they posed to others. He said: The trouble is, people who think that they can take responsibility for their own health and their own risk are, I’m afraid, misunderstanding the situation. It’s not just the risk to yourself, alas, but at any age you can be a vehicle, a vector for the disease. So young people now are overwhelmingly getting it. But they are more than capable of transmitting it to the much more vulnerable older generation. This is a change of tone from Johnson, who used to stress how much he trusted people to use their common sense. “Our principle is to trust the British public to use their common sense in the full knowledge of the risks,” he told MPs in a statement on his coronavirus policy in June. That’s all from me for today. Our coverage continues on our global coronavirus live blog.