As the confirmed cases of Covid-19 have reached a global amount of 10 million, many people are evidently having a hard time realising that we aren’t out of the woods yet.
I’ve seen, either in person or through pictures like the one below, beaches in Italy and the UK filled with too many people, and too little space between them. Especially during the last couple of days, when the temperatures were so insanely elevated that many people felt entitled to pack their bags and visit the coastline en masse.
While lately coastal cities such as Bournemouth have been packed with thousands and thousands of visitors from all around England, other cities such as Leicester are risking a local lockdown due to a great part of their population (in Leicester’s case a quarter) having tested positive for the virus.
In the meantime, the Government has planned an easement of the lockdown starting from the 4th of July, starting with a difference in social distancing, which is now “1 metre plus” – with the “plus” meaning that the use of face masks, hand sanitiser and other disease preventions is still required.
Right now, there are only two types of gathering:
• support bubble, meaning that if you are an adult who lives on their own or who has a dependent child, there can be a synergy between your household and another one;
• outdoor gathering, meaning that you can meet up to 5 people from different households in any outdoor space.
From July 4th, these conditions will be modified, and you will be able to gather indoors with more than 6 people as long as you belong to two different households. Moreover, in case of events such as weddings, there can be a gathering of up to 30 people.
Although swimming pools, sport facilities and indoor gyms still remain closed, playing sports like tennis, which doesn’t require any physical contact, will be permitted, as well as taking part to services and group prayers in places of worship where there is enough space for you to socially distance yourself from others.
It’s still unknown when nightclubs will reopen, whereas they cannot guarantee the observance of the 2 metre/1 metre plus rule. However, following the rise of Covid-19 cases in South Korea that happened due to the reopening of bars and nightclubs and the fact that other Countries like Germany have banned the latter until August, it is highly possible that the UK will follow their lead and freeze the night life until further notice.
On the other hand, places such as libraries, cinemas, hair salons and restaurants will finally open again, and people will be free to visit such places with extreme caution.
Extreme caution must be used in the workplaces of the businesses that aren’t unaffected by the easement. After discussing the conditions with their employees, the workers should decide whether they can still work from home or return to the workplaces, and are advised to keep working from home in case they are able to do so. There are several ‘Covid19 Secure’ safety guidelines that must take place in the workplaces, and working arrangements that must be discussed before returning to work; in the event that a worker does not feel safe returning to their workplaces, they must contact the local authorities or the Health and Safety Executive.
Concerning public transport, people are still advised to move from one place to another either walking or cycling. If that is not possible, they can of course use public transport, but with the mandatory use of a face mask. Keep in mind that getting caught while you’re not wearing a face mask can get you a £100 fine – and it will also put your well-being in danger, whereas you never know what you’re exposing yourself to.
As we already know, schools will start in September as usual, with a £1 billion fund in order to provide English pupils the tutoring they need to catch up with the programme over the summer.
It is still unknown if the Government will follow the requests made by many teachers and headteachers, which is to provide more space to the schools since they are afraid that they won’t be able to provide the correct socially distance amongst the pupils, even with smaller/halved classes.
The aforementioned changes are most of the features of July 4th’s easement; in case you wanted to find out more about this matter or about topics that haven’t been discussed in this article, you can find all the information you need on the Government’s website.
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