Politics
When will pubs and restaurants reopen?
PUBS could open as early as April for serving drinks outdoors with a full return in May ready for the summer.
Hospitality venues, including pubs, bars, restaurants and theatres remain shut to stop the spread of coronavirus – but plans for lifting lockdown restrictions are due to be announced today.
Brits could be “sipping pints in the spring sunshine sooner rather than later” according to a government source[/caption]
Prime Minister Boris Johnson will unveil plans for a staged return of everyday activities, starting with loved ones able to meet outdoors and kids back in classrooms from next month The Sun has been told.
The first part of the four-step plan will see see kids return to classrooms on March 8 and “ways for people to reunite with loved ones safely” prioritised.
Three weeks later, on March 29, the “Rule of Six” will return to parks and private gardens — allowing six people from up to six different households to mix outdoors.
It will be Mid-April before pubs and restaurants can reopen – and then it will only be outdoor service.
When will pubs reopen?
Outdoor drinking in pub beer gardens could be back on the cards as soon as April, if Covid cases continue to tumble.
The Government hasn’t officially confirmed when pubs will reopen – but the PM will make a landmark speech today, in which he will spell out his “roadmap” for easing the lockdown.
It is thought that eating and drinking inside at pubs and restaurants will be off the menu until May at the latest.
Specific details on how the hospitality industry will fully reopen are yet to be decided, with ministers still set to thrash those details out.
But Prime Minister Boris Johnson has confirmed that hospitality venues will be among the last to open.
He said: “You have to remember from last year that we opened up hospitality fully – that was one of the last things that that we did because there is obviously an extra risk of transmission from hospitality.”
Major venues like nightclubs, theatres, and cinemas aren’t likely to open until later in the summer at the earliest.
There will be plenty to cheer about when the third lockdown ends[/caption]
What will the rules be when pubs reopen?
Details about what rules Brits need to stick to while taking a trip down to their local are still to be revealed.
However social distancing will remain in place for now, with measures set to be reconsidered in the summer when more people are vaccinated.
Once drinking outside in a beer garden is given the green light, it is possible that boozers will have to stick to the “rule of six” limits and two-metre distancing.
This is expected to stay all summer as a compromise for the early reopening, The Sun understands.
However, pub bosses have blasted an outdoor-only drinking plan from early April and have demanded the return of inside drinking.
Industry leaders have backed demands for lockdown restrictions to be fully lifted by the end of April, when most over-50s are expected to have been vaccinated.
Patrick Dardis, chief executive of the Young’s pubs chain, said that Spring rain would make the outdoors-only idea unworkable and slammed it as “nonsense”.
Meanwhile, Tim Martin, chairman of pubs giant JD Wetherspoon, said the decision had been made by “ministers with no experience of business, or empathy for business”.
Patrick Mahoney, landlord of The Winchester Arms, pours out-of-date beer down the drain in Taunton, February 18 2021[/caption]
What else could open soon?
People may soon be allowed to meet and sit outside with one other person from another household for a coffee.
High street shops could also reopen within weeks if Covid rates keep tumbling.
Under the PM’s roadmap to take Britain out of lockdown, which is to be revealed today, non-essential businesses are expected to reopen after schools do.
Schools are earmarked to reopen on March 8, and on this same day, care home residents will finally be allowed to have indoor visitors for the first time in months.
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