Johnson tells public 'to behave responsibly' as England reopens

IN a "major step" towards freedom from the restrictions of the coronavirus pandemic, Britain has allowed its shops including hairdressers, gyms and pub gardens to reopen on Monday (12).

Pubs and restaurants will only be able to serve outdoors, although early rules requiring meals to be served with drinks and curfews have been scrapped. Indoor service will not be allowed until May 17 at the earliest.

Since January, hundreds and thousands businesses were closed when England entered the third lockdown to curb surging infections triggered by mutant variants.

A vaccination campaign that has delivered a first shot to well over half of adults and lockdown measures have cut deaths by more than 95 per cent and cases by over 90 per cent from the January peak.

Sunday's seven deaths within 28 days of a positive Covid test is the lowest daily death toll by this measure since Sept 14.

Prime minister Boris Johnson said this would encourage a staged easing of lockdown to proceed according to the plan.

"I'm sure it will be a huge relief for those business owners who have been closed for so long, and for everyone else it's a chance to get back to doing some of the things we love and have missed," he said in a statement on Sunday (11).

"I urge everyone to continue to behave responsibly and remember 'hands, face, space and fresh air' to suppress COVID as we push on with our vaccination programme."

With more than 127,000 fatalities, the United Kingdom has the fifth highest death toll in the world from Covid-19.

Persuading people to return to some kind of normality and start spending again is key to Britain's recovery after official data last month showed that 2020 was the worst year for its economy in more than three centuries.

UK retailers, which have lost an estimated 27 billion pounds in sales during lockdowns, are hoping pent-up demand will fuel a trading boom.

Non-essential stores, such as home and fashion chains, will reopen in Wales as well as England today (12), although those in Scotland need to wait until April 26.