England is now into its third national lockdown in the space of 10 months.
The Prime Minister has asked people to stay at home while non-essential businesses have been forced to close across the country.
People will only be allowed to leave their homes for limited reasons such as shopping for essentials and work that cannot be done from home.
When it comes to meeting others not in your household, there are also strict rules.
This has raised questions about seeing loved-ones, including whether or not you can visit your boyfriend or girlfriend.
The government guidance states that it's against the law to meet socially with family or friends, unless they are part of your household or support bubble.
A support bubble is where a household with one adult joins with another household to become one.
This means that if your boyfriend or girlfriend lives alone, then you could form a support bubble with them, if you haven't already done so.
There is one exception to meeting others not in your household, which is for exercise.
Under the national lockdown, people can leave the house to exercise outdoors once per day, and you should not travel outside your local area.
You can exercise alone or with your household, but you can also exercise outdoors with one other person from outside of your household.
The guidance reiterates that this must not be for the purpose of recreation or leisure, such as meeting for a picnic or a social meeting.
Public outdoor places include: parks, beaches, countryside accessible to the public, forests, public gardens (whether or not you pay to enter them), the grounds of a heritage site, and playgrounds.
Therefore you and your partner could take up walking or jogging once a day together if they're local.
While meeting with someone not in your household, the government says you should stay two metres apart so you're socially distanced.
However if your boyfriend or girlfriend lives far away from you, this could become a problem.
The guidance states that you shouldn't leave home unless you have a reasonable excuse, and if you do need to travel, you should stay local - meaning avoiding travelling outside of your village, town or the part of a city where you live – and look to reduce the number of journeys you make overall.
In the first lockdown in March last year, deputy chief medical officer, Dr Jenny Harries, said couples living in separate households could be spreading coronavirus if they continue to see each other.
She recommended non-cohabiting partners opt to move in with one another during the strict restrictions on movement.
“If you are two individuals, two halves of the couple, living in separate households then ideally they should stay in those households,” she said.
“The alternative might be that, for quite a significant period going forward, they should just test the strength of their relationship and decide whether they should permanently be resident in another household.”
Dr Harries added: “What we do not want is people switching in and out of households.
“It defeats the purpose of reductions in social interactions and will allow the transmission of disease.”
