The government looks set to relax the 2-metre rule for some firms - to get the economy moving again.
Draft guidance says staff could take extra measures, such as physical screens and personal protective equipment (PPE), if keeping a 2-metre gap between workers is impossible.
The guidance to firms, seen by the FT and BBC, also suggests staggered shift times to ease the rush hour, avoiding hot-desking or sharing pens, and keeping as many people as possible working from home.
Current guidance says people should keep two metres apart wherever possible to slow the spread of Covid-19. And many firms would have 2-metre gaps marked out on the floor.
But Defence Secretary Ben Wallace appeared to confirm some firms will be allowed not to follow the 2-metre rule, as long as they have other measures, when lockdown starts to ease.
He even suggested the 2 metres could be halved to one metre in some cases, even though that raises the risk of infection.
Mr Wallace said there were already cases, like some shops, where people are less than two metres apart.
Asked if the 2-metre rule would be enforced, he told Sky News: "I think what should be enforced are the measures we choose this week."
He added: "You could look at shielding, you can look at how long you stay near people. There’s a whole range of things.
"The 2-metre rule reduces the possibility of infection by a certain amount of time, I think it’s a number of minutes. If you halve that it still keeps people away from being infected but for much less time.
"There are options about how we could do it. You could wear PPE, that could be a possibility if you have to be in close proximity, or indeed you could find other ways of doing it, shielding for example.
"When you go to the supermarket many of us have seen shields where the people working on the tills are behind a shield."
Questioned again on BBC Breakfast he added: "Time is another method. You could be closer than two metres, but not for long at all or indeed. There are a range of ways to do this."
It comes days after a call centre firm was suspended from running the government's coronavirus helpline when the Mirror discovered its staff were sitting less than two metres apart.
An urgent investigation was launched on Friday into AGO Outsourcing, which had around 200 staff working on the National Shielding Helpline as a subcontractor of Serco.
Workers at the firm's call centre in East Kilbride were told “there may be occasions” where bosses cannot keep two metres between them.
Yet those taking a £9-an-hour job on the helpline - which helps 1.5million vulnerable people in England staying at home - were asked to sign a waiver, absolving the firm of any blame if they get sick.
Boris Johnson will lay out a 'roadmap' for easing the lockdown in an address to the nation on Sunday.
It is expected to lay out how primary schools could open for some pupils - most likely Year 6 - as early as June 1.
But some measures will remain in place until there is a vaccine, Cabinet minister Michael Gove said last night.
Mr Wallace admitted fewer people would have died if the government had been better prepared with testing.
He told LBC: "I think if we’d known from the outset more about the virus, of course more lives could have been saved.
"But I don’t think it’s a country by country problem, I think it is a massive problem around how we share intelligence on viruses and learning at pace."
