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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
National
Dave Burke

Curfew and substantial meal requirement 'will be scrapped' when pubs return

Controversial 10pm curfews and orders to only serve booze alongside 'substantial meals' will be scrapped when pubs reopen, it is claimed.

Boris Johnson is reportedly planning to allow pubs and restaurants to serve customers outside by Easter.

Yesterday the PM said he is "optimistic" about easing lockdown restrictions, with schools scheduled to reopen on March 8 if Covid cases continue to fall.

According to the Mail on Sunday, outdoor picnics within households will be allowed from the same day, and individuals will be permitted to meet up with one other person outside.

Tennis and golf - which are easier to play while social distancing - will be allowed from April, it is claimed.

Boris Johnson faces calls from lockdown-sceptic MPs to end all restrictions by April (Getty Images)

The PM is set to spell out his 'roadmap' for taking England out of lockdown on February 22.

In the last seven days, 97,272 people tested positive for coronavirus across the UK - a 27 per cent drop from the previous week.

Yesterday there were 13,308 confirmed cases, a huge fall from last month when more than 60,000 were testing positive each day.

But scientists have urged caution in not easing the lockdown too fast and risking another spike.

Dr Bharat Pankhania, senior clinical lecturer at the University of Exeter medical school, said : "What the executives of pubs etc etc need to know is that failure to get it right equals back to square one.

"And back to square one equals much more pain economically, much more hardship.

"It is better to get it right than to prematurely bow to pressure and open up when you're not ready to open up."

During a visit to a vaccine manufacturing plant in Teesside yesterday, Mr Johnson said: "I'm optimistic, I won't hide it from you. I'm optimistic, but we have to be cautious."

It is hoped that outdoor dining will be allowed by the end of March (SplashNews.com)

He continued: "Our children's education is our number one priority, but then working forward, getting non-essential retail open as well and then, in due course as and when we can prudently, cautiously, of course we want to be opening hospitality as well."

Lockdown-sceptic Tories have piled pressure on Mr Johnson, with a letter signed by 63 MPs calling on him to completely lift restrictions by the end of April.

In a letter to the Prime Minister, the leaders of the Covid Recovery Group (CRG) said the "tremendous pace" of the vaccination rollout meant restrictions should begin easing from early March.

The PM will spell out his 'roadmap' for ending lockdown on February 22 (REUTERS)

It said: "The vaccine gives us immunity from Covid but it must also give us permanent immunity from Covid-related lockdowns and restrictions."

It is expected that the number of people to have received a first jab will pass 15 million today, and the government says it is on course to have offered everyone in the four most vulnerable groups a dose by February 15.

Matt Hancock yesterday said he hopes Covid can be a "treatable disease" like flu by the end of the year.

The Health Secretary said he is optimistic that the virus, which has claimed 116,287 lives in the UK since the start of the pandemic, can be "another illness that we have to live with".

Mr Hancock said that effective treatments and vaccines can we can "get on with everything again".

New treatments will be crucial in "turning Covid from a pandemic that affects all of our lives into another illness that we have to live with, like we do flu".

He said: "That's where we need to get Covid to over the months to come."

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