The further easing of lockdown restrictions in England due on August 1, including allowing small wedding receptions and the reopening of bowling alleys and casinos, has been postponed for at least two weeks, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson and England's Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty addressed the UK in a briefing from Downing Street on Friday afternoon.
The unexpected briefing was announced on Friday morning, hours after new lockdown measures were introduced in the north of England.
People in Greater Manchester, parts of Lancashire and parts of Yorkshire are now no longer allowed to congregate in mixed households.
At the same time some local lockdown measures have been eased in Leicester.
England’s Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty warned that the UK has potentially reached a limit for how much of society can be opened up.
He said: “I think what we’re seeing from the data from ONS and other data is that we have probably reached near the limit or the limits of what we can do in terms of opening up society.
“So what that means potentially is that if we wish to do more things in the future, we may have to do less of some other things.
“And these will be difficult trade-offs, some of which will be decisions for government and some of which are for all of us as citizens to do.
“But we have to be realistic about this. The idea that we can open up everything and keep the virus under control is clearly wrong.”
Further pilot sport events with spectators in attendance will now not take place in the first two weeks of August, Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said.
For live coverage visit here
