Pubs and restaurants will not reopen indoors until mid-May...

[dutchman]

Outdoor service to be allowed from April 12, but Boris Johnson resists calls to let hospitality venues fully reopen for Easter



Pubs and restaurants will not reopen indoors until the middle of May despite widespread calls from Tory MPs and hospitality bosses for restrictions to be lifted in time for Easter.

Setting out his four-step roadmap out of lockdown on Monday afternoon, Mr Johnson told MPs that the hospitality industry would reopen in two phases.

The first is intended to take place during step two, due to begin on April 12, with pubs and restaurants permitted to serve outdoors with tight restrictions and table service only.

People will be permitted to meet with one other household, or observe the rule of six, allowing half a dozen people from different households to meet.

However, the pub curfew previously in place, as well as the requirement to serve a "substantial" meal with alcohol, have been scrapped.

Downing Street has emphasised that the easing of outdoor restrictions will take priority, while Nadhim Zahawi, the vaccines minister, told LBC on Monday: "At the moment, it's outdoors versus indoors. Outdoors is the priority because it's where the transmission rates are much, much, much lower."

Venues will have to wait at least another five weeks, when the third step of easements begins on May 17, before they are allowed to open indoors.

By the final step, no earlier than June 21, the Government will review whether it can remove all legal limits on social contact, which could see hospitality venues return to normal service.

The dates in the roadmap are "not before dates", rather than concrete timelines for easements, and could change depending on how low coronavirus infections, hospital admissions and deaths have fallen.

[rebbonk]

April can be cold and wet. Might as well keep them closed until they can open properly.