Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Monday (23 November) non-essential retail, gyms, and personal care businesses could reopen when a national lockdown in England ends on 2 December.
Johnson added that the curfew on bars and restaurants would be extended by one hour to 11 p.m.
“Shops, personal care, gyms and the wider leisure sector can reopen,” he told parliament. “With the 10 p.m. closing time … we’re going to change that so that it is last orders at 10 with closing at 11 (p.m.).”
The new measures will see England returning to a tiered regional approach to reflect differences in infection rates. The regions will be allocated to their tiers on Thursday.
“We will continue to bear down hard on this virus. We will use tough tiering, in some ways tougher than the pre-lockdown measures,” Johnson said during a news conference he addressed by video link from Downing Street.
Johnson said the measures would run until the end of March as vaccines and wider testing is expected to help control the spread of the pandemic by then.
“This will be still a hard winter, Christmas cannot be normal and there is a long road to spring. But we have turned a corner and the escape route is in sight,” he told parliament.
Johnson said he was working with the Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish executives on nationwide plans to briefly relax the rules at Christmas to allow families to get together, and details would be announced shortly.
He urged the public to keep following the rules in the run-up to the festive season to make such a short respite possible. “This is not the moment to let the virus rip for the sake of Christmas parties,” he said during his news conference.
“‘Tis the season to be jolly, but ’tis also the season to be jolly careful, especially with elderly relatives,” he added, playing on the words of a traditional Christmas carol.