Shops plan for re-opening on April 12
February 22, 2021
Non-essential retail in England hopes to re-open on April 12 as the second stage of a four-step plan to exit lockdown "irreversibly".
Boris Johnson announced that following the return of schools on March 8, the second step will be to re-open non-essential retail five weeks later with an announcement planned on April 5 to confirm the re-opening seven days later if the progress on vaccinations and infections continues.
Pubs and restaurants are due to re-open later in step three on May 17, though outdoor hospitality will be allowed from April 12.
The prime minister hopes that step four, from 21 June, would see the end of all legal limits on social contact.
"I know there will be many people who will be worried that we are being too ambitious and that it is arrogant to impose any kind of plan on a virus," the PM says. "I agree that we must always be humble in the face of nature." Others will "believe that we could go faster".
He says he sympathises with them, adding: "Today the end really is in sight. A wretched year will give way to a spring and a summer that will be very different and incomparably better than the picture we see around us today," he says.
He says he sympathises with them, adding: "Today the end really is in sight. A wretched year will give way to a spring and a summer that will be very different and incomparably better than the picture we see around us today," he says.
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