Originally written by Anna Jordan on Small Business
The Prime Minister has announced that gyms, shops, hairdressers and outdoor hospitality in England could open from April 12 if strict conditions are met, as outlined in his Covid-19 roadmap.
In an announcement made to MPs earlier today (February 22), the PM details each part of the roadmap. He will be holding a televised press conference at 7pm.
The new four-step plan gives a guide to how we will come out of Covid-19 restrictions and Johnson has stressed that any lifting of restrictions will be based on data, not dates.
Conditions would need to be met at each stage of the plan to put the measures in place:
The coronavirus vaccine programme continues to go to plan
Evidence shows vaccines are sufficiently reducing the number of people dying with the virus or needing hospital treatment
Infection rates do not pose a risk of a surge in hospital admissions
New variants of the virus do not fundamentally change the risk of lifting restrictions
Let’s take a closer look at the plan.
Step two
The second step is where we would start to see changes for businesses.
From April 12, we could start to see the opening of certain types of businesses:
Non-essential retail, hairdressers and public