The government has annouced further easing of the lockdown rules and a change to social distancing guidelines from 4th July.

From now up to 4th July the rules remain the same and you can read these here

From 4th July the social distancing rules change from 2 metres to what the government is calling ‘1 metre plus’.  This means where you can still stick to 2 metres it is advised that you do but where this is not possible keep a minimum of 1 metre while taking extra care to protect yourself and others – such as hand washing and face covering where appropriate.  The closer you are the greater the risk of infection – scientists believe the risk of infection roughly halves with each metre of distance so avoid close contact with people outside your household as much as possible.

On the same day more businesses will be allowed to open  including restaurants, pubs, cinemas, visitor attractions, hotels, and campsites as well as other public places, such as libraries, community centres, places of worship, outdoor playgrounds and outdoor gyms.

More detailed information is on gov.uk but a summary of the new rules is below:

As of 4 July, this will mean:

• you can meet in groups of up to two households (your support bubble counts as one household) in any location – public or private, indoors or outdoors. You do not always have to meet with the same household – you can meet with different households at different times. However, it remains the case – even inside someone’s home – that you should socially distance from anyone not in your household or bubble. This change also does not affect the support you receive from your carers
• when you are outside you can continue to meet in groups of up to six people from different households, following social distancing guidelines
• those who have been able to form a support bubble (i.e. those in single adult households) can continue to have close contact as if they live with the other people in the bubble, but you should not change who you have formed a support bubble with
• additional businesses and venues, including restaurants, pubs, cinemas, visitor attractions, hotels, and campsites will be able to open – but we will continue to keep closed certain premises where the risks of transmission may be higher
• other public places, such as libraries, community centres, places of worship, outdoor playgrounds and outdoor gyms will be able to open
• you can stay overnight away from your home with your own household or support bubble, or with members of one other household (where you need to keep social distancing)
• it will be against the law to gather in groups larger than 30 people, except for a limited set of circumstances to be set out in law and unless all members of the group are exclusively from two households. Police will have the power to break up groups larger than 30, apart from these exceptions

These rules may be changed at any time if the infection rate seems to be rising.