The prime minister says he will have a pint at a pub on April 12 as he confirmed the next stage of lockdown easing will go ahead.
Addressing a Downing Street press conference on Easter Monday, Boris Johnson said: “The net result of your efforts and of course the vaccine rollout is that I can today confirm that from Monday April 12, we will move to step two of our road map.
He said “shops, gyms, zoos, holiday campsites, personal care services like hairdressers and of course beer gardens and outdoor hospitality of all kinds” would reopen from next Monday.
“And on Monday 12, I will be going to the pub myself and cautiously but irreversibly raising a pint of beer to my lips,” Mr Johnson said.
He added: “We are also increasing the number of visitors of care homes from one to two - to allow residents to see more of their loved ones. We think these changes are fully justified by the data.
“But we can’t be complacent. We see the waves of sickness afflicting other countries, we’ve seen how this story goes. We still don’t know how strong the vaccine shield will be when the cases begin to rise as I’m afraid they will. Which is why we are saying please get your vaccine or your second dose when your turn comes.”
He added Brits should use free NHS coronavirus tests even if they don’t feel ill. The tests can be ordered directly to homes.
Asked by the BBC‘s Iain Watson whether he can rule out whether vaccine passports will be used at the pub, Boris Johnson said they wouldn’t be used next Monday when venues open outdoors.
He said: “I want to stress there are complicated ethical and practical issues raised by the idea of covid status certification because many people for many reasons may be unable to get a vaccine for medical reasons or perhaps they are pregnant or whatever. You have to be very careful in how you handle this and don’t start a system that is discriminatory.
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“But obviously we are looking at it and some test events, getting 20,000 people into Wembley on May 15 (for the FA Cup final).
“As for a vote on the issue... first of all we need to work out what the proposal will be but if there is something to be put into Parliament I will have no doubts we will be doing that. But I want to stress again that is not going to happen in Step 2 on April 12 and Step 3 on May 17.”
He also warned against people in England booking summer holidays abroad yet as the government today said international travel could be banned until June.
Number 10 released an update on its international travel taskforce today, with the government saying “the state of the pandemic abroad, and the progress of vaccination programmes in other countries” meant England may not allow international travel on May 17 as previously planned.
He added at a Downing Street briefing he was “hopeful” international travel could resume on May 17. “But we need more solid data”, he said.