Prime minister Boris Johnson is to tell the nation that the UK must “begin to learn to live with this virus” at a Downing Street press conference on coronavirus this evening.
Mr Johnson will also provide an update on rules in relation to mask-wearing, social distancing, care home visits, vaccine “passports” and working from home guidance.
He is expected to tell Brits to use their “judgement” to manage Covid-19 risks once the final stage of his roadmap out of lockdown is reached, expected to be on the 19 July.
No 10 has not yet announced whether the briefing will take place in the usual 5pm slot.
“Today we will set out how we can restore people’s freedoms when we reach Step 4,” Mr Johnson said.
“But I must stress that the pandemic is not over and that cases will continue to rise over the coming weeks.
“As we begin to learn to live with this virus, we must all continue to carefully manage the risks from Covid and exercise judgment when going about our lives.”
You can watch his full remarks live on Independent TV this evening.
Alongside the prime minister’s press conference, health secretary Sajid Javid will update MPs on Covid-19 rules in the House of Commons at around 3pm and the government will publish the results of its reviews of Covid-certification certificates and social distancing.
The prime minister is expected to announce that social distancing in pubs and bars will end on 19 July, allowing customers to order at the bar, while scanning QR codes to check in to such venues is also likely to be scrapped.
Mask-wearing is, meanwhile, set to become voluntary inside shops and hospitality venues and on public transport.
Housing secretary Robert Jenrick told Sky News that “the state won’t be telling you what to do” in future, but that people “will want to exercise a degree of personal responsibility and judgement”.
He added: “different people will come to different conclusions on things like masks, for example.”
Health secretary Sajid Javid has similarly said that the UK must “find ways to cope” with the virus, as it has with flu.
But this approach has drawn criticism from scientists including Sage’s professor Susan Michie, who likened allowing community transmission to surge to building “new ‘variant factories’ at a very fast rate”.
Labour have, meanwhile, urged the government to admit how many Covid-related deaths they’re willing to accept in order to drop all remaining guidance and restrictions.
