England’s pubs reopen on ‘Super Saturday’ after three-month coronavirus lockdown
- Pubs will reopen on July 4 for the first time since lockdown in March
- City of Leicester has reimposed lockdown restrictions after spike in cases
After three dry long months locked down, England’s pubs are reopening on Saturday, but, not everyone is raising their glass amid concern social distancing and alcohol won’t mix.
Pubs in Northern Ireland will open a day earlier on Friday, though health authorities in Wales and Scotland have judged it too soon to open drinking establishments. In England, some police, doctors and public health experts agree.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson is anxious to restart the economy, with millions of jobs expected to be lost once it ends its furlough scheme in the autumn. Hospitality is one of the sectors hardest hit by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Other English cities, mainly in the north, were also expected to soon go into local lockdown. The UK still has no nationwide test-and-trace system in place, and an estimated 3,000 people in the country are still catching the virus every day.
The US-based Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Centre claims the UK has the highest coronavirus death rate in the world. The UK has recorded almost 44,000 deaths compared to the more than 128,000 in the US, which has the highest global death toll, a country with a population five times the size.