Prime Minister Boris Johnson has slashed the social distancing requirement from 2 metres to just 1 metre to help the country bounce back from the coronavirus pandemic.
It has been announced this afternoon (Tuesday) that pubs, restaurants and hairdressers across the Isle of Wight will all be permitted to re-open from 4th July as the 2m social distancing rule is relaxed from that date.
In addition, overnight stays will be permitted from 4th July meaning hotels and B&Bs can start to re-open and tourists can be welcomed on the Isle of Wight once again. Camp sites will also be allowed to re-open as long as shared facilities are kept clean.
Family and friends from 2 households at a time will also be allowed to meet indoors and stay overnight from the start of July too. Outside, the guidance remains that 6 people from several households can meet but 2 households (at a time) of any size will be able to meet outside.
For restaurants, the good news is that the green light has been given for a 4th July re-opening. Table service will be expected with minimal staff and customer contact. Collecting contact details from customers will also have to take place. Licensing laws are expected to be relaxed to allow alcohol to be served outside.
Outdoor playgrounds, theme parks, cinemas and other tourist attractions will be allowed to re-open in July too. However, water parks, bowling alleys, soft play, nightclubs, indoor gyms, swimming pools and spas will need to remain closed, as will nail bars.
There is some good news for those planning to wed with weddings for up to 30 people also set to be permitted in July, subject to social distancing.
Schools will resume as normal in September with ‘full attendance’, the Prime Minister has reiterated.
Where it is possible to keep 2m, people should. However, where it is not possible, people should keep 1m apart.
So well done IWC for wasting our money on graffitiing pavements all over the island with their virtue distancing rubbish. Will that nonsense be removed now??
Meanwhile footpaths are left to go wildly overgrown, thus forcing people out for a walk to huddle next to strangers!!!
Just beggars belief. Useless and totally out of touch IWC.
No one takes much notice anyway. Let’s hope they don’t continue with the plan to put it on ventnors pavements and remove the on street parking! What a quick way to kill a town. As for footpaths and hedgerows they can’t do them because of nesting birds at the moment and it’s nice to let things help out nature a bit which is what this lockdown has done.
I believe that the IWCC determined that Ventnor should not have the visual indications of a dystopian near future, in the form of ‘The Prisoner’ bubbles all over the place. At a meeting of the great and the good the implausibly sensible decision was taken that smaller towns like Ventnor and Shanklin had suffered enough economically and, due to lack of already insufficient parking, ought not be punished further. Fair enough. I am informed that consultation was made with legal and public health bodies, and the decision was deemed acceptable. Then a certain town council from the Ventnor area, which shall remain nameless, requests, nay, begs for dots on the pavement and barriers in the street! All in the name of public health, to promote said unnamed Ventnor area town council’s gentrification plan for its High Street.
Surely the headline should be “BORIS SLASHES SOCIAL DISTANCING TO 1M PAVING THE WAY FOR BRITAIN’S CORONOVIRUS DEATHS TO BOUNCE BACK”….
If you listen to what Boris says, you should keep to 2 metres if possible…. so where I am working I will be sticking to that 2 metre rule.
This is very irresponsible reporting because in fact we are being advised to still keep 2 metres apart wherever possible and only if we are wearing a mask and taking care not to spend any longer than necessary in close contact, can we be 1 metre apart. Come on Island echo, you must be careful of how you headline your reports or you can become a joke and a sick joke at that – pun intended.
Once again echo you censor me, probably for telling the truth. Well let’s try this then. 1m, 1cm, it makes no difference,unless they drop the social distancing period, then business will not resume. There you echo painless eh?
you’re censored for being a poisonous idiot
Come on echo, mark calls me an idiot, and you block my reply? Well, let me just say, I have researched all my facts, and don’t tell lies about what is happening to our world and the future of our lives. Yes I have an opinion, but that is only my opinion and I don’t mix facts with opinions, unlike some people on here. Surely that’s not abusive is it?
“unless they drop the social distancing period, then business will not resume”
” I don’t mix facts with opinions, unlike some people on here.”
Erm.. you just did! … The former was your opinion,.. not a fact!
That is my opinion, it may well turnout to be a fact,it hasn’t happened yet,so it cant be fact. Please understand what fact and opinion are.
Good for island businesses. Let’s hope everyone is responsible and behaves themselves, especially where pubs are concerned, though I fear any sort of social distancing once the pubs reopen will be nonexistent! Reduced from 2 metres to 1 metre will get things going but people need to remember, this virus is still out there and could reappear
Let’s hope mainland visitors to the island respect the rules!?!?
Lol ,you still believe ha ha. Well, you will soon be the minority. Especially when the next round of bs lies and laws kick in.
dick
Shows lack of intelligence and content in your pathetic argument.
I work n a supermarket and if you think people will respect the social distancing you a sadly mistaken
Let’s hope that somebody remembers to let the virus know about the new rules!
What happened to the two comments on here earlier? Why do you feel the need to remove them when people are allowed opinions and there was nothing bad in them other than anti council comments! Wonder why ?
iv given up with comments on here. its a waste of time typing to get it removed
Lol, get use to it folks! I said ,you reap what you sow! What you say ,think ,and do, controlled .
So glad the germ is weakened and now can’t fly or travel 2m if someone coughs or sneezes.
Im is much easier to live with in the tiny shops, pavements, foothpaths we have in this overcrowded land.
That’s what I meant in my comment. – it’s not going to behave any differently, just because the “powers that be ” say so.
When is 2 metres NOT 2 metres?
Whenever anyone decides they can’t keep 2 metres away.
They keep on saying it is critical that the public adhere to the rules.
They don’t, they even got caught on live TV.
And now the daily charade is over, i gave up watching ages ago.
Gawd help us if there is a 2nd wave ! ! !
There will be. Wait and see.
I was on the bus yesterday morning, visiting my very elderly house – bound parents and counted 3 elderly people wearing their face masks just covering their mouths, with their noses sticking out. Worse than that, a bloke, who looked in his late sixties got on and immediately sat in one of the “do not use” seats, directly behind a lady, who was, of course unaware of him behind her. I looked at him and asked “So, – are you hoping to catch it, or spread it? He made some disgruntled noises, got up, and moved to the seat directly in front of her, which was also a “do not use” one! It’s people like that who we’ll be able to thank when it all starts up again.
Ha ha, your doing just what the liars(government) want, policing each other, you fool. Be careful, you say it to the wrong person, you could end up regretting it.
I’m not quite sure what you mean by this- I was only doing what any ” normal ” person would do who cares about the well – being of others. I’m just wondering if you’ve got some sort of virus that has affected your thought patterns. (?)
, I’m only saying this because of my knowledge in such matters, and being concerned for your safety. I’ve seen and had to deal with the bad side of people when they lose control and resort to violence, over the slightest of comment, look or gesture. So ,no I don’t have a virus and probably won’t. But please bare in mind, not everyone will turn the other cheek , and those others you care about, will not stop someone jumping on you. That’s my experience, in 30 yrs of dealing with violence.