From Saturday two households in England will be able to form ‘support bubbles’ that allow them to meet indoors and stay overnight together without measures like the two-metre rule applying for the first time in months.
But in a move which will dash the hopes of many, one of the two households in the bubble must be either a single person living alone or a single parent with children.
It means that the sex ban that came in at the start of June despite a general easing of the lockdown, will for some people be scrapped.
Older people living alone will be able to go and stay with their children, or have their grandchildren to stay at their own homes to help with childcare.
It also means single parents can do the same with their own parents – or another single parent – to make it easier for them to juggle work and their families.
The move, announced by the Prime Minister at tonight’s Downing Street press conference, is designed to help the UK’s ‘many lonely or isolated people’ who are seen as struggling the most during the months-long lockdown.
The plan announced does not allow two-parent families to form a support bubble with another similar family.
It means that thousands of married couples struggling to hold down their jobs and home-school and care for children will still have to go it alone.
And in another restriction, households cannot be in more than one bubble, meaning some agonising choices to be made.
Additionally, if any members of a bubble come down with coronavirus symptoms, all members of it will have to self-isolate for 14 days as per current advice.
There is no limit on the distance between the two homes in the bubble. Local homes would be preferred but officials accept this is not always possible.
But questions are likely to be asked over how well the scheme can be policed, with No 10 admitting it will be ‘based on trust’.
In other coronavirus developments today:
The UK faces the biggest hit of any major economy, with GDP set to plunge by 11.5 per cent this year, the OECD think-tank warned today;
Boris Johnson has hinted that the two-metre social distancing rule will be eased as case numbers fall as he faced a Tory backlash over the economic ‘devastation’ it is causing;
Covid-19 outbreaks have been worse in areas with major airports and large numbers of travellers passing through them, according to a report from the Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP);
Figures on how many people have been contact traced could finally be published tomorrow, but Health Secretary Matt Hancock has admitted the NHS app is not yet ready to go into use.
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