Coronavirus: No haircuts, pubs or restaurants until July at the earliest, says Dominic Raab

The foreign secretary tells Sky News that many businesses won't reopen until phase three of the plan to ease the lockdown.

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No pubs or haircuts until 4 July at the earliest
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Britons won't be able to get a haircut, visit a pub or dine in a restaurant until 4 July at the "very earliest", Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab has told Sky News.

Under the government's three-phase plan for easing the coronavirus lockdown, those who can't work from home will be encouraged to return to work from Wednesday.

Mr Raab said this "modest" change to the lockdown would include builders and those who work in manufacturing.

A woman walks past a boarded up pub in north London, as the UK continues in lockdown to help curb the spread of the coronavirus.
Image: Pubs will remain shut until 4 July at the earliest

A full list of who is being asked to go back to work this week will be published later today, when the government will also publish a 50-page document on its strategy.

In the second phase of the government's plan, which would begin on 1 June at the earliest, some shops might be able to reopen.

However, Mr Raab confirmed hairdressers, pubs and restaurants would have to wait until phase three, from 4 July at the "very earliest", to be reconsidered for reopening.

"From 4 July, at the earliest, we'll look at other sectors and that will include hospitality, but it will also include personal care and people like hairdressers," the foreign secretary told Sky News' Kay Burley @ Breakfast show.

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"Obviously the proximity in those two sectors... is something where we don't think we're ready yet, given where we are with the virus."

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Towards the end of this month, the government is looking to enforce a 14-day quarantine period on those entering the UK.

When it was suggested this had scuppered the summer holiday plans of many Britons who were looking to travel abroad, Mr Raab replied: "I'm really sorry for that and we do understand the sacrifices everyone's having to make."

The foreign secretary also confirmed the government is aiming to "get all primary school children back into school within a month of the end of the summer term".

However, this would not begin until 1 June at the earliest.

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Ministers are also aiming for those pupils who will sit GCSEs or A-Levels next year to have "some access to their teachers" before the end of the summer term, Mr Raab added.

From Wednesday, lockdown rules will be relaxed to allow unlimited outdoor exercise and people to play sport - such as golf, basketball, tennis, fishing - as long as it is with others from their household.

Mr Raab also revealed the government is looking at plans to allow "limited contact" between families.

"We've asked the scientists to look at whether there could be some limited contact between, say, two different households within the same family, for example, we've asked them to give us some advice on what that would do to the transmission rate," he said.

"Until we've got that advice back, we're not in a position to say 'yes you can positively do that', but it is something we want to look at."

This is likely to apply to meeting in a local park, rather than in each other's gardens, Sky News understands.

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With some Britons being encouraged to return to work this week, the government is urging them to avoid public transport, if possible, and instead use a car, cycle or even walk to their workplace.

Mr Raab said "clear guidance" on public transport would be published on Tuesday, which is likely to include advice on wearing face coverings.

"There's limited evidence on their value, but one thing they can do - in settings where you can't be guaranteed to be socially distanced - they can stop you passing it on to other people," he added.

"That's something, in relation to public transport, that we'll give advice on shortly, about how that can be done."

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The foreign secretary said the forthcoming advice would refer to "the kind of face covering you could prepare or make at home", such as scarves, and would be "distinct" from face masks worn in hospitals and care homes.

After Prime Minister Boris Johnson set out some of the lockdown changes in a televised address on Sunday night, Labour's shadow home secretary Nick Thomas-Symonds called on the government to now provide "desperately needed" clarity on what was changing.

"What we didn't get last night was clarity and we didn't get, I'm afraid, consensus, both of which we desperately need," he told Sky News.