The business secretary, Alok Sharma, has confirmed that non-essential shops in England can open from Monday, saying the move will “allow high streets up and down the country to spring back to life”.
Car showrooms and outdoor markets were allowed to reopen earlier this month. Sharma said other retailers would now be able to follow suit, provided they comply with government safety guidelines and carry out a risk assessment.
R, or the 'effective reproduction number', is a way of rating a disease’s ability to spread. It’s the average number of people on to whom one infected person will pass the virus. For an R of anything above 1, an epidemic will grow exponentially. Anything below 1 and an outbreak will fizzle out – eventually.
At the start of the coronavirus pandemic, the estimated R for coronavirus was between 2 and 3 – higher than the value for seasonal flu, but lower than for measles. That means each person would pass it on to between two and three people on average, before either recovering or dying, and each of those people would pass it on to a further two to three others, causing the total number of cases to snowball over time.
The reproduction number is not fixed, though. It depends on the biology of the virus; people's behaviour, such as social distancing; and a population’s immunity. A country may see regional variations in its R number, depending on local factors like population density and transport patterns.
Hannah Devlin Science correspondent
“Thanks to the ongoing efforts of people across the country, we continue to meet the five tests set out in the prime minister’s roadmap, and the R rate continues to stay below 1.
“So I can confirm today that retail outlets which have been required to be closed will be able to open their doors from Monday, 15 June,” Sharma said, presenting Tuesday’s Downing Street press conference.
“This is the latest step in the careful restarting of our economy, and will allow high streets up and down the country to spring back to life.”
Sharma praised the changes made by stores such as supermarkets that have remained open throughout the lockdown, including physically-distanced queueing and fitting protective screens for checkout staff.
“In the new normal, we have all got used to shopping with social distancing. Now is the right time to apply these principles more widely, to more shops, as we continue our cautious reopening of the economy,” Sharma said.
Ministers are keen to allow more businesses to reopen, amid concerns about mass job losses over the summer.
Sharma said his department would shortly publish similar guidelines for other businesses including pubs, restaurants, hairdressers and nail bars. “These documents will provide practical steps which will allow these businesses to reopen safely,” he said.
However, he rejected the idea – floated in multiple reports in recent days – that pubs could be allowed to open earlier than previously planned. “We continue to follow our roadmap, which sets out our ambition to reopen these businesses on 4 July at the earliest,” he insisted.
Sharma was accompanied by the chief executive of the Health and Safety Executive, Sarah Albon, on the sixth day in a row that ministers have not been flanked by a scientific adviser at the briefing.
