Ministers hailed the prospect of 'hugging and kissing again indoors' today as Boris Johnson prepares to announce a major loosening of Covid restrictions. The PM will use a 5pm briefing at Downing Street to confirm a significant relaxation of rules from May 17, saying the success of the vaccine rollout has given him room to manoeuvre. Indian variant cases have soared over the last week and Public Health officials say almost half the cases are related to travel or contact with a traveller. Boris Johnson will announce England's next steps out of lockdown at a 5pm Downing Street press conference today, where he is expected to confirm that friends and can hug each other again from May 17. More than two thirds of adults — 35.3million — have now received at least one dose of the Covid vaccine.

Source: The Nation May 10, 2021 10:03 UTC