Nightclubs and festivals in England will return from July 19 after the UK government confirmed today (July 5) that it is going ahead with the last phase of its reopening plan.
As of later this month, almost all COVID-19 restrictions will be relaxed in England, with mask-wearing and social distancing provisions to be dropped from law. Boris Johnson confirmed the news in a Downing Street press conference, though it has been tempered by a continuing rise in new COVID-19 cases across the UK.
Nightclubs and festivals across England will be allowed to operate at full capacity from July 19, with no proof of vaccination or a negative COVID-19 test required on entry. This is a stark difference to measures that have been put in place in parts of the US as well as a number of EU countries as they’ve emerged out of their latest COVID-19 lockdowns and begun reopening music venues.
Fully vaccinated adults will also no longer be required to quarantine after returning from a country on the UK government’s amber list, as part of this latest loosening of measures. These restrictions had originally been due to be lifted on June 21, but the continued emergence of the Delta variant of the coronavirus saw the government push its plan back by four weeks.
Speaking in today’s press conference, Johnson said he was ready to "allow people to make their own informed decisions about how to manage the virus," with government messaging now increasingly shifting towards learning to live with the virus and embracing a ‘new normal’. 86 percent of adults in the UK have had at least one dose of the coronavirus vaccine, while the percentage of the population fully vaccinated currently sits at just above 50 percent.
