A slew of Boris Johnson’s top scientists today warned against socialising indoors and the ‘high risk’ of hugging friends because of the rise in Indian variant cases despite Britons now being free to mix inside pubs, restaurants, museums, theatres and cinemas as well as stay with friends for the first time since Christmas

A slew of Boris Johnson’s top scientists today warned against socialising indoors and the ‘high risk’ of hugging friends because of the rise in Indian variant cases despite Britons now being free to mix inside pubs, restaurants, museums, theatres and cinemas as well as stay with friends for the first time since Christmas. 

The Prime Minister has urged families to adopt a ‘heavy dose of caution’ and a cabinet colleague encouraged revellers to avoid ‘excessive drinking’ with ministers at loggerheads over whether to extend lockdown beyond June 21 amid an eight per cent rise in infections in a week. 

And in a hint the easing of all restrictions next month is now under threat, Mr Johnson’s official spokesman confirmed this afternoon that a review of the one-metre plus social distancing rule due to be released on May 31 may now be delayed.

A May 24 update on opening up weddings to more guests is now also postponed.

In Bolton, a hotspot for the Indian strain, thousands more people than usual are being jabbed every day, with queues snaking outside health centres again today, as officials try to suppress the virus in an area where vaccine hesitancy and a clash with religious festivals such as Ramadan and Eid may have hampered efforts to slow its spread.

Last night thousands of people queued across the UK to enjoy a drink with friends inside pubs and bars after midnight, while this morning around 20 flights took off for Portugal as holidays became legal again and people enjoyed a pint and a meal inside for the first time in almost six months.

Theatres, cinemas, galleries, museums and other tourist attractions can also open their doors again. 

These venues are expected to be even busier this week because heavy showers and gales are forecast for at least the next ten days, with some areas soaked with a month’s worth of rain in the past week.

But Sir Jeremy Farrar, director of the Wellcome Trust and a senior member of the SAGE committee, said today that he would not meet indoors ‘at the moment’, despite millions of people now having the opportunity to do so.

He told BBC Radio 4′s Today programme: ‘I think it is reasonable to just be sensible about knowing where transmission is occurring, mostly indoors, mostly in larger gatherings indoors with lots of different people, different families, different communities, and I would just restrict that at the moment personally.’ But he added: ‘I don’t think it’s unreasonable to lift the restrictions – we do need to lift the restrictions at some point, we’ve been in restrictions now for a very long time.’

Hugging is a ‘high-risk procedure’, Professor Peter Openshaw said.

The professor of experimental medicine at Imperial College London, who is a member of the New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group (Nervtag), told BBC Breakfast: ‘Some of us are quite happy not to be hugging and kissing many times on the cheek.
This is a high-risk procedure, I would say in medical terms and I would certainly not be embracing people closely. I think you can greet people perfectly well at a distance with a smile and a kind word.’ 

The easing of lockdown – and the warnings not to get carried away – came as:  

• Heavens open over Britain on day millions can finally go inside pubs, restaurants and friends’ homes…

  with UK set for floods and howling 60mph gales at start of two-week washout; 

• Ministers are at loggerheads over whether to extend lockdown beyond June 21 to protect ‘idiot’ vaccine refuseniks from the Indian variants; 
• A stampede of tourists head to Portugal as the Government’s traffic light system comes into force today. Heathrow boss and airline chiefs warn ‘Amber List’ nations like Italy, Spain, France and Greece must be declared safe by summer or 500,000 jobs could be lost;
• The NHS app will contain a Covid passport from today so patients prove they have had the jab – but critics continue voice privacy fears about its use;
• The coronavirus vaccines appear to be 97 per cent effective against infection from the new Indian variant, it has been suggested, with studies by laboratories in the UK and India have recorded no deaths among the vaccinated population from the new strain;

Referring to today’s new freedoms, Professor Sir Mark Walport, England’s former chief scientific adviser who also sits on SAGE, claimed that just because people are legally allowed to do something doesn’t mean they should.

He told the Guardian: ‘My personal judgement is that I will do things outside as far as possible. My advice is that just because you can do something doesn’t necessarily mean you should.’ 

SAGE adviser Graham Medley, professor of infectious disease modelling at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, suggested people should avoid going to pubs or restaurants in areas with low vaccine uptake or high Indian variant case numbers.

He told LBC Radio he would only dine indoors if the establishment ‘was suitably organised and it looked okay and was in an area of low prevalence and the clientele was very old [and therefore mostly vaccinated].’ He added: ‘I’ll certainly hug my children and grandchildren and others very close to me.

But will I be hugging strangers? No’. 

Sir John Bell, emeritus professor of medicine at Oxford University and prominent SAGE member, urged people to use their newfound freedoms ‘cautiously’. He told The Times: ‘I don’t want to be a party pooper but the most important thing is not to prolong this any longer than we absolutely have to, so going about this cautiously could be quite helpful to everybody.’ 

While Dr Zubaida Haque, from Independent Sage, told BBC Essex that with the India variant in circulation, indoor mixing for the next 2-3 weeks ‘is a really dangerous idea’ and could lead to ‘thousands of hospitalisations’. 

<div class="art-ins mol-factbox news halfRHS" data-version="2" id="mol-a47c96f0-b68b-11eb-874a-f925beab5aae" website happy as they can go back inside pubs and friend's homes TODAY

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