now the Chancellor rishi sunic says the
government will announce in the coming
week whether the 2-meter social
distancing rule will be relaxed in
England Boris Johnson has been facing
increasing pressure from his own back
benches and the hospitality industry to
ease restrictions to help businesses but
the government scientific advisors say
that being one metre apart carries up to
10 times more risk than being separated
by two metres well in the last 24 hours
128 deaths linked to cope with 19 have
been recorded in the UK and that takes
the total number of people reported to
have died from coronavirus to 42,000 589
our political correspondent Leila Nath
who has the very latest when will the
next pints be pulled in this pub in York
it needs to be safe profitable and
inviting a tall order
under current restrictions we're a small
historic street corner pub lots of pinch
points narrow corridors we're going to
struggle with any sort of social
distancing measures for that reason
really
one meter might work too definitely
won't we were hoping to hear yesterday
we need to be concrete guidance about
what is expected of us as licensees two
weeks today is the earliest that pubs
will be allowed to reopen the government
has been alive to their concerns for
some time a review of the 2 meter rule
is underway The ministers now say a
conclusion is coming soon the outcome of
that review will be announced this week
obviously that's something that will
make an enormous difference I think to
many businesses who are keen to see a
change obviously we need to go through
that review but I'm very understanding
of the cause for action on that
particularly for the hospitality
industry for our pubs for our
restaurants are keen to see if there's
some changes that can be made but the
future of the 2 meter rule is crucial
for schools to a relaxation would allow
more children into classrooms as
Northern Ireland is planning the UK's
chief medical officers have now
downgraded the covert alert level
opening the way to further easing we're
in a situation where we have a virus
that is you know is still circulating
this is keep so in those of it being
safe I would say no relaxation measure
is 100% safe but
cause we are in a phase where we can
cautiously start to relax measure
whether to relax the 2 meter rule is a
key decision for the government and one
that's been a pressure point for some
time it's about balancing the scientific
advice on the best way to keep
coronavirus at bay with the impact of
those measures on the economy while the
direction of travel does now seem clear
some Tory MPs say ministers haven't
acted fast enough if we don't get the
economy moving now which is why the 2 to
1 meter is so critical then we will see
companies simply calling the day and
putting people onto unemployment and
that will change massively and I don't
want that to happen it will be a while
before pubs look like this again but
they and many other businesses hope
they'll at least have the chance to
start down that road leg another BBC
news the Spanish Foreign Minister has
told the BBC the British citizens will
be allowed to visit the country from
tomorrow without the need to self
isolate for two weeks on arrival our
business correspondent Katie Prescott is
here what about Spanish citizens coming
here that question this brings Spain
into line with other countries like
Italy and Greece but for the British
people who make 18 million trips a year
to Spain they want to know exactly that
what will happen when they come back to
the UK and we are expecting some sort of
announcement on that from the UK
government on the 29th of June which is
when a review is due into these
quarantine rules and when that happens
there should be some sort of
announcement on reciprocal arrangements
with countries such as Spain and they're
going to take into account not only
kovin levels but also the amount of
trips that brits
take and so the expectation is given how
many of us like to go to Spain that that
will be among the European short-haul
destinations that we have the reciprocal
arrangement with okay Katie many facts
Katie Prescott there