Salons reopen as normality edges closer

Coronavirus restrictions were significantly eased on Thursday night as the Culture Secretary announced a relaxation of curbs on sports and leisure.

Gyms, swimming pools, leisure centres, beauty salons and outdoor arts venues in England are all to reopen as Oliver Dowden delivered “the news millions across the country have been waiting for”.

Amateur team sports including cricket will resume from tomorrow, with sports fans allowed to attend community matches for the first time in months.

Outdoor pools and open-air theatre and concert venues will also open on Saturday.

Nail bars, beauty salons, tattoo parlours and other “close contact” personal services will be open from Monday, with indoor sports venues including gyms, pools and courts following on July 25.

It means that almost every business closed during lockdown will now be open. Indoor theatres and concert halls, nightclubs, casinos, soft play areas, conference centres and sports stadiums are among the only venues that remain closed.

There was a chink of light for theatres as Mr Dowden said the Government will commence pilots of indoor performances with limited audiences.

Separately, Health Secretary Matt Hancock announced that care home residents will be allowed visitors “very soon”, with an announcement being made in “the next few days”.

Mr Dowden said everyone should now “play their part” in getting the economy back on its feet by “making the most of this summer”.

He said: “Our fight began with a collective effort and I really hope it will end with one.

"At the beginning we all stayed at home to protect the NHS and save lives now the British public has a new part to play.

"It's time to eat out to help out, to enjoy the arts to help out and to work out to help out.

"It's over to all of you to help the country recover safely." Mr Dowden said the Government had been able to press ahead with the latest easements because the opening of pubs, restaurants and other venues last weekend had not caused a rise in coronavirus infections.

However, all of the new easements come with significant conditions attached.

Beauty salons will not be able to provide any facial treatments, meaning eyebrow and eyelash treatments, microblading, dermarolling, make-up application and a whole range of other services will remain banned for now.

All venues will have restrictions on how many people can be inside them at any one time, with gyms having to allow 100 square feet per person out of their total floorspace.

Anyone using a gym or leisure centre will be encouraged to get changed at home and go home to shower afterwards, and people playing grassroots sports will be expected to turn up to matches and training already wearing their kit.

Even outdoor concerts, plays and operas will be subject to social distancing measures. Mr Dowden said it would mean that outdoor opera could resume at Glyndebourne in East Sussex, though this year’s summer festival has already been cancelled.

Mr Dowden said: “I'm really urging people to get out there and to play their part: buy the tickets for outdoor plays and musical recitals, get to your local gallery and support your local businesses.”

The decision to allow pools and other sports facilities to reopen follows a recent visit by officials led by the deputy chief medical officer for England, Professor Jonathan Van-Tam, to a number of venues to observe their preparations for reopening safely.

Duncan Bannatyne, owner of health club and spa firm Bannatyne Group and star of BBC’s Dragon's Den, said he was “incredibly pleased” that gyms and spas could now reopen and had been “gratified” to find in discussions with ministers “that they understood that the majority of health clubs could reopen safely and that it was essential to do so”.

Adam Mooney, founder of The Feel Good Group, which runs 90 tanning salons across the UK, said that more than 90 per cent of his staff were women, mostly in the 18 to 25-year-old age group, the demographic which has been worst-hit financially by the pandemic.

He said: “They are very keen to get back to work."

While amateur cricket can resume from tomorrow, because its governing body has already agreed Covid-secure guidelines with the Government, other sports, such as football, rugby and hockey must submit an action plan that satisfies ministers and public health officials in their Covid safety measures.

Among the requirements will be keeping details of players at matches and training to enable rapid tracing and testing if any of them falls ill, players arriving at venues already changed into their kit, and cleaning balls when they go out of play and have to be handled. Supporters will be allowed to attend community fixtures in small numbers as long as they are in groups of no more than two households or no more than six people from multiple households.

Mass gatherings such as park runs and marathons remain banned, and there is no date yet for when supporters of professional football and other sports will be allowed to return to stadiums.

The Culture Secretary said the Government is working with the performing arts sector to pilot a small number of indoor performances with socially distanced audiences. Officials are working with bodies such as UK Theatre, the Association of British Orchestras and the Musicians' Union to identify suitable pilots.

Ministers are also changing planning rules to protect theatres, concert halls and live music venues forced to close during the pandemic from demolition or change of use.