London – The wearing of face coverings in England will become a personal choice and the data that will determine if lockdown restrictions will be lifted this month was looking “very positive”, Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick said on Sunday.
“It will be a different interval where we as private citizens make these judgments rather than the government telling you what to do,” Jenrick informed Sky News.
Legal lockdown restrictions are due to be removed on July 19 under the government’s roadmap and Prime Minister Boris Johnson will set out details about the last stage of easing in England within the coming days, Jenrick said.
Asked if he would stop wearing a face mask if permitted, he said: “I’ll. I do not particularly want to wear a mask, I don’t think a lot of people enjoy doing it, we will be moving into a section though where these will be issues of personal choice.”
Johnson had hoped to remove final restrictions in June however his plan was scuppered by rising coronavirus cases, driven largely by the more transmissible Delta variant.
He said last week that although Britain’s vaccination program had broken the link between infection and deaths, some precautions might have to remain beyond July 19.
Jenrick on Sunday stated the data was looking “very positive”.
“It does seem as if we can now move forward and move to a much more permissive regime where we move away from a lot of these restrictions which were so tough for us,” he stated.