The United Kingdom has primarily relaxed the lockdown on Monday. Shops, hairdressers and catering establishments in England were allowed to open their doors again after about three months.
Some Britons braved the freezing cold to get a pint from a café at the stroke of midnight.
At a pub in Bexleyheath, employees were counting down to midnight, Sky News reports. About eighteen people had gathered at the cafe in thick winter clothing. Englishmen who want to go back to the pub have to finish their drinks outside.
There is also a storm at hairdressers. A barbershop in the London district of Chelsea announced that 3000 customers are already on a waiting list. Some Englishmen were also ready for a haircut. A woman in Birmingham told the BBC that she was back at the hairdresser for the first time in over a year. “I will also go to a terrace later,” she said.
A huge queue formed in the morning at the Primark retail chain in Nottingham. Some people said they got up at 5:00 am to get there early. The top woman of the trade association British Retail Consortium spoke of a “big day” for the retail trade. She said stores had lost tens of billions of pounds due to the corona measures.
Many thousands of ‘non-essential’ stores in England had to close in January. The government had decided on a new lockdown in that area to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. The United Kingdom is now one of the world’s leaders in vaccination and has begun to reopen the economy. Measures are being lifted step by step.
British regions themselves have a lot of say in their corona policy. The shops will also open in Wales on Monday, but in Scotland, entrepreneurs still have to wait until April 26.