Covid-19 coronavirus: Pubs in Britain may need to take NZ-style register of customers

Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson outside 10 Downing Street. Photo / AP file

Britain's pubs and restaurants might have to take a Kiwi-style register of customers as one of the conditions for allowing them to open on July 4, Matt Hancock, the Health Secretary, has said.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson will announce plans tomorrow for getting the hospitality industry back up and running as part of a widespread easing of the lockdown measures that will also include changes to the two-metre rule distancing rule.

Johnson has been studying the New Zealand system for allowing pubs and eateries to keep track of their customers, so they can be contacted quickly if they come into contact with someone who has the virus.

Customers would need to provide their name and contact details either when booking a table, or on arrival in the case of pubs, enabling NHS contact tracers to stop any outbreaks at source if a customer later tests positive for coronavirus.

"There are some parts of the world where, unfortunately, this virus is really shooting up.”

Health Secretary Matt Hancock said the rising number of global cases underlined the need for quarantine arrangements.

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Hancock said: "That is the sort of thing that we are looking at for how you make it safe to open things."

He added: "There are all sorts of mitigations you can put in place to be physically closer than 2m but not have the transmission of the virus, or the risk of the transmission, that you would otherwise have."

He suggested they could include Perspex screens between tables, while leaked government documents have also specified disposable menus should be used, outdoor areas patrolled to ensure people are sticking to social distancing rules and the use of apps to order food and drinks, so that customers do not have to go to the bar.

Johnson is poised to announce the scrapping of the 2m rule in favour of a "1m plus" rule, meaning people will be able to stay just 1m apart as long as other precautions are taken, such as face coverings, sitting side by side or the use of screens.

It will enable pubs and restaurants to operate at around 70 per cent of normal capacity, meaning they can break even, which the two-metre rule was preventing.

The owners of more than 400 pubs and bars have told customers they will open on July 4, regardless of what Johnson announces.They include Urban Village pubs, Albion & East, Oakman Inns and Peach Pubs.

The pandemic is not over – we need to push now for a zero-coronavirus Britain | Devi Sridhar https://t.co/j77lE7e8l2

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Whitehall sources also confirmed yesterday that hairdressers and barbers will be able to reopen their doors from July 4 as long as they wear the correct personal protective equipment, which will include masks and full-face visors.

Families will be allowed to go on "staycations" in England, Johnson will confirm, though only in hotels or guesthouses that have en-suite facilities. Campsites and other places with shared washing facilities will not yet be allowed to open.

An announcement on foreign holidays will be made next week when a small number of "air bridges" with countries on short-haul routes, including France and Spain, will be exempted from the current quarantine rules for passengers arriving in the UK.

Air bridges are expected to come into force from July 4, although Ryanair has already started flying holidaymakers to Spain after the country reopened its borders to tourists.