The government has announced the implementation of a change to the Coronavirus curfew in coming weeks.
The rules and regulations surrounding eating out during the Coronavirus pandemic have certainly been far-ranging and varied, with it feeling like there’s new advice to follow nearly every day.
Following the successful Eat Out to Help Out scheme, which was backed by taxpayer money in August, the government then implemented a 10pm curfew which saw restaurants and bars forced to close early in a bid to supress the spread of the virus.
Speaking during a national press conference the Prime Minister Boris Johnson has unveiled the latest legislation to impact the hospitality sector. Bars and restaurants will now have the curfew extended for an hour to 11pm, to give drinkers and diners an extension to their evenings. No food and drink will be allowed to be ordered in the additional hour, with last orders remaining at 10pm.
The new curfew restrictions will come into place on the 3 December when England will move from a national lockdown back into a tiered approach. Other areas of the UK are under different guidelines, with Scotland having adopted a tiered system continuously, while Wales and Northern Ireland undertook ‘circuit breaker’ lockdowns over the past few weeks to try to get the virus under control.
Elsewhere restrictions will be stricter than the previous lockdown, with measures put in place to presumably help the country get to a place where we can have a break from full social distancing over the festive period.
The hospitality industry has been one of the sectors to have been hit the hardest by Coronavirus, with many restaurants having been forced to close, and huge numbers of people having lost their jobs.
Like to know what’s going on? Here’s everything you need to know about dining out during COVID-19