Boris Johnson has sought to jolt England out of lockdown with an announcement about restrictions being lifted from 4 July that goes beyond expectations and that will allow pubs and restaurants to reopen. He has also said that the 2-metre social distancing rule will be replaced with a 1-metre-plus rule that will allow people to stay just 1 metre apart, provided other mitigating measures are in place. Announcing the rules in parliament, he also said that the new rules would mostly be advisory, rather than having the full force of law as the original lockdown did, and that he would be relying on the common sense of the public to make them work. At his evening press conference – which, in a sign that No 10 is keen to move on from all-encompassing coronavirus crisis management, will be the last of the daily press conferences from No 10 – Johnson was joined by Prof Chris Whitty, the government’s chief medical adviser, and Sir Patrick Vallance, who both struck a distinctly more cautious note. Nicola Sturgeon, the Scottish first minister, and Mark Drakeford, the Welsh first minister, have both stressed that they are not following Johnson’s lead and that they are retaining the 2-metre rule (see 1.03pm and 2.10pm respectively). My colleague Kate Proctor has a summary of what the new rules mean here. Whitty has said that a second spike is inevitable if people ignore the conditions that are supposed to apply to the lockdown being relaxed. Speaking at the No 10 press conference, he said: If people hear a distorted version of what’s being said, that says ‘this is all fine now, it’s gone away’ and start behaving in ways that they normally would have before this virus happened, yes, we will get an uptick for sure. It is absolutely critical people stick to the guidance that has been given, it’s a changed guidance for there are still very significant restrictions socially and there are very significant restrictions on business of different sorts. Whitty also said people should continue to stay two metres away from others where possible and that the new “1-metre plus” rule did not invalidate this original advice. (See 5.35pm.) And he said that he expected coronavirus to continue to pose a significant risk for another year. Asked when life might return to normal, he said: I would be surprised and delighted if we weren’t in this current situation through the winter and into next spring. I think then let’s regroup and work out where we are. I expect there to be a significant amount of coronavirus circulating at least into that time and I think it is going to be quite optimistic that for science to come fully to the rescue over that kind of timeframe. But I have an absolute confidence in the capacity of science to overcome infectious diseases - it has done that repeatedly and it will do that for this virus, whether that is by drugs, vaccines or indeed other things that may come into play. For medium to long term, I’m optimistic. But for the short to medium term, until this time next year, certainly I think we should be planning for this for what I consider to be the long haul into 2021. Whitty said that, although the government’s test and trace scheme could make an important contribution, he was worried about people not complying with it. He said: The biggest thing I worry about, if I’m honest, is that people don’t report that they have got symptoms - so get a test - and then, if someone is contacted by NHS Test and Trace, that they don’t engage properly with that process. By reporting when people have got symptoms, getting a test and - if it’s positive - isolating, that is a huge service to the rest of society because that is the way that we ensure people who have got the virus or might have the virus get out of circulation temporarily and that reduces the risk to absolutely everybody. The Scottish government has announced that it wants all pupils to return to school in August, abandoning plans for them to return only part time in a “blended learning” model that was unpopular with parents. (See 3.50pm.) The easing of multiple lockdown measures in England at once risks Covid-19 gaining a fresh foothold, scientists advising the government have warned. Priti Patel has promised major cultural and systemic reform of the Home Office, as she accepted all 30 recommendations of the independent review into the Windrush scandal. That’s all from us for tonight. But the coverage continues here, on our global coronavirus live blog. The National Gallery is expected to become the first of England’s big museums and galleries to reopen, our colleague Mark Brown reports. The Muslim Council of Britain has urged communities to “take all practical precautions” before returning to mosques, despite the announcement covering the reopening of places of worship in England. Secretary general Harun Khan said the MCB had produced a nine-step guide to reopening mosques safely. The guidance urges mosque leaders to exercise caution when preparing for reopening, as well as reminding individual Muslim community members of the importance of deciding for themselves whether it is safer for them to remain home to pray and attend online services, rather than being physically present in the mosque. Khan pointed to Office for National Statistics data from last week which revealed Muslim communities have been “hit hardest” by the Covid-19 pandemic. He said that with “the risk of a second wave ever-present” it was “imperative that the preservation of life is at the forefront of the minds of mosque leaders and Muslim community members in the coming weeks”. Former chief scientific adviser to the government Sir David King has been speaking to the BBC, saying that easing the 2-metre rule in indoor venues could put people at “much greater risk” of catching coronavirus. King, who chairs the Independent Sage group of scientists, told BBC News: It sounds alright if you’re out of doors and you do keep that one-metre distance apart. But if you’re indoors you’re at a much greater risk because you’re sitting in proximity to other people, you’re not wearing masks if you’re in restaurants and pubs and the level of viral infection in the air could well be quite high. Wrapping up, Johnson says our understanding of the virus has changed - and our ability to fight it. He says test and trace can be a real game-changer. The virus is the same, and just as dangerous. But we are better at dealing with it. That should be giving people more confidence, he says. He ends with the slogan: stay alert, follow the guidance and save lives, he says. And that’s it. The press conference is over. Q: Your new son will never have to face the inequalities facing other children that have been exacerbated by this crisis. What are you doing to help those children? Johnson says he understands the problem. He wants to get more children back into school. That is about social justice, he says. He says there are parts of the country that need more investment in schools and rural broadband. And he says he wants to see more one-to-one tutoring. Q: Can people go on foreign holidays if they are willing to observe quarantine? Johnson says the current advice says people should not go abroad unnecessarily. But that is being reviewed. And Britain is a fantastic country to visit, he says. Q: Are you confident that the test and trace system is working properly? Whitty says test and trace is already making a contribution. But he is concerned that people with symptoms are not getting tested. And he wants people to engage seriously with it. He says it is improving every day and will get better over the summer. Q: [From Macer Hall from the Daily Express] How long will it be before we see the back of hand sanitisers? Vallance says he cannot put a time on this. Either it will go away, which he does not think is likely, or there will be therapeutics. We are on the way with that, he says. And vaccines are being explored. He says he is “optimistic” that some of these measures will work. Whitty says he would be “surprised and delighted” if we were not still going through this in the winter and the spring. But he says he is very confident that, in the long term, science can beat infectious diseases. Q: [To the PM] What are you most looking forward to? Johnson says he would like to go to the theatre, to the Globe in London. He would like to go to a restaurant. He would like to get his hair cut. This is as far as we can go for now, he says. But he says today’s package is not the summit of his ambition. He says people must not overdo it. Vallance says the package of measures is reasonable. If there are outbreaks, you need to address them, he says. Measuring and monitoring will become an important part of this, he says. Johnson says he can’t wait to go to a pub or restaurants. He wants to see people going out, “bustle and activity”. But he also wants to see people staying alert and following the guidance. Whitty says there will be second spike if people ignore mitigation measures Q: [From Sky’s Sam Coates] Why are the devolved administrations not following you? Are they just glumbuckets? Or are not convinced by the science? Johnson claims he has been even-handed in how he has set this out. He has stressed the need to be cautious, he says. He has emphasised the mitigations. All four chief medical officers agreed the change in the alert level from four to three, he says. He says there is far more “harmony” between the four nations than people assume. Q: [To Whitty and Vallance] Do you support the whole package? Did Sage fully approve the whole package of changes? Vallance says two metres is safer than one metre if it is unmitigated. But, if you add mitigations, one metre can be equivalent risk to two metres, he says. He says Sage is not a decision-making bodies. It gives advice to all four nations. Whitty says, if people do not take the mitigation seriously, if they just hear a distorted version of the advice, “yes, we will get an uptick for sure”. As for whether he is comfortable, he says this is a balance of risk. It is a reasonable balance of risk. But it is not risk-free, he says. He says it is the job of advisers to give advice. And he says he has worked in lockstep with his fellow chief medical officers. It is perfectly reasonable for different nations to take different approaches, he says. But he says it would be wrong not to accept that there is a “shared underpinning” to what is happening. Johnson says this package should be positive for business, because it combines reopening with caution. Whitty says we will be living with this virus for a very long time. In the winter measures might have to be reintroduced, he says. But, over time, the medicine available may change. And our understanding of what counter-measures work may change, he says. “It is going to be a long haul,” he says. Vallance says it is “extremely unlikely” that the virus will burn itself out and disappear. He says a vaccine might appear. You can be “moderately optimistic” that one of the many vaccine projects might work. And treatments may become available, he says. He says he hopes this will become a manageable disease. Whitty says people should still stay two metres away from others where possible Q: [From the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg] You are taking a risk. Will you take responsibility if it goes wrong? Johnson says he wants to stress the need to be cautious. Yes, of course he takes responsibility for these decisions, he says. Q: [To Whitty] You said the two-metre rule should stay. Have you changed your mind? Whitty says that was an answer at one of these press conferences when he probably went further than planned. But the advice on two metres remains, he says. He says the one metre plus rule is for when two metres is not possible. Q: Why is there a problem with meat processing factories? Vallance says the meat itself does not produce a risk. But the environment is a difficult one. It is cold, which the virus likes. And it is loud; people might be shouting. And workers might be close together. Whitty says it is often the social environment around work that poses the risk.