Britain urgently reviewing distancing rules, could ease quarantine

Britain is urgently reviewing its social distancing rule and might be able to relax quarantine for travellers to help its economy recover from a coronavirus crisis collapse, the country’s finance minister Rishi Sunak said.

Progress in tackling the coronavirus pandemic meant Britain was able to take a “fresh look” at the two-metre rule, which many employers have said will make it harder to get back up to speed after the lockdown, Sunak said on Sunday.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government, which says it has always followed scientific advice in its handling of the pandemic, faces the difficult balancing act of reviving the economy without allowing a second wave of coronavirus cases.

Britain has the third highest number of coronavirus deaths after the United States and Brazil, something critics of the government say reflects its response to the crisis.

Reducing the distance people must keep apart from each other would mean three quarters of pubs could reopen, rather than about one third with a two-metre rule.

Sunak also said the government could make changes to a 14-day quarantine for people coming into the country, such as the introduction of travel corridors with specific countries.