Covid: pubs and restaurants in England will have closing hours at 10 pm

All pubs, bars, restaurants and other hospitality venues in England are required to have a closing time of 22:00 BST starting on Thursday, to help slow the spread of the coronavirus.

The sector will also be restricted by law to table service only.

The measures will be laid out by the prime minister in Parliament before a speech to the nation that will be broadcast live at 8:00 p.m. on Tuesday.

It occurs when the UK’s Covid-19 alert level moves to 4, which means the transmission is “high or increasing exponentially”.

The government’s top scientific adviser, Sir Patrick Vallance, warned that there could be 50,000 new coronavirus cases a day by mid-October without further action, which, he said, could lead to more than 200 deaths a day by mid-November.

On Monday, another 4,368 daily cases and 11 deaths were reported in the UK. 3,899 cases were reported Sunday.

More restrictions will also be announced in Scotland on Tuesday, while restrictions on households mixing indoors will be extended to all of Northern Ireland.

Also starting at 18:00 BST on Tuesday, four more counties in South Wales will face new measures, including a 23:00 curfew for pubs and bars.

• How does the Covid-19 alert level system work?
• How many cases are there in your area?

The UK Cabinet will meet Tuesday morning and Boris Johnson will also chair an emergency Cobra meeting, which will be attended by the leaders of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Speaking about the new closing times, a spokesperson for Issue 10 said: “No one underestimates the challenges that the new measures will pose for many individuals and businesses.

“We know this will not be easy, but we must take more steps to control the resurgence of virus cases and protect the NHS.”

There are already stricter restrictions on pub and restaurant opening hours in parts of the North East and North West of England and Wales.

Michael Kill, executive director of the Night Industries Association, said the announcement was “another devastating blow” and warned that it would result in a “surge of unregulated events and house parties.”

Christopher Snowdon, head of lifestyle economics at the free market think tank at the Institute of Economic Affairs, said the move “appears to have come from a random policy maker” and called on the government to publish the evidence in the which was based.

“While mandatory table service has been part of the successful Swedish approach and may have merit, the new closing time will be devastating for a hospitality sector that was already suffering after the first shutdown,” he said.

What difference will it make?

People are understandably wondering what difference closing at 10pm makes. Together with the table service law, it will be little more than a marginal profit.

But what ministers hope is that the measure, along with the rule of six that came into effect last week, will act as a warning to the public that efforts to curb the virus must be redoubled.

What remains to be seen is whether any other restrictions will accompany this move.

Behind the scenes, both ministers and their advisers have argued over what is the right thing to do and how much the public will be willing to tolerate.

It seems inevitable that the virus will continue to spread, that’s what respiratory viruses do during winter, especially one for which there is limited immunity and there is no vaccine.

But the speed and breadth is something that nobody knows.

The risk of trying to suppress the virus is that the government will soon be forced to make another decision on what to do next.

How far are ministers willing to go? Every restriction that is taken has a negative consequence for society.

But the nature of the virus means that lives will undoubtedly be lost the further it spreads. Balancing those two damages will define the next six months.

The new measures will also go into effect in Lancashire, Merseyside, parts of the Midlands and West Yorkshire from Tuesday.

Other areas of England, Scotland and Wales are already under local lockdown, with restrictions including a ban on mixing with other households.

The prime minister’s announcement of closing times comes after a series of meetings over the weekend, including with the government’s top medical adviser, Professor Chris Whitty, Chancellor Rishi Sunk and Health Secretary Matt Hancock.