Boris Johnson announces ‘single people’ can form ‘support bubbles’ with other households from Saturday
BORIS Johnson has announced single Brits can form bubbles with people from other households on Saturday.
Single parents with children under 18 will be able to form "support bubbles" with other parents to help share childcare and home learning - and even allow their kids to have sleepovers.
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As more lockdown measures are lifted, people who have been living alone will finally be able to see others indoors and "bubble up" with them - so they won't have to social distance.
It will allow single parents to have extra help from someone outside of their household.
The PM said this evening: "There are too many people, particularly those who live by themselves who are lonely and struggling with being unable to see friends and family.
"From this weekend we will allow single adult households, living alone, or single parents with children under 18, to form a support bubble with one other household.
"But people won't be able to meet up indoors in larger groups.
"People will be able to hug, go into one another's homes and even stay overnight."
They will be treated as if they are part of the same household.
If people are in a bubble, they will be able to move freely between each other's homes and won't have to move in together.
The move will allow people to stay overnight in other's homes - an end to what was dubbed Boris' bonking ban after measures prohibited people from seeing other people indoors.
It means from Saturday lonely Brits will be able to choose one other person to include in their bubble so they don't need to social distance.
The announcement also means
- Couples who have been living apart alone will finally be able to meet up - and have sex again too
- But people who are shielded should not form bubbles with others if they are clinically extremely vulnerable and are shielding
- The rules will apply in England only from Saturday
But crucially, people won't be able to hop in and out of multiple homes - only the two people within the bubble.
If any member of the bubble develops symptoms of coronavirus, everyone will have to self-isolate for 14 days as though they are in the same household.
If others develop symptoms they should be tested too.
Officials stressed earlier that the policy was separate to the rules which allow people to meet up in groups of six outside their own household in a park or garden - as long as they were two metres apart.
The new rules rely on Brits behaving sensibly and won't require people to hand over details of who is in their bubble.
Sources said the changes were to help single people who have largely been on their own throughout the pandemic.
By allowing them to bubble up - including helping with childcare - it will provide them with extra support in such tough times.
The Government has been looking at the bubble policy for months to see if it can help provide some easing to the lockdown rules.
But as the R rate continues to teeter above one in some areas, there were fears that allowing large groups of people to mix would start to spread the virus quickly again.
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