Boris Johnson pulls the plug on any further easing of lockdown measures
- Reopening of leisure facilities will now be postponed for at least two weeks
- Guidance on returning to work remains unchanged
- Face covering rules will be extended
- Calls for citizens to obey rules to avoid a full national lockdown
Johnson also confirms that this "truly" means a return to social distancing though he maintains that children should start going back to school in September, adding that the latter should be a national priority at this stage.
The real fear for the UK is that they never really kept the initial outbreak "under control" despite the story that the government has tried to sell. They were late to impose a full-scale lockdown and were rushing to try and get out of it.
That drew a lot of flak and they may be paying the price for that now. Let's see how things go in the coming weeks but this is no doubt a bit of a setback for now.
The pound is taking the news in stride with cable still sitting higher at 1.3130. It'll be interesting to see if the momentum can keep up once we move past the month-end today. The March high @ 1.3200 remains a key upside level to watch in that regard.
