/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/66842352/Garden.0.jpg)
Will beer gardens be crowded this summer?
A British pub association is pressuring the government to relax social distancing regulations for pubs on the grounds that it will more than double the number able to reopen on the government’s proposed 4 July. The British Beer & Pub Association (BBPA) claims that changing social distancing rules to one metre — a figure cited by the World Health Organisation (WHO) — from two metres would increase the number of pubs that could reopen in July by 120 percent, according to Propel.
Any such change would go against initial advice for places that are “crowded by design,” which includes pubs and suggests that such places would be closed through July. It would also seemingly require contravening one aspect of epidemiological science. Viral load, a measure of how many virus particles are in a given person’s system or space, could necessarily be higher in a busy environment at one metre distance than at two. It seems unlikely that pubs would get one rule for them and one for other businesses, even if the government’s current track record on this maxim says otherwise, so the body is effectively asking for a wholesale change in public health strategy. [Propel]
And in other news...
- Tracking the London restaurants reopening through coronavirus.
- Rounding up what happened in the restaurant world last week.
- Where to get ice cream delivery all over London for the hot weather.
- U.K. meat processors say that the new immigration bill that deems their workers “lower-skilled” is “crippling.” The U.K. meat processing industry relies on European workers, largely from agencies, and part of that is because their status makes them easier to exploit. [Poultry World]
- Good tweet:
great british menu is full on a fascinating show. it's evil distilled.
— friends of pudding (@friend2pudding) May 24, 2020