Face masks to become a personal choice in England, says minister

Asked if he would stop wearing a face mask if permitted, he said: “I will. I don’t particularly want to wear a mask, I don’t think a lot of people enjoy doing it, we will be moving into a phase though where these will be matters of personal choice.”

Johnson had hoped to remove final restrictions in June but his plan was scuppered by rising coronavirus cases, driven largely by the more transmissible Delta variant. He said last week that although Britain’s vaccination programme had broken the link between infection and deaths, some precautions might have to remain beyond July 19.Jenrick on Sunday said the data was looking “very positive”.

“It does seem as if we can now move forward and move to a much more permissive regime where we move away from many of those restrictions that have been so difficult for us,” he said. “We’re going to have to ensure that every adult gets double vaccinated, because that is the key to keeping the virus under control as we move into the autumn and the winter”.