Yahoo Finance UK Covid LIVE: Boris Johnson announces next steps of lockdown easing at Downing Street press conference as surge testing ordered in west London
Boris Johnson has announced that an easing of Covid restrictions will go ahead as planned in England from next Monday, May 17.
It will mean friends and family can hug and mix indoors from next week including in pubs and restaurants, while cinemas, museums and theatres can reopen, and gyms can hold group classes.
Meanwhile surge testing will take place in North Kensington after new cases of the South African variant were discovered.
Earlier, BioNTech said there was no evidence the Pfizer/BioNTech Covid vaccine needs updating to protect against variants, BioNTech has said.
In its financial and company update report, the German firm said: "To date, there is no evidence that an adaptation of BioNTech's current Covid-19 vaccine against key identified emerging variants is necessary."
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