Coronavirus updates: As it happened: England's pubs and restaurants to reopen indoors - BBC News
Guidance on hugging will also change, but people should consider others' vulnerabilities, the PM says.
The prime minister answered questions from the public and journalists at the briefing Image caption: The prime minister answered questions from the public and journalists at the briefing

Now the prime minister is asked whether it would be irresponsible for Scotland to hold a second referendum during this stage of the pandemic.

Boris Johnson says he had good conversations with the heads of the devolved nations and everyone’s number one priority was to come out of the pandemic and "build back better".

Prof Chris Whitty is asked about the threat of one of the Indian variants in the UK. He says cases of it have gone up sharply and that’s a "reason to be very careful about it".

"What we know with all the variants is that things can come out of the blue sky - you’re not expecting it and then it can happen."

He adds that at this point in time “our view is that this is a highly transmissible variant” but it is less likely to be able to escape vaccination, although the data is incomplete.