The United Kingdom has reopened its economy after three months of onerous lockdown measures.
People lined up on Monday as England’s shops, pubs, gyms and hairdressers resumed business after the lockdown came to an end.
After imposing the tightest restrictions in Britain’s peacetime history, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the reopening was a "major step" towards freedom but urged people to behave responsibly as COVID-19 is still a threat.
Getting people spending again is crucial for Britain’s recovery after official data showed that 2020 was the worst year for its economy in more than three centuries with a 9.8% decline in gross domestic product (GDP).
Hundreds of thousands of businesses have been closed since early January when England entered a third lockdown to stem surging infections driven new variants of the virus. A vaccination campaign that has delivered a first shot to well over half of adults and lockdown measures have cut deaths by more than 95% and cases by over 90% from their January peak.
The British Retail Consortium estimates U.K. stores have lost 27 billion pounds ($37 billion U.S.) in sales over three consecutive lockdowns, while 67,000 retail jobs were lost in 2020.
