People will no longer be told to wear face masks from later this month, a Cabinet minister says, with England on course to lift almost all Covid restrictions.
Robert Jenrick gave an upbeat message on the “very promising” data – ahead of the planned completion of the roadmap out of lockdown on 19 July.
The new phase would see “we as private citizens make these judgements rather than the government telling you what to do”, the local government secretary said.
And he confirmed mask-wearing would be voluntary, saying: “The state won’t be telling you what to do, but you will want to exercise a degree of personal responsibility and judgement.
“So different people will come to different conclusions on things like masks for example.”