FAQs: Covid-19 Restrictions

From 12 April:

• non-essential retail can reopen
• personal care services such as hairdressers and nail salons can reopen, including those provided from a mobile setting
• public buildings such as libraries and community centres can reopen
• outdoor hospitality venues can reopen, with table service only (there will be no need for customers to order a substantial meal with alcoholic drinks and no curfew)
• most outdoor attractions including zoos, theme parks, and drive-in performances (such as cinemas and concerts) can reopen
• some smaller outdoor events such as fetes, literary fairs, and fairgrounds can take place
• indoor leisure and sports facilities can reopen for individual exercise, or exercise with your household or support bubble (outdoor sports clubs and facilities can continue to stay open)
• all childcare and supervised activities are allowed indoors (as well as outdoors) for all children. Parent and child groups can take place indoors (as well as outdoors) for up to 15 people (children under 5 will not be counted in this number)
• weddings, civil partnership ceremonies, wakes and other commemorative events can take place for up to 15 people (anyone working is not included in this limit), including in indoor venues that are permitted to open or where an exemption applies. Wedding receptions can also take place for up to 15 people, but must take place outdoors, not including private gardens
• self-contained accommodation can stay open for overnight stays in England with your household or support bubble
• care home residents will be able to nominate two named individuals for regular indoor visits (following a rapid lateral flow test)
• you should continue to work from home if you can and minimise the amount that you travel where possible

Children and students will continue to attend face-to-face education in schools and colleges. There will be twice-weekly rapid testing for secondary and college pupils - in addition to regular testing for all teachers. Higher Education students at English universities on practical courses can also return.

Outdoor gatherings (including in private gardens) of either 6 people (the Rule of 6) or 2 households will also be allowed.

The ‘stay at home’ rule has ended however, people should continue to work from home where they can and minimise the number of journeys they make where possible, avoiding travel at the busiest times and routes.

Travel abroad will continue to be prohibited, other than for a small number of permitted reasons. Holidays abroad will not be allowed, given it will remain important to manage the risk of imported variants and protect the vaccination programme. 

A support bubble is a close support network between a household with only one adult in the home (known as a single-adult household) and one other household of any size.

You should not change who is in your bubble. Find out more information on support bubbles.

The Government announced a Four Step Roadmap to ease Lockdown in England. Step 3 of the Road Map will happen no earlier than the 17th of May.

Hospitality venues will be allowed to serve people outdoors at Step 2 and there will be no need for customers to order a substantial meal with alcoholic drinks and no curfew, although customers must order, eat and drink while seated (‘table service’). Wider social contact rules will apply in all these settings to prevent indoor mixing between different households.

All non-essential retail has reopened from the 12th of April

From the 8th of March, all students in Doncaster should start to return to school and college. You can find more information via our Support for Parents and Carers page.

Outdoor sports facilities such as tennis and basketball courts, and open-air swimming pools, will also be allowed to reopen, and people will be able to take part in formally organised outdoor sports.

Indoor leisure facilities such as gyms have also reopened from the 12th of April (but only for use by people on their own or in household groups).

Weddings, civil partnership ceremonies and funerals are allowed with strict limits on attendance, and must only take place in COVID-19 secure venues or in public outdoor spaces unless in exceptional circumstances.

Funerals will continue with up to 30 mourners. The number of people able to attend weddings, receptions and commemorative events such as wakes (or the scattering of ashes) will rise to 15.

We can confirm that the vast majority of our services will continue in line with government guidance and keeping to existing COVID-19 compliant practices, but some may be affected. Find out more about our services during National Restrictions.

If you start to experience coronavirus symptoms, it is important that you get a test. Visit www.nhs.uk/coronavirus or call 119 to book a test.

The police can take action against you if you meet in larger groups. This includes breaking up illegal gatherings and issuing fines (fixed penalty notices).

You can be given a Fixed Penalty Notice of £200 for the first offence, doubling for further offences up to a maximum of £6,400. If you hold, or are involved in holding, an illegal gathering of over 30 people, the police can issue fines of £10,000.

REPORT A DOMESTIC BREACH OF COVID-19 GUIDANCE TO SOUTH YORKSHIRE POLICE

For concerns about business compliance email Regulation&Enforcement@doncaster.gov.uk or use the link below:

REPORT A BUSINESS BREACH OF COVID-19 GUIDANCE

Visits to care homes can take place with arrangements such as substantial screens, visiting pods, or behind windows.

Every care home resident will be able to nominate two named visitors who will be able to enter the care home for regular visits. These visitors should be tested using rapid lateral flow tests before every visit, must wear the appropriate personal protective equipment (PPE) and follow all other infection control measures (which the care home will guide them on) during visits. Visitors and residents are advised to keep physical contact to a minimum. Visitors and residents may wish to hold hands, but should bear in mind that any contact increases the risk of transmission. There should not be close physical contact such as hugging.

Residents with the highest care needs will also be able to nominate an essential care giver

You should check the guidance from your Care Home before visiting.

The 'stay at home' rule has ended however, you should still try to minimise travel where possible.

Self-contained accommodation such as campsites and holiday lets, where indoor facilities are not shared with other households, have reopened from the 12th of April

You are also allowed to stay overnight away from your home if you: Are visiting your support bubble, are unable to return to your main residence, need accommodation while moving house, need accommodation to attend a funeral or related commemorative event, require accommodation for work purposes or to provide voluntary services, are a child requiring accommodation for school or care, are homeless, seeking asylum or a vulnerable person seeking refuge, are an elite athlete or their support staff or parent, if the athlete is under 18 and it is necessary to be outside of the home for training or competition.

Tradespeople and personal care facilities such as mobile hairdressing can work in homes. 

You can still move home. People outside your household or support bubble should not help with moving house unless absolutely necessary.

Estate and letting agents and removals firms can continue to work. If you are looking to move, you can go to property viewings.

Follow the national guidance on moving home safely, which includes advice on social distancing, letting fresh air in, and wearing a face covering.

The following people can provide childcare support in private homes and gardens:

• registered childcare providers, including nannies
• people in your support bubble
• people in your childcare bubble

A childcare bubble is where someone in one household provides informal (unpaid and unregistered) childcare to a child aged 13 or under in another household. For any given childcare bubble, this must always be between the same 2 households.

Friends or family who do not live with you and are not part of a support or childcare bubble must not visit your home to help with childcare. Childcare bubbles are to be used to provide childcare only, and not for the purposes of different households mixing where they are otherwise not allowed to do so.

Please remember that you can attend outdoor gatherings of either 6 people (the Rule of 6) or 2 households in:

• parks, beaches, countryside, forests
• public gardens (whether or not you pay to enter them), allotments
• outdoor sports courts and facilities, and playgrounds
• gardens

You can also consider forming a support bubble with one household if your household consists of one adult. A support bubble is where a household with one adult joins with another household. Households in that support bubble can still visit each other, stay overnight, and visit public places together.

Outdoor sports facilities such as tennis and basketball courts, and open-air swimming pools, will also be allowed to reopen, and people will be able to take part in formally organised outdoor sports.

Also there are telephone or digital ways to keep in touch with your existing support system or even to make new social connections.

Find out more on mental health and wellbeing.

Those who are clinically extremely vulnerable should not attend work, school, college or university, and limit the time you spend outside the home. You should only go out for medical appointments, exercise or if it is essential.

Further details can be found here COVID-19: guidance on shielding and protecting people defined on medical grounds as extremely vulnerable