But there was a potential cost to socialising. People experiencing COVID symptoms were supposed to inform the authorities of the people that they have been in contact with and they would be asked self isolate for 14 days which seemed to be a heavy price for a pint even after three months of going without:
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The easing of the lockdown in May which permitted the meeting up of only small socially distant groups gave way to laxer observance as groups expanded and distances shrunk and by late June it was common to see larger groups enjoying the ‘take away’ beers that the more enterprising pubs were selling and adherence to the two metre rule was evaporating.
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The timing of the ending of lockdown depended crucially on the value of ‘ R ‘ (the reproductive rate of the virus) remaining below unity. This arithmetical concept which purported to capture and encapsulate all the known mathematical facts of the virus into a single number had been propelled by the ‘the science’ to celebrity status. As such it appeared centre stage ad nauseum in every daily broadcast: As seen in The Spectator.