Cautious Britons no more likely to hug now than at Covid peak
Guidance against hugging lifted May 17 but people remain reluctant to embrace
Boris Johnson elbow bumps actress Helena Bonham Carter at Westminster Abbey
Credit: Victoria Jones/PA
People are no more likely to hug than they were at the peak of the epidemic, research suggests.
Scientists said research by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine suggests residual cautiousness in the population, with people remaining reluctant to embrace.
The study, which tracked more than 1,500 people weekly, until late May, found almost no change since the first lockdown.
On average there was less than one such contact daily, outside the household.
Friday, 28th May 2021, 8:13 am
Officials are examining the data after confirmed cases of the Indian variant of Covid-19 reached almost 7,000 (Photo by ADRIAN DENNIS/AFP via Getty Images)
Cases of the Indian variant have doubled in a week leading to fresh doubts over the ending of Covid restrictions in England next month.
Boris Johnson warned that freedom from restrictions on 21 June may have to wait as it emerged three-quarters of new cases are now the Indian mutation.
Ministers are remaining cautious on the prospect of all measures being scrapped in England on 21 June, as set out in the Prime Minister’s road map, although hospital admissions remain flat.
Public Health England analysis shows only 177 out of 5,599 people who caught the mutant strain and presented to A&E had already had both jabs. Almost 3,400 had not yet had their first dose.