There was an extra bit of good news for people looking forward to catching up with friends and loved ones out in their back garden from next week – you are allowed to nip indoors to use the loo.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson has been setting out the latest measures in the lifting of lockdown restrictions in England at the daily Downing Street coronavirus briefing.

One of those developments was the announcement that from Monday people will be allowed to meet in ‘bubbles’ of six from different households so long as it is outdoors – including gardens and private outdoor spaces – and everyone sticks to the two-metre social distancing rules.

The PM said ‘it remains the case that people should not be inside the homes of their friends and families unless it is to access the garden’ or use the bathroom. But chief medical officer Professor Chris Whitty warned that ‘it’s absolutely critical’ that anyone doing so ‘wipes everything down’ to minimise the risk of contamination.

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Prof Whitty said: ‘It’s worth reinforcing: the two ways you get infections are droplets from someone coughing or speaking around you, and that’s why you need to keep the two metres.

‘And the second is through your hands and that’s why, to take the example that you raised and the example the PM raised, if someone was to go into the loo because they had to do that, it’s absolutely critical that they wipe everything down, wash their hands all the way through.

‘Secondly, if you were to do something like a barbecue, remember that passing things from one person to another, if you haven’t washed your hands, you can transmit the virus that way.

‘So hands, as well as the distance, are absolutely critical to this.’

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