What is a 'support bubble' for households in the UK?
The term was used in a recent briefing by the British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, but many wonder what it means and how it affects them.
Although the rules, guidance, hints, polite requests - call them what you will - from the UK government have been ignored by many, there are still a huge group of people in the country that have kept their distance and reduced their social interactions, some painfully so. But for some, that guidance is being loosened.
Johnson explains UK ’support bubbles’
Prime Minister Boris Johnson excitedly told those gathered virtually in front of him, along with the rest of us listening on, that English adults who lived alone, as well as single parents, would now be allowed to meet another household indoors from Saturday 13 June. Those people would no longer have to follow the advice to stay two metres apart and would effectively be acting as one household, but based in two locations.
"There are too many people, Johnson announced at his briefing, “particularly those who live by themselves, who are lonely and struggling with being unable to see friends and family.”
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"So from this weekend we will allow single adult households - adults living alone, or single parents with children under 18 - to form a 'support bubble' with one other household," he added.
As households in England consider this, they should also ponder the reality that if one of those in the ‘bubble’ has symptoms or is found to be Covid-19 positive, then all members would have to self-isolate as they would be required to do in a single household.