Secondary school and college pupils will be required to wear face masks in communal areas outside of their classrooms in areas of the south west of England in response to a surge in coronavirus cases.

Starting Friday, Cornwall, the Isles of Scilly, Devon, Plymouth and Torbay local authority areas – which have seen an uptick in cases – will get help to increase vaccine and testing and deliver more public health messaging, the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) said.

Although schools will resume from next week as planned, students in secondary schools and colleges will need to wear face masks in communal areas after the guidance was scrapped on July 19.

A new three-tier lockdown system is being planned for England, with leaked government documents paving the way for potential harsher restrictions including the closure of pubs and a ban on all social contact outside of household groups.

The draft traffic-light-style plan, seen by the Guardian, is designed to simplify the current patchwork of localised restrictions, which apply to about a quarter of the UK. It also reveals tougher measures that could be imposed by the government locally or nationally if Covid cases are not brought under control.

On Sunday the number of cases jumped by 22,961 after it emerged that more than 15,000 test results had not previously been transferred on to computer systems, including for contact tracers.

Called the “Covid-19 Proposed Social Distancing Framework” and dated 30 September, it has not yet been signed off by No 10 and measures could still be watered down.

Alert level 3 – the most serious – contains tougher measures than any seen so far in local lockdowns since the start of the pandemic. They include:

• Closure of hospitality and leisure businesses.
• No social contact outside your household in any setting.
• Restrictions on overnight stays away from home.
• No organised non-professional sports permitted or other communal hobby groups and activities, such as social clubs in community centres.
• Places of worship can remain open.

Schools are not mentioned in the draft. A government source said this was because Boris Johnson had made clear that classroom closures would be a last resort and the reopening of schools was considered within Whitehall to have been a relative success.

Any attempts to impose more stringent measures are expected to provoke renewed anger among Conservative backbenchers, who are likely to demand a vote in parliament should they come into force.

Before pubs opened for the first time since 23 March, NHS England told hospitals and ambulance services that demand for care was likely to match that of New Year’s Eve. Police forces deployed extra patrols.

Early indications, however, were that criminality and the number of A&E admissions as a result of alcohol were not as high as many had anticipated, although there were small pockets of disorder.

John Apter, the chair of the Police Federation, was on shift in Southampton where he said he dealt with “naked men, happy drunks, angry drunks, fights and more angry drunks”.

He said:“What was crystal clear is that drunk people can’t/won’t socially distance. It was a busy night but the shift managed to cope. I know other areas have had issues with officers being assaulted.”

Images from Soho, central London, showed packed streets into the early hours of Sunday.

There are trade offs to be considered between bearing down on coronavirus but increasing levels of poor mental health, between bearing down on coronavirus and the loss of thousands of jobs and businesses, between bearing down on coronavirus and increases in pernicious crimes like domestic violence. I think people are beginning to vote with their feet. 

Its worth also remembering that in Sweden they have managed the pandemic without resort to lockdown. Notwithstanding all that, this article gives a largely without hope message from a number of health groups of the need to do what we are told with no indication of any short or perhaps even medium term relief.

Senior public health officials have made a last-minute plea for ministers to scrap Monday’s easing of the coronavirus lockdown in England, warning the country is unprepared to deal with any surge in infection and that public resolve to take steps to limit transmission has been eroded.

The Association of Directors of Public Health (ADPH) said new rules, including allowing groups of up to six people to meet outdoors and in private gardens, were “not supported by the science” and that pictures of crowded beaches and beauty spots over the weekend showed “the public is not keeping to social distancing as it was”.

On Saturday and Sunday, parks and seafronts were packed as people anticipated the lifting of restrictions on what has been dubbed “happy Monday”. Car showrooms and outdoor markets will also be reopened, millions of children will return to primary schools and the most vulnerable “shielded” people will be allowed out for the first time since lockdown began in March, all as long as physical distancing is maintained.

But Jeanelle de Gruchy, president of the ADPH, said her colleagues across England were “increasingly concerned that the government is misjudging the balance of risk between more social interaction and the risk of a resurgence of the virus, and is easing too many restrictions too quickly”.

They have called on ministers to postpone the easing of restrictions until more is known about the infection rate, the test-and-trace system is better established and public resolve to maintain physical distancing and hygiene can be reinforced.

A primary school in Suffolk has had a teepee built in its playing field for pupils to learn while maintaining social distance.

The structure was constructed by staff at an events company whose children attend East Bergholt school. It will likely be used for outdoor lessons and lunch breaks.

New government guidelines have set out ways for schools across England to allow children back from next month.

Headteacher Gill Mitchell told BBC Look East’s Debbie Tubby that children would be “supervised to wash their hands” before entering any new or redesigned classrooms.

On 23 March, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said all non-essential travel and public gatherings had to stop, with people urged to leave home only for exercise, to shop for essential items, for medical care, or when their work could not be done at home.

1) People are largely keeping their distance

The aim has of the lockdown is to limit the spread of coronavirus, to help the NHS to cope and ultimately reduce the number of deaths from the disease.

The government says the number of new cases is stabilising and suggests there is evidence that the public’s adherence to the measures is starting to have an impact.

Sir Patrick Vallance, the government’s chief scientific adviser, said: “It’s not taking off in that sharp uptake, it’s not gone sky high. And if anything there might even be some flattening. That is because of what we’re all doing with social distancing.”

The way people are using the health service is also changing. In March, the number of people attending A&E dropped whilst the numbers of calls made to 111 – the NHS hotline – reached record highs.

2) Fewer journeys made

The public’s use of transport has fallen dramatically, although this trend started before the lockdown measures were announced, as many people started to work from home.

Overall transport use – road, rail and the Tube in London – fell by 60% between early February and the beginning of April, according to the Department for Transport.

3) Crime is down – but anti-social behaviour is up

In England and Wales, crime fell by 28% in the four weeks to 12 April, compared to the same time last year. Home burglary, for example, was down by more than a third, as people spent far more time indoors. However, incidents of anti-social behaviour rose by 59%.

Meanwhile, the National Domestic Abuse helpline has seen a 25% increase in calls since the lockdown, the charity Refuge says.

4) Shopping sales

In the week before the restrictions started, supermarket sales were 43% higher than the same time last year, as many rushed to stock up amid fear of shortages.

But average sales fell by 7.4% over the first fortnight of lockdown according to consultancy Neilsen.

“When the country was told not to travel people stopped shopping,” says Mike Watkins, Nielsen’s head of retailer and business insight. “They had already bought a lot of stuff, and their larders and freezers were full.”

However, supermarket sales were back up to almost 9% higher than average in the week ending 11 April – perhaps people had eaten all the extra food they had bought.

5) More demand for benefit

Close to one million people have applied for universal credit since the lockdown began. Of these, 473,000 applied in the first eight days, almost as many as applied during the whole of the preceding three weeks, and almost 10 times as many as would apply in an average week.

Universal credit is a consolidated monthly payment for those of working-age, replacing a host of previous benefits including income-based jobseeker’s allowance, housing benefit, child tax credit and working tax credit.

6) Better air quality

Air pollution levels in the UK have dropped significantly in the weeks since the country went into lockdown.

The level of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) has fallen across the UK, with the daily average down almost 40% on the same period last year.

The rural luxury rental market has “gone mad” as affluent Londoners scramble to escape the capital, willing to pay vastly inflated sums to secure the best properties.

Holiday letting companies are struggling to keep up with a surge in enquiries for coastal or countryside properties as city-dwellers move to escape the crowds and self-isolate “comfortably” with plenty of space.

Experts reported frenetic activity in the past few days as families desperately try to secure desirable properties ahead of a possible lockdown.

The most popular locations for those seeking to escape the capital, as well as those who have had forthcoming skiing and Easter breaks cancelled, include the Cotswolds, Norfolk, Devon and Cornwall and the Lake District….

The Scottish government has urged people to stop travelling to the Highlands and Islands in a bid to avoid coronavirus, following reports of an influx of self-isolators and people in camper vans travelling to the area in recent days.

In a strongly worded statement issued on Saturday night, Holyrood’s rural economy and tourism secretary, Fergus Ewing, described himself as “furious” at such irresponsible behaviour and warned that he would discuss with ferry operators and other agencies whether further restrictive measures were needed to halt the inundation.

Ewing, the MSP for Inverness and Nairn, said: “I am furious at the reckless and irresponsible behaviour of some people travelling to the Highland and Islands. This has to stop now. Let me be crystal clear – people should not be travelling to rural and island communities, full stop. They are endangering lives. Do not travel.”

He added: “Panic buying will have a devastating impact on the livelihoods of rural shops and potentially puts unwanted pressure on NHS services in our rural communities. The Scottish government’s advice is that essential travel only should be undertaken.”

A dentist has warned of a “disaster waiting to happen” as thousands of people flocked to his seaside town in spite of official guidance to stay at home to curb the spread of coronavirus. Hundreds of thousands of people were reported to have visited Skegness, in Lincolnshire, on Saturday, flouting the advice to maintain “social distancing”.

Marc Jones, Lincolnshire’s police and crime commissioner, has called for the town’s caravan sites and arcades to be closed, “and quickly”.

In a video that has been viewed almost 25,000 times, Skegness dentist Dr Mitchell Clark also urged local businesses to shutter their shops and called for caravan parks to be closed.

Clark, who voluntarily closed his dental studio last Tuesday, said he was “appalled” to see his town “looking like it does on a busy summer day” as he drove home from walking his dog along a deserted section of beach.

“I view these actions as massively, massively socially irresponsible. I personally think that those involved should be ashamed of themselves,” he said. “Now is the time for us all to come together, to stay at home bar essential trips, to look after people and to do the right thing.”

He warned that the schools being closed and the caravan parks being open would bring an “enormous influx” of visitors into the small town next week.