During today’s (17 July) COVID-19 briefing, Prime Minister Boris Johnson has announced that close-contact services can resume in England as of 1 August.

This latest development was revealed by Johnson as he laid out the next steps in the country’s efforts to ease lockdown and ‘return to normality’.

For spas, this means that facials and treatments around the face will be allowed to recommence at the beginning of August.

Johnson's announcement has given English spa, beauty and wellness sector the greenlight to reopen completely – the government had previously stated up until this announcement that treatments were only allowed to be conducted ‘from the neck downwards’.

The new lockdown exit plans have been laid out in the official government document titled: The next chapter in our plan to rebuild: The UK Government’s COVID-19 recovery strategy.

The document states the resumption of close-contact services is dependent on virus prevalence remaining around or below current levels.

If levels remain stable, the document says that the government will: “Enable all close contact services to resume, including any treatments on the face such as eyebrow threading or make-up application, working closely with the sector and public health experts to ensure this can be done as safely as possible and in line with COVID-19 Secure guidelines.”

The government recently permitted spas to reopen on 13 July in England, with pools having a deadline of 25 July. At present, there has been no guidance about when thermal offerings are allowed to reopen.