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VE Day street parties criticised for appearing to ignore social distancing guidelines

VE Day street parties criticised for appearing to ignore social distancing guidelines

On Friday, Britons marked the 75th anniversary of VE Day, or Victory Europe Day, when fighting against Nazi Germany in Europe came to an end.

To allow people to mark the celebrations the first May Bank Holiday Monday was instead moved to Friday so that the public could reflect on this historic day in their own way.

As in previous VE Days, street parties were commonplace but this year, with the coronavirus pandemic still ongoing, the parties would have to follow social distancing rules with everyone from a household, that is not there own, remaining a minimum of two meters apart.

However, images and footage has since emerged from street parties around the country and caused outrage online as many believe that social distancing was followed in these instances and potentially contributed to the spread of coronavirus.

Reports from local outlets in Middlesbrough and Plymouth also claim that street parties did not follow social distancing rules.

Social distancing has been encouraged throughout the world to prevent the spread of coronavirus with the CDC urging people to remain 2 metres apart, to not gather in groups and for people to ignore crowded place and mass gatherings.

There have been suggestions that camera lenses can often make it look like people are ignoring the social distancing rules and there has been suggestions that the government could introduce minor changes to lockdown on Sunday.

At the time of writing more than 200,000 people in the UK have contracted coronavirus which has resulted in a reported 31,241 deaths.

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