This is what a 'socially distanced' Wetherspoons would look like

Pubs around England can re-open on July 4. Yay!

But they have to adhere to social distancing guidelines – and reportedly collect people’s data for up to three weeks after, in order to track and trace the spread of Covid-19.

Some pubs with beer gardens may find this easier to do, especially if their beer gardens are quite large.

But others, like Wetherspoons, are coming up with creative ways of enforcing social distancing.

All 750 branches of Spoons are supposed to re-open after July 4, and the plan to enforce social distancing is reported to cost £11 million.

Photos from Wetherspoons, released earlier this week, show some steps that Spoons will be taking to make sure people stay 1 metre apart from each other.

Getty

Getty

One is a Plexiglas screen between two tables right next to each other – which isn’t really very high. Other tables not so far away don’t seem to have plexiglas screens between them, which is confusing.

Other measures include asking people to order on the Spoons app, but if they must go to the bar, to queue at the till, and staff members will be asked to clean surfaces regularly.

An average of 10 hand sanitisers will be installed at various pubs’ entry and exit points, and the menu that people can order from will be reduced (although it’s safe to say that some of the best parts of Spoons, like cheap chips, will stick around).

Staff will also be provided with personal protective equipment – such as masks and gloves – but apparently it will be up to them to choose whether or not to wear them.

There seem to be some obvious gaps, which doesn't exactly seem great...

For example, the fact that tables still seem to be close together, even if there’s space to move them out. But maybe this is something that individual managers will have to enforce or change as they see fit.

Earlier this week, some people were encouraging a boycott of Spoons – but a group of unionised Spoons workers said that this would only harm them negatively.