It seems certain that from July 19 the way we can live will be very different.

Subject to COVID-19 data, on July 12 it will be announced that the following changes will come into effect a week later.

Social distancing and face coverings

- There will be no limits on social contact.

- Face coverings will not be subject to legal requirements, although their use will still be advised in hospitals, healthcare settings and enclosed, crowded public spaces.

Events and hospitality businesses

- Nightclubs will be allowed to reopen.

- Hospitality businesses will no longer be required to provide just table service.

- No restrictions on communal worship and singing.

- And no legal requirements for COVID certificates for any venue or event.

Guidance on working from home will also end, and limits on named visitors to care homes will be removed.

Symptomatic testing and contact tracing will continue - and it will still remain a legal requirement to self-isolate if you test positive for COVID.

Yesterday, when Prime Minister Boris Johnson outlined these government plans to lift remaining restrictions in England, he made it clear that this represents a switch from legal requirements to personal responsibility.

From July 19 the government will invite people "to make their own informed decisions about how to manage the virus".

He added that the pandemic is "far from over", which is plain from the acknowledgement by new Health Secretary Sajid Javid, that UK infection numbers could hit 100,000 per day as restrictions are lifted and the Delta variant in particular spreads.

Here in Wirral, cases have increased, but the vaccination programme has kept people out of hospital. Read more here.

Lifting restrictions appears to be a gamble, but one that many people will be prepared to risk and welcome.

Others, including those in the scientific community who fear the relaxation is premature and even runs the risk of creating 'variant factories', will be less comfortable.

For a town like Heswall, where the hospitality sector is such an important part of the local economy, easing of restrictions appears to be only good news for business owners. For a long time, restaurants, cafes and pubs have had to endure being closed or operating at limited capacity, struggling to break even, let alone make a profit.

Our shops will be able to welcome customers as they did in the pre-pandemic past, and be free of the burden of being thoroughly COVID compliant. Footfall will increase, with shoppers happy to pop into one shop and then another.

Something like normal society will reappear, but it will have a cost to public health.

A price worth paying?

What do you think?