The Central Council of Church Bell Ringers (CCCBR) have published draft guidance for the period from 17 May to 21 June 2021 to enable ringers in England at least to plan for the next phase of lockdown release. This guidance has been agreed with the House of Bishops Recovery Group, but it remains in draft form until the Government finally confirms that its four tests have been met immediately prior to 17 May 2021. The guidance is a major step change from previous guidance.

There are two new documents on the Covid guidance pages of the Council website. The first is one specifically covering this five-week guidance period, and then an update of the guidance note about individual risks.

 The key points of the guidance are that:

• Rule of Six applies indoors – ringing sessions should be arranged for six people
• Hands – Space – Face rules apply – face coverings, hand sanitising between ringing, 1m plus mitigations when ringing
• Lateral Flow Tests – twice weekly, preferably timed for days of any sustained ringing
• Consider your own personal risk
• Restrict ringing time to 45 minutes whilst maintaining good tower ventilation

Please do read all of the two guidance documents as there is much more detail in them, and this is just a summary.