'Another lockdown would be game over': North East businesses react as restrictions set to lift
Watch: Gregg Easteal's report
North East businesses have spoken out about their concerns ahead of so called "freedom day".
From 19 July the Government is set to remove guidance on masks, social distancing and restrictions on some remaining businesses. The Prime Minister says he wants the changes to be "irreversible".
The changes include:
Clubs reopening
No more rule of six
Crowds back at sports events
No more restrictions on table service only
The co-owner of the Empire nightclub in Middlesbrough, which opened in 1897 and has seen stars from Charlie Chaplin to the Arctic Monkeys perform, says the venue came close to crumbling during the pandemic.
He says they could not afford another lockdown and that it would be "game over" for a lot of businesses.
While it is the news many people have been waiting for since the pandemic began in 2020, this milestone comes against a backdrop of lingering concern about how opening up might tip the balance in the fight against the virus.
Analysis from our reporter Tom Barton
Since the start of May there has been, in many parts of the country, a significant increase in the rate of Covid infections. In the last couple of weeks the rate of infection in the region has gone up dramatically, and is now the highest in the country.
Six of the 10 districts with the highest Covid rates in England are now in the North East. The highest, with a rate of 620 positive cases per hundred thousand people, is Newcastle.
Across the region the average rate of Covid infection is now 439 per 100,000. That is not far off the region's highest ever recorded rate at the height of the wave of infections back in January this year.
Pushing up the number of people being vaccinated is the focus right now for many health officials.
Mobile clinics are taking the jab into communities to try to make it as easy as possible for people to have a vaccine and to combat remaining hesitancy.