Do fears of alcohol-related consequences for lockdown easing reflect reality?

Initial fears that hospitals and ambulance services would be stretched after pubs reopened have not been found according to initial reports.

Restaurants, pubs and hairdressers have opened for the first time yesterday since March.

These first steps of easing lockdown restrictions caused NHS England to worry that rates of criminality and A&E admissions would increase. However, some say that the results have so far been few and far between cases.

Instead, the number of people out to celebrate the reopening of pubs introduced another concern; the lack of social distancing.

National broadcasters have released images of Soho, in central London, with packed streets from Saturday night into early Sunday morning.

But the Police Federation have had reports of several instances involving intoxicated and angry individuals that were clearly not social distancing. Witnesses suggested that with the number of people arriving in the streets, there was no room to socially distance for 1 metre, let alone anything above that. In some areas of the country, officers had been assaulted when trying to monitor the crowds.

But Bas Javid, the Met police commander, said that there were no significant issues in the capital as the majority of the public complied with social distancing rules.

According to police forces, other areas of the UK were not as unproblematic as London.

Devon and Cornwall police revealed that they had 1,000 calls on Saturday, the calls mainly concerning drink-related anti-social behaviour.

According to the local force, five pubs had to be closed early in Nottinghamshire, as 12 people were arrested for anti-social behaviour. Still, as with London, there were no major incidents.

The social distancing measures in place, as well as other government guidelines such as face masks on public transport, are being enforced to avoid a second wave of COVID-19 cases. Chris Witty, the chief medical officer for England, has warned the public that the easing of lockdown restrictions is not "risk-free".

Today's COVID-19 figures show that another 22 people have died in the UK from the virus, bringing the total number of deaths to 44,220.