Britons are encouraged these days though in most cases not required to wear face coverings in crowded indoor spaces. But Prime Minister Boris Johnson regularly appears in the packed, poorly ventilated House of Commons cheek-by-jowl with other maskless Conservative lawmakers, AP reports.

Johnson's government is counting on vaccines to do the heavy lifting against the virus, supplemented by voluntary common sense behaviour.

But after an exceptionally long and strict lockdown earlier this year, it's not clear Britons will freely choose any virus-prevention measures they're not forced to take.

Britain has recorded more than 135,000 coronavirus deaths, the highest toll in Europe after Russia and about the same number per capita as the United States. Yet it also has organised a successful inoculation campaign that has seen 65 per cent of the whole population fully vaccinated.