Coronavirus: Isle of Man to scrap social distancing rules https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-isle-of-man-53001567
Social distancing rules for the general public are to be scrapped on the Isle of Man from Monday.
Howard Quayle said the decision had been taken to "get society back to normal".
Twenty-four people have died from coronavirus on the island but there have been no new cases for 22 days.
Rules on social distancing would remain in place for those working in health care and elderly care homes, the chief minister said.
The announcement makes the island the first place in the British Isles to drop social distancing.
Mr Quayle said the "bold move" was the "right one at the right time", but could be reversed should new cases of the virus emerge.
A relaxation of the opening of restaurants, cafés and pubs, and the reopening of gyms on 15 June was previously announced by the government.
Gatherings will remain restricted to 30 in outdoor environments, while people indoors can invite up to two people into their homes from one other household.
Changes to those rules are expected to be announced next week.
The island's border will remain closed, but a decision on its opening will be discussed by the Council of Ministers at the end of June, Mr Quayle said.
The Manx name of the Isle of Man is Ellan Vannin: ellan (Manx pronunciation: [ɛlʲan]) is a Manx word meaning "island"; Mannin (IPA: [manɪnʲ]) appears in the genitive case as Vannin (IPA: [vanɪnʲ]), with initial consonant mutation, hence Ellan Vannin, "Island of Mann". The short form used in English is spelled either Mann or Man. The earliest recorded Manx form of the name is Manu or Mana.
The Old Irish form of the name is Manau or Mano. Old Welsh records named it as Manaw, also reflected in Manaw Gododdin, the name for an ancient district in north Britain along the lower Firth of Forth. The oldest known reference to the island calls it Mona, in Latin (Julius Caesar, 54 BC); in the 1st century AD, Pliny the Elder records it as Monapia or Monabia, and Ptolemy (2nd century) as Monœda (Mοναοιδα, Monaoida) or Mοναρινα (Monarina), in Koine Greek. Later Latin references have Mevania or Mænavia (Orosius, 416), and Eubonia or Eumonia by Irish writers. It is found in the Sagas of Icelanders as Mön.
The name is probably cognate with the Welsh name of the island of Anglesey, Ynys Môn, usually derived from a Celtic word for 'mountain' (reflected in Welsh mynydd, Breton menez, and Scottish Gaelic monadh), from a Proto-Celtic *moniyos.
The name was at least secondarily associated with that of Manannán mac Lir in Irish mythology (corresponding to Welsh Manawydan fab Llŷr). In the earliest Irish mythological texts, Manannán is a king of the otherworld, but the 9th-century Sanas Cormaic identifies a euhemerised Manannán as "a famous merchant who resided in, and gave name to, the Isle of Man". Later, a Manannán is recorded as the first king of Mann in a Manx poem (dated 1504).
The Manx name of the Isle of Man is Ellan Vannin: ellan (Manx pronunciation: [ɛlʲan]) is a Manx word meaning "island"; Mannin (IPA: [manɪnʲ]) appears in the genitive case as Vannin (IPA: [vanɪnʲ]), with initial consonant mutation, hence Ellan V