ALL OUTDOOR sports will return from March 29, vaccines minister Nadhim Zahawi has said.

Outdoor activities are set to be opened earlier than indoor ones, due to the reduced risk of spreading coronavirus outside.

This means venues like tennis and basketball courts could reopen while organised adult and children’s sport – including grassroots football – can also return from March 29.

But indoor sites such as gyms and swimming pools face a longer wait to reopen.

“The simple way to look at this is that outdoor is safer and therefore we prioritise versus indoor,” Zahawi told LBC.

“Outdoor sports – tennis, golf, outdoor organised team sports, grassroots football – will go back on March 29.”

Pushed on when gyms and fitness centres could reopen, he added: “At the moment, it’s outdoors versus indoors. Outdoors is the priority because it’s where the transmission rates are much, much, much lower.”

Restrictions will be relaxed step-by-step across the whole of England at the same time, Downing Street confirmed, due to the current uniform spread of the virus, rather than on a regional basis - as had been implemented before.