Production on the second season of Netflix’s hugely popular series “Bridgerton” is back up and running on Friday after a day’s pause when a crew member tested positive for COVID-19.
Variety understands that filming was immediately paused to allow for an isolated round of testing of everyone involved in the series. All COVID-19 health and safety protocols were followed and those impacted have been isolated.
Production on season 2 began in May at various London locations. Breakout star Phoebe Dynevor returns for the series, which is based on Julia Quinn’s novels, but Regé-Jean Page won’t be part of the show.
The pause and resumption in production comes as the U.K. is set to fully reopen on July 19, the so-called Freedom Day. The country now has the highest daily new case rate in the world with 48,553 cases recorded on July 15, a seven-day average of 36,886, according to latest figures released by the U.K. government. The last seven days saw a total of 261,832 new cases, an increase of 32.6%.
Daily deaths are now 63, with 257 people dying of the virus in the last week, an increase of 47.7%. Daily hospital admission rates are now 563, with 3,933 admitted in the last seven days, an increase by 46.8%.
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More than 1.2 million people are getting tested daily: 87.5% of the population have received their first vaccination dose while 67.1% have received both jabs.
It remains to be seen if Freedom Day will lead to a spike in new cases.
Earlier this week, the first season of “Bridgerton” scored 12 Primetime Emmy nominations including for best drama series and leading actor for male lead Page. It was the streamer’s most popular show with 82 million viewers.
It is produced by Shondaland.