Roadmap to freedom next MONDAY: Boris Johnson says he wants to make 'cautious but irreversible' changes and promises to lay out dates for how lockdown will end as even scientists say this should be final shutdown and Tory MPs demand all rules eased ASAP
- Boris Johnson will unveil his new lockdown exit strategy on Monday February 22
- He said today that the plan will have specific target dates for easing the rules
- Mr Johnson said he wants the UK to make 'cautious but irreversible' progress
- Some Tory MPs are calling for all lockdown rules to be lifted by the end of April
- Ministers resisting target, suggesting setting such a deadline would be arbitrary
- Matt Hancock today warned 'there is a long way to go' to ease all the restrictions
- Steve Baker said schools must return ASAP because of harm done to pupils Boris Johnson today insisted he wants the UK to make 'cautious but irreversible' progress when lockdown starts to be lifted as he prepares to unveil his exit strategy on Monday next week.
The Prime Minister, who will hold a Downing Street press conference at 5pm, said the roadmap out of lockdown will include specific target dates for reopening different sectors of the economy and society.
But he stressed dates will be when the Government aims 'to do something at the earliest' and if there is a spike in infection rates ministers 'won't hesitate' to delay the reopening. In comments that are likely to anger Tories agitating for a swift lifting of the lockdown, the PM said the Government's aim is to get the rate of infection 'down very low indeed' in order to reduce the risk of new variants and to guard against the fact that 'no vaccination programme is 100 per cent effective'.
Mr Johnson said 'we want to drive it right down, keep it right down' as he also urged people who should have had a coronavirus jab by now to come forward and make sure they receive a vaccine.
His comments came as scientific experts said they 'confidently expect' the current national shutdown to be the last one - as long as a new vaccine-busting variant is not discovered.
Earlier, Matt Hancock hailed a 'little step towards freedom for us all' after the Government hit its 15million vaccinations target as he slapped down Tory demands to lift all lockdown rules by the end of April.
The Health Secretary said 'there is a long way to go' before life can return to normal and while coronavirus cases are falling 'sharply' the number of people in hospital with the disease is still 'too high'.
He also said it is 'too early to say' whether the falling number of deaths is 'directly due' to the vaccine roll-out.
Mr Hancock's comments represent a firm rebuke to the Covid Recovery Group of Conservative MPs which has demanded Mr Johnson remove all legal restrictions in England by the start of May.
Ministers are said to be discussing plans to allow shops to re-open, families to be re-united and self-catering staycations to be given the go ahead if Covid-19 infection rates continue to plummet.
Plans to ease lockdown were boosted yesterday by figures showing the dramatic impact vaccines are already having as Mr Johnson last night confirmed the country had hit its target of vaccinating the 15million most vulnerable people two days ahead of schedule.
Mr Hancock described hitting the target as an 'emotional moment because it is the moment that protects us and also it is just a little step towards freedom for us all'.
The PM said the number of new Covid cases has already dropped 'very considerably' preparing the way for lockdown measures to be relaxed.
Analysis shows cases have come down in 95 per cent of council areas. And hospital data is promising, too, with the number of inpatients now at half of its January peak in England – with 17,694 down from 34,336.
It is thought that this could mean the re-opening of High Street shops within weeks as well as the easing of restrictions on outdoor exercise and socialising.
Ministers are also said to be considering plans to allow for families of a single household to travel across the UK for an Easter holiday in self-catered accommodation.
It has led to growing hope that families will be able to meet outside by Easter as early as next month to allow grandchildren to reunite with their grandparents.
Boris Johnson, pictured today at a vaccination centre in London, confirmed his lockdown exit plan, due to be unveiled next week, will have target reopening dates fo different sectorsThey said schools 'must' return on March 8 as planned with pubs and restaurants opening in a 'commercially viable manner' from Easter, with the end of April marking the final end of lockdown.
The Government is aiming to have vaccinated the top nine priority groups by the end of April and the CRG believes that must be the point at which lockdown finally ends.
But Mr Hancock dismissed the calls for a firm timeline, telling Sky News this morning: 'Of course there is a long way to go and in a way the most important message remains the message for everybody to stay at home and abide by the rules.'
He added: 'We have got to watch the data and look, I talk to Mark Harper and others all the time because everybody wants to get out of this as quickly as we safely can, both quickly but also as safely are important. That is what everybody agrees with.
'The question is a judgement of how quickly we can do that safely. That is the judgement that we will be making this week, looking at the data ahead of the Prime Minister setting out the road map on the 22nd, a week from today.'
Mr Hancock said the 'signs are that thankfully the number of deaths is falling and has been now coming down for a few weeks'.
But pointing to the start of the vaccine roll-out in December, he added: 'It is too early to say whether that is directly due to the vaccination programme yet.
'In those first couple of weeks in December the numbers were relatively small, we are going up half a million a day now whereas in December we did a million in the whole of December from the 8th through to New Year.
'So it is too early to be able to measure the direct impact but of course we are looking at that and we can see overall that the number of cases is coming down sharply, the numbers in hospitals is coming down but it is still too high - on the latest count there is still 23,000 people in hospital with Covid.'
Mr Hancock said he was 'really, really proud of the team' after the Government hit its 15million vaccinations target.
'We hit it two days early and right across the whole of the UK, managing to ensure that everybody in groups one to four is offered a jab and got 15 million jabs done,' he said.
'But you say I danced a little jig, that was referring specifically to when members of my family got vaccinated and I know that for millions of people this is such an emotional moment because it is the moment that protects us and also it is just a little step towards freedom for us all.'
Tory MP Steve Baker, the deputy chairman of the CRG, today hit back at the Government's suggestion that the group's demand for a lockdown deadline is arbitrary.
He told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme: 'If we were talking about something arbitrary then of course the criticism would be correct but we are not talking about something arbitrary and there is no question of just plucking dates out of the diary, that is simply wrong.
'The reality is that what we have said is intimately connected with the vaccine roll-out plan and that is something to be celebrated, we know these vaccines work… that is why we have said now that the top four groups are vaccinated accounting for 88 per cent of Covid deaths that is why the Government should now be opening schools because we can't afford to be cavalier about the harm to children.
'We have said that other restrictions which remain in place should be proportionate to the harms which Covid is then capable of causing, bearing in mind the accelerating number of people vaccinated.
'Likewise, hospitality by Easter we will be looking at two thirds of groups one to nine vaccinated and therefore harms that Covid inescapable of causing will be again substantially diminished.
'For hospitality you are either open at Easter or you are not. It is a major time of the year for hospitality so it is very important that Government takes note of the harms caused to hospitality by being kept close.
'And then of course by May 1 we will have vaccinated all of the top nine groups which remember includes people under 50 who are clinically extremely vulnerable and others with underlying health conditions.'
Writing in The Telegraph overnight, Mr Baker had said the nation must have 'free life by May 1'.
It is thought that due to the vaccine rollout success, Downing Street is currently looking at plans that would allow families that live in the same household to go away for self-catered staycations as soon as the Easter holidays.
However, that has raised fears that letting people travel long distances to their destinations could lead to 'big movements' across the UK - potentially leading to a spike in coronavirus cases once again.
The latest developments could also see the easing of restrictions on outdoor exercise and socialising as early as next month with the return of one-to-one outdoor sports such as golf and tennis.
It is thought that this will be followed by the re-opening of non-essential retailers with pubs and restaurants being allowed to serve people outdoors later in April.
Indoor hospitality would not return until May with the possibility of delay until August.
The pace at which restrictions are eased will depend on the ongoing scientific advice but ministers are also considering plans to allow grandparents to reunite with their grandchildren outdoors from next month.
Mr Johnson had previously urged people to wait until the government had issued a 'road map' out of lockdown (empty high street pictured in March last year)
Plans to ease lockdown were boosted yesterday by figures showing the dramatic impact vaccines are already having (packed high street pictured during December last year before the latest lockdown was imposed)
People could also be allowed to meet friends and family outdoors on a one-to-one basis.
A government source told The Telegraph that there could be an exemption to the one-to-one outdoor meeting rule for children.
'If grandparents had had the vaccine, that would be likely to be okay,' they said.
'Given that people will have immunity, that would be a fair assumption, but nothing has been decided.'
Mr Johnson last night a 'significant milestone' as the number of people in the UK receiving a coronavirus vaccine passed 15million.
The Prime Minister said it was an 'extraordinary feat' just over two months after 91-year-old Margaret Keenan became the first person in the world to receive a Covid-19 jab as part of a mass vaccination programme.
In a video message posted on Twitter, Mr Johnson said: 'Today we have reached a significant milestone in the United Kingdom's national vaccination programme.
'This country has achieved an extraordinary feat – administering a total of 15 million jabs into the arms of some of the most vulnerable people in the country.'
The announcement paves the way for the rollout to be extended to the next five priority groups – including the over-50s – who are due to be completed by the end of April.
In England, 1.2 million letters have already gone out to 65 to 69 year-olds and the clinically vulnerable inviting them to book an appointment.
Schools open on March 8, golf and tennis allowed, friends meeting in the park and grandparents to see grandchildren BEFORE Easter under Boris Johnson's lockdown-easing roadmap that could even see domestic holidays return in APRIL
By David Wilcock, Whitehall Correspondent for MailOnline
Britons could be out and about playing golf and tennis and enjoying time in the park with friends and family within weeks under plans being drawn up to ease the lockdown.
Boris Johnson this morning pledged a 'cautious but irreversible' approach to easing restrictions that have been in place since the new year.
The Prime Minister is due to unveil a 'roadmap' out of lockdown on February 22 that is expected to confirm at least some children will return to school on March 8.
But he and ministers are refusing to reveal and other firm dates - and have warned that any they do announce will be the 'earliest' measures could be lifted - reserving the right to push the lifting back if there are any new spikes in Covid cases.
However reports suggest that some of the more gruelling social aspects of the lockdown - like preventing grandparents from seeing grandchildren and barring people from enjoying outdoor spaces unless exercising - could be among the first to be lifted.
Non-essential shops could also lift their shutters March.
There are even suggestions that domestic holidays could return in time for Easter - but limited to family bubbles staying in self-catering accommodation.
Pubs and restaurants are also expected to open in April - initially to serve people outdoors.
Plans to ease lockdown were boosted yesterday by figures showing the dramatic impact vaccines are already having as Mr Johnson last night confirmed the country had hit its target of 15 million vaccinations ahead of schedule.
The Prime Minister said the number of new cases has already dropped 'very considerably' preparing the way for lockdown measures to be relaxed.
Here is how the lockdown lifting could pan out:
Boris Johnson this morning pledged a 'cautious but irreversible' approach to easing restrictions that have been in place since the new year.
February 22: Boris Johnson unveils his roadmap
Mr Johnson will unveil his lockdown-easing roadmap to MPs and the nation on Monday.
But after a year of anti-coronavirus measures that have been marked by often misplaced optimism and criticism over doing too little, too late, the Prime Minister today stressed the need to be 'very prudent', while lockdown-sceptical Tory MPs pressure for a swift reopening.
'No decisions have been taken on that sort of detail (dates) yet, though clearly schools on March 8 has for a long time been a priority of the Government and of families up and down the country,' Mr Johnson told reporters during a visit to Orpington Health and Wellbeing Centre in south-east London.
He added that 'we will do everything we can to make that happen', but cautioned that infection rates are still 'comparatively high' and Covid-19 patients in the NHS remain higher than the April peak.
'So we've got to be very prudent and what we wanted to see is progress that is cautious but irreversible and I think that's what the public and people up and down the country will want to see,' Mr Johnson added.
March 8: Children return to school
The only firm date so far in the PM's lockdown diary is March 8, when children will return to school for face-to-face lessons for the first time since January.
Steve Chalke, the head of the Oasis Academies Trust, described Number 10's plan as 'impossible'
The remaining question is over how many children will go back straight away. Reports have suggested that a staggered approach may be taken, with secondary schools going back a week later than primaries.
Mr Johnson said today that no decisions have been made on whether year groups across schools in England will return together or whether primaries and secondaries could be staggered.
An academy chief today cast doubt on the 'optimistic' plans as he warned dates were 'being pulled out of thin air.'
Steve Chalke, the head of the Oasis Academies Trust, described Number 10's plan as 'impossible'.
He suggested ministers take a 'regional approach' by vaccinating all staff before sending pupils back.
He also warned schools needed to create more space including having marquees in playgrounds, to avoid children being 'like sardines in a can'.
Professor Neil Ferguson, who advises the Government as part of the New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group (Nervtag), said modelling suggests 'there probably is leeway to reopen all schools' from March 8 but acknowledged there will be 'slightly more of a risk' in a rise in cases than if just primary schools were reopened.
Professor Gabriel Scally, president of the epidemiology and public health section at the Royal Society of Medicine and a member of Independent Sage, said schools must be made safe before reopening.
He told Good Morning Britain: 'By taking on extra space, by improving ventilation, by extending mask-wearing in schools - all of these things will help.'
Early March: Outdoor rules loosened, return of golf and tennis
After the schools are reopened, some of the social measures in place in the lockdown are likely to be among the first to be lifted.
Exercise is the only regular reason people in England have been allowed to leave home, but this rule is likely to be among the first to be relaxed to bring respite to people cooped up at home, especially without a garden.
People are expected to be allowed to meet friends and family outdoors on a one-to-one basis - with social distancing - and in a boost for families this two-person total may not include children.
A Government source also told The Telegraph: 'If grandparents had had the vaccine, that would be likely to be okay.
'Given that people will have immunity, that would be a fair assumption, but nothing has been decided.'
Mr Johnson also wants to bring back the rule of six for outdoor gatherings, which would allow families to meet in groups for walks or picnics.
The rules could also allow for the resumption of outdoor individual sports and those where competitors do not come into close contact with each other. Golf and Tennis have both been banned during the lockdown but could be among the first to resume.
Late March: non-essential shops
Plans to ease lockdown were boosted yesterday by figures showing the dramatic impact vaccines are already having (packed high street pictured during December last year before the latest lockdown was imposed)
High Street shops will be allowed to reopen within weeks if Covid infection rates keep dropping.
High Street shops will be allowed to reopen within weeks if Covid infection rates keep dropping.
Government sources expect this will happen towards the end of March, or the beginning of April at the latest.
Rishi Sunak's furlough scheme and other job-prevention measures were extended late last year to cover the period up to the end of April. But firms will be able to access emergency loans only until the end of March.
Any reopening before would act as a welcome economic stimulus and ease - if only a little - the massive level of public spending during the pandemic.
Easter: Pubs could reopen, self-catering holidays allowed
Ministers are said to be considering plans to allow hospitality firms to serve customers outside by Easter, which falls on the weekend of April 2.
But a full reopening which service and seating inside pubs as well is not expected until May at the earliest.
Wetherspoon boss Tim Martin today warned that the industry is 'on its knees' and must reopen to save jobs.
Aditionally, Mitchells & Butlers, which owns All Bar One, Toby Carvery and Harvester said it will raise £350million from its largest investors to shore up its finances.
M&B, which is Britain's largest listed pub company, operates around 1,700 restaurants and pubs across the UK but cut about 1,300 jobs last year.
The developments follow a bust-up between pub groups and the Government which has seen companies pull out of regular business roundtables in frustration.
The head of industry body UK Hospitality warned today said there will need to be more support for businesses if restrictions continue.
Kate Nicholls said that flexible furlough and grants would need to be extended past March 31 cut-off without some way of opening to make money.
It is thought that due to the vaccine rollout success ministers are currently looking at plans that would allow families that live in the same household to go away for self-catered staycations as soon as the Easter holidays (Cornwall pictured)She told Good Morning Britain: 'If we are to stay closed or severely restricted for much longer then we are going to need to have additional government support over and above that (which has been provided to date). Flexible furlough and grants going on beyond March 31 so that our businesses can survive.'
Ms Nicholls called for a 'very clear phased exit strategy from the lockdown and then from the restrictions that the hospitality sector is facing'.
She said: 'Even if we open up under lockdown, we're opening up under very strict restrictions that meant we didn't break even last year when we were trading from July, so we can be confident that we can be safe when we reopen and when the time is right.
'We need to see not just that initial date but the phasing out of those restrictions linked to the rollout of the vaccine.'
Mr Johnson today promised Britons will not need to carry a 'vaccine passport' to go to the pub. He shot down growing reports the controversial scheme is being looked at as a tactic to keep the economy open when restrictions are finally lifted.
But Mr Johnson conceded that some form of proof of vaccination will likely be needed to get international travel back up and running in the future.
'I think inevitably there will be great interest in ideas like can you show that you had a vaccination against Covid in the way that you sometimes have to show you have had a vaccination against Yellow Fever or other diseases in order to travel somewhere,' he said.
'I think that is going to be very much in the mix down the road, I think that is going to happen. What I don't think we will have in this country is - as it were - vaccination passports to allow you to go to, say, the pub or something like that.'
It is thought that due to the vaccine rollout success ministers are currently looking at plans that would allow families that live in the same household to go away for self-catered staycations as soon as the Easter holidays.
This has raised fears that letting people travel long distances to their destinations could lead to 'big movements' across the UK - potentially leading to a spike in coronavirus cases once again.
May: Weddings?
A group of senior Tory MPs has demanded Boris Johnson allow Covid-safe weddings to resume from March 8 and unrestricted ceremonies from May 1.
Some 13 Conservative backbenchers, including 1922 Committee chairman Sir Graham Brady, have backed the What About Weddings campaign.
The group is pushing for the Prime Minister to include the moves in his lockdown exit plan which he is due to unveil next week.
Philip Davies and Esther McVey, who got married last September, are among 13 Tory MPs who have backed the What About Weddings campaign
The MPs want Mr Johnson to deliver some hope to the hundreds of thousands of people who are waiting to get married and who have seen their plans ruined by lockdown.
The group is being led by Tory MPs Esther McVey and Philip Davies who got married last September.
Current lockdown rules state that people should 'only consider booking a wedding or civil partnership (or continuing with one that is already booked) in exceptional circumstances', for example in cases of terminal illness or life changing surgery.
The What About Weddings campaign represents 400,000 people who work in the £14.7billion UK wedding industry and the estimated half a million couples waiting for restrictions to be lifted so they can get married.
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