Covid-19: PM urges optimistic but patient approach to pandemic

People must be “optimistic but patient” about the coronavirus situation in the UK and the end to restrictions, Boris Johnson has said.

The PM hailed the “achievement” of the vaccine rollout, but warned that now was not the time to relax.

He said he would set out a roadmap next week, providing a “route to normality” to move England out of lockdown.

It comes after No 10 said it had hit its target to offer a jab to the UK’s 15 million most vulnerable people.

Speaking at Monday’s Downing Street briefing, Mr Johnson hailed the “unprecedented national achievement” of hitting the target to offer a vaccine to everyone in the top four priority groups, but warned it was “no moment to relax” because the threat from the virus remained “very real”.

The prime minister warned that the government did not have all the “hard facts” about how the vaccine impacted infections and that there were still more people in hospital with Covid-19 than at the peak of the first wave in April – with admissions running at 1,600 a day across the UK.

“We have to keep our foot to the floor,” he said.

Mr Johnson said no decisions were being taken ahead of the unveiling of his roadmap out of England’s restrictions, but said the government wanted this lockdown “to be the last”, with “cautious but irreversible” progress.

He added that although he was “increasingly optimistic” he could not give “an absolute cast iron guarantee that we won’t face further difficulties”.

“I don’t want people to think I’m not optimistic. There’s been a big change – science is now in the ascendency over the disease,” he added.

Could this be the last lockdown?

That is, of course, a huge shared hope and the government’s stated aim.

It will soon be exactly a year since the first lockdown was brought in.

Who knew then that we’d be in a third period of national restrictions 12 months later?

Boris Johnson has been accused, at times, of over-promising and under-delivering during this crisis.

Today, again, he’s urging caution – even as case rates fall and the vaccine roll-out goes well.

That’s because ministers really don’t want to lift restrictions only to re-impose them again on a weary nation.

It comes after more than 60 Conservative MPs wrote to Mr Johnson over the weekend, calling for a commitment to a “free life” and ending of lockdown measures before May.

Steve Baker, the deputy chair of the lockdown-sceptic Covid Research Group (CRG) of Tory MPs leading the call, said schools should return on 8 March, hospitality should reopen by Easter and all other elements should be back to normal by 1 May – when all people in the top nine priority groups have been offered a vaccine.

The government is hoping to offer a jab to everyone in the first nine priority groups – including everyone over the age of 50 – by the end of April, Mr Johnson said.

This would run alongside giving second doses within the 12-week window to those in the top four priority groups, who have already had a first dose.

The government is contacting all those aged between 16 and 64 with underlying health conditions, as well as adult carers to offer a vaccination.

On Monday, the UK recorded another 9,765 new coronavirus infections, according to the latest government figures. It is the first time the daily cases figure has been under 10,000 since 2 October.

A further 230 deaths within 28 days of a positive test were also recorded. Fewer deaths tend to be reported on Mondays due to a reporting lag over the weekend.