Boris Johnson says England lockdown easing will be done in ‘stages’ and in ‘cautious’ way

Boris Johnson has confirmed that the easing of England’s coronavirus restrictions will be done in “stages” with a “cautious and prudent approach”.

The Prime Minister is due to set out his road map out of the nation-wide lockdown next week.

Speaking at a mass vaccination centre in Cwmbran, south Wales on Wednesday, Mr Johnson said: “I certainly think that we need to go in stages. We need to go cautiously.

“You have to remember from last year that we opened up hospitality fully as one of the last things that we did because there is obviously an extra risk of transmission from hospitality.”

The Daily reports that ministers are weighing up allowing holiday lets to open in time for the Easter weekend and that pubs could open in May, but with only up to two households permitted to mix indoors.

The rule of six would then come into force for mixing inside by June, it added.

But Mr Johnson warned against too much “speculation” about the lockdown will be eased.

He said: “I know there’s a lot of understandable speculation in the papers and people coming up with theories about what we’re going to do, what we’re going to say, and about the rates of infection, and so on.

“I would just advise everybody just wait, we’ll try and say as much as we can on that.”

Earlier, Professor Dame Angela McLean told the Science and Technology Committee that any unlocking should be based on “data, not dates”.

Mr Johnson said he “absolutely” agreed with Dame Angela. He said: “That’s why we’ll be setting out what we can on Monday about the way ahead and it’ll be based firmly on a cautious and prudent approach to coming out of lockdown in such a way to be irreversible.

“We want to be going one way from now on, based on the incredible vaccination rollout that you’re seeing in Cwmbran.”

The Prime Minister said the UK Government would continue to have conversations with devolved administrations about how best to exit lockdown.

Asked whether the four UK nations should ease their restrictions in unison, he said: “We have continuous conversations with Mark Drakeford, with other representatives of devolved administrations, about how to do it, just as we work on the vaccination programme together.

“We try and make sure we concert our approach and our general messages.”

It comes as Chief executive of NHS Providers Chris Hopson, warned that the number of coronavirus cases needs to plummet to under 50,000 before the Prime Minister can consider lifting the national coronavirus lockdown.

The most recent figures suggested that 695,400 people in England had Covid-19 in the week ending February 6, meaning infections would have to drop by more than 90 per cent.

Mr Hopson’s organisation, which represents NHS trusts, has set out four “tests” which should guide easing: getting case numbers down, reducing pressure on the NHS, further strides in the vaccination programme and an effective strategy to control future outbreaks.

“If you look at where we are against those four tests, each one of them tells you that we’re still some way away from being able to start relaxing restrictions,” Mr Hopson told BBC Radio 4’s Today.

“We had 500 Covid patients in hospitals in September and yet, 15 weeks later, we had 34,000 patients, and we were perilously close to overwhelmed.

“So, what that says to you is that you just need to be really careful before you start relaxing the restrictions prematurely.”