First step on roadmap out of lockdown is revealed

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The first steps to freedom from lockdown will prioritise reopening schools and  reuniting families, Boris Johnson said last night.

In two weeks, on March 8, you will be able to meet one friend or family member in the park for a coffee or a picnic.

On the same date, all pupils will return to the classroom as part of the first of four steps towards getting the country back on its feet.

Unveiling his long-awaited roadmap today, the Prime Minister will announce that on March 29, outdoor gatherings of either six people or two households will be allowed – enabling families and friend groups to meet properly for the first time in months.

That date will also see the reopening of tennis courts and golf courses and the return of grassroots football.

But in a blow to many families, they will not be allowed to take holidays over the Easter weekend. And shops, hairdressers and pubs are all likely to remain closed until mid-April at the earliest.

Business chiefs last night urged Mr Johnson to ‘be bold’.

Emma McClarkin, chief executive of the British Beer and Pub Association, said now was the time ‘to commit to reopening our pubs so that thousands of communities and businesses up and down the country can begin to emerge from this crisis’.

The latest development in the pandemic came as: 

• Matt Hancock revealed that one in three adults had received a Covid jab;
• The Health Secretary said there was early data showing the vaccine reduced transmission of the disease;
• Surge testing was introduced in Brentwood, Essex, following the discovery of the South African variant in the area;
• Former Tory leader William Hague said he could not see ‘much justification’ for keeping restrictions in place once the over-50s have been vaccinated by April;
• Latest figures showed 215 Covid deaths were recorded yesterday, down 16.6 per cent week on week, while infections also dropped by 10 per cent to 9,834 cases;
• Mr Hancock suggested teachers would not jump the vaccine queue because they were not more likely to die of the disease.

British Beauty Council chief executive Millie Kendall added: ‘We appeal to the Prime Minister to give us hope we will soon be back to business as usual.’

Mr Johnson will say today that further restrictions will be lifted in subsequent weeks, as long as they meet a set of four new tests designed to keep the pressure off the NHS.

There are that: the vaccine deployment programme continues successfully; evidence shows the jabs are effective at reducing hospital admissions and deaths; infection rates do not risk a surge in hospital cases; and no risky new variants emerge.

He said last night the four tests were currently being met, allowing the first step to go ahead from March 8.

The Prime Minister said he would bring the country out of lockdown ‘cautiously’.

‘Our priority has always been getting children back into school… and we will also be prioritising ways for people to reunite with loved ones safely,’ he said.

Mr Johnson’s roadmap was signed off by senior ministers at a special Covid-S meeting yesterday, and will be rubber-stamped by the Cabinet this morning.

The Prime Minister will give a statement to Parliament in the afternoon, and host a televised press conference in the evening.

Mr Johnson’s roadmap has four steps, with step one coming into force in two parts: March 8 and three weeks later on March 29. The first step focuses on education and providing for a sensible increase in social contact outdoors.

From March 29, as school holidays begin, more social contact will be permitted. Outdoor gatherings of either six people (a reintroduction of the rule of six) or two households can take place.

Also from March 29, outdoor sports facilities such as tennis or basketball courts will reopen. Organised adult and children’s sport can also return. This will allow grassroots football for all ages to begin again.

Addressing MPs this afternoon, Mr Johnson will set out the latest data on infection rates, hospitalisations and deaths, as well as data showing the vaccines’ efficacy. 

He will say that due to the relatively uniform spread of the virus across the country, restrictions will be eased step-by-step across the whole of England at the same time.

Sir Keir Starmer yesterday backed Mr Johnson’s demand that all children should be  back in England’s classrooms on March 8, setting himself on a collision course with the unions.

The Labour leader’s stance comes after a coalition of unions and professional bodies warned that reopening schools to all pupils at the same time would be ‘reckless’ and could risk another spike in Covid-19 infections.

But yesterday the unions were accused of bringing the teaching profession ‘into  disrepute’ through their hardline stance.

And it emerged that head teachers will be given hundreds of millions of pounds to open classes during the six-week summer break for youngsters who have fallen behind with their education.  

Time to be bold, Boris: Hospitality leaders and Tory MPs unite to demand return of pubs by Easter

ByDaniel Martin Policy Editorand Tom Witherow For The Daily Mail 

Tory MPs lined up with business leaders last night to urge Boris Johnson to ‘be bold’ and accelerate the lifting of all lockdown restrictions.

Pubs and restaurant owners said they needed to see light at the end of the tunnel after a devastating year for the hospitality industry.

Former Conservative leader Lord Hague heaped further pressure on the Prime Minister by saying there would be little justification for keeping most Covid limits once the over-50s have been vaccinated in April.

This came as 40 Tory MPs joined with the hospitality industry to urge Mr Johnson to open pubs and restaurants in time for Easter.

Meanwhile Tim Alderslade, chief executive of Airlines UK, called on the Prime Minister to open up the tourism industry.

‘There is enormous demand for seeing friends and family, and taking a holiday,’ he said. ‘Passengers and airlines want to see a bold plan detailing how and when they will be able to take to the skies, safely, again.’

Lord Hague told Sky News: ‘I’m hoping to hear that before too long the great majority of restrictions can be lifted.

‘If we are going to reach the point where everybody over 50 has had the opportunity to be vaccinated and the number of cases is down to a very low level, the sort of level we last saw in the middle of summer last year.

‘If both of those things have happened by some time in April, then there wouldn’t be much justification for keeping most of the restrictions.

‘Coming in through 2021, we ought to be in a position with mass testing, a test and trace system and the huge success of the vaccination programme… then we do have the tools to prevent future lockdowns.’

Last night the UK’s leading hospitality trade associations joined forces with the Covid Recovery Group of 40 Tory MPs to call for the sector to open by Easter.

Mark Harper, CRG chairman, said: ‘Britain’s hospitality industry has had one of the toughest years on record and it’s vital we do everything we can to get them open in a Covid-secure way that allows them to protect jobs and operate viably. 

‘As we get better and better news about the pace of the vaccination rollout, the public have got to see this success and their sacrifice translating into a return to normal life.’

Steve Baker, deputy chairman of the CRG, said pubs and the rest of the hospitality industry had lost hundreds of thousands of jobs ‘and 40 per cent of its businesses are due to fail this year if we don’t start safely lifting restrictions’.

Emma McClarkin, chief executive of the British Beer and Pub Association, said: ‘Pubs demonstrated last year that the trade was able to reopen safely.

‘The millions of pounds of investment in Covid-secure measures mean that we’re in a great position to do so again.’

Kate Nicholls, chief executive of UKHospitality, said ‘just one in five hospitality businesses’ have enough funds to survive the next month.

‘That is why we urge the Prime Minister to work with us on delivering a safe, swift and sustainable exit from lockdown for hospitality,’ she added. ‘The best way to support these businesses is to allow them to reopen.’

John Foster, of the Confederation of British Industry, said that companies are looking to Mr Johnson to ‘provide a pragmatic route out of lockdown and inject some real momentum back into the economy’. 

Expert claims Britain could ALREADY have herd immunity amid huge 82% reduction in Covid infections in just six weeks with 17million vaccinated and one in five carrying antibodies

ByJames Robinson for MailOnline

A leading academic has today said herd immunity could be a factor in the huge drop in Covid cases in the UK, as it was announced more than 17million Britons have now been vaccinated, while 1 in 5 people in England are already said to have coronavirus antibodies.

Infection figures in the UK have tumbled in the past six weeks, falling 82 per cent – from 68,053 new cases reported on January 8, to 12,057 on February 18.

It comes as figures published today show there have been 9,834 new Covid cases – a fall of 10 per cent on last week.

Meanwhile, nearly one in five adults in England – the equivalent of 8.3million people – had Covid antibodies at the beginning of February, a major surveillance study revealed this week. 

And today it was announced more than 17million of Britain’s most vulnerable residents had received their first dose of the Covid vaccine since the UK’s jab rollout began.

One leading epidemiologist, who asked not to be named having previously suffered abuse for airing their views on the effectiveness of lockdown, said they believed more than 50 per cent of the UK could now have some protection against the virus. 

And the professor said the huge drop in recent infection figures could be a result of the UK reaching its herd immunity threshold – where the number of people with protection against the virus outweighs its ability to spread among the population.

The prediction could heap pressure on the Government to end the current lockdown, with Boris Johnson set to outline his road-map for ending restrictions on Monday.

And it follows similar suggestions in America, where one top doctor told the Wall Street Journal this week that the US could achieve herd immunity ‘by April’. 

Speaking to MailOnline, the academic said: ‘It’s a strong possibility that we could already have it (herd immunity), not just in the UK.

‘It is possible that is what is having an impact. With the vaccine, we do not have the data yet, apart from some data from AstraZeneca, to show if it stops transmission.

‘The vaccine, at the moment it seems, is protecting people from going to hospital and that’s what you need.

On the possible impact of lockdown, the professor said: ‘I could create a model which shows that this is down to lockdown or I can create one which says it is down to herd immunity.

‘The likelihood is it is could be down to both. 

‘But the Government is continuing its messaging which is to stay in lockdown, which causes other problems and could impact on herd immunity.’

Herd immunity, the professor said, would not stop Covid completely because the virus is ‘here to stay’.

But they said it would keep Covid-19 at a manageable level within the community – like with other forms of coronavirus and the flu. 

‘That’s the destination. If we can get to a place where there are no deaths and we are living with Covid-19, which is what we do with other diseases and with other coronavirus forms which people have not heard of – for exactly that reason,’ the professor added. 

It comes as a US doctor claimed that America will have ‘herd immunity by April’.

Dr Marty Makary, from the prestigious Johns Hopkins University, said he believes the US could be just months away from herd immunity.

And, writing in a Wall Street Journal editorial, the top doctor said America was ‘racing toward an extremely low level of infection’.

He believes when the number of Americans vaccinated is combined with the number of people who may already have been infected, that the number of people with some form of Covid immunity is high. 

‘At the current trajectory, I expect Covid will be mostly gone by April, allowing Americans to resume normal life,’ he wrote in Wall Street Journal last week.  

His comments come after cases in the US tumbled by 77 per cent over the past six weeks. The country is not in a nationwide lockdown, with states and cities setting their own Covid rules.

However many areas, including densely populated New York, have lifted restrictions, with bars and restaurants open, while states such as Delaware are allowing indoor activities of up to 50 people to take place.

In the UK, which has been in lockdown since early January, infection figures have fallen by 82 per cent in the last six weeks – from 68,053 new cases reported on January 8, to just 2,057 on February 18. 

The percentage of the population who have already had Covid-19 is also similar between the UK and the US.

More than 4million people in the UK have tested positive for Covid since the pandemic began – around 7 per cent of the UK’s population.

In America, more than 28million Americans have tested positive – around 8.5 per cent of the overall population. 

In terms of vaccination rollouts, the UK is further ahead than the US in terms of percentage of the population vaccinated.

Britain has already vaccinated more than 17.2million of its most vulnerable residents since December – more than a quarter of the population.

The US has vaccinated around 61million of its 328million residents, around 18.9 per cent of the population. 

Across the globe cases fell by 16 per cent last week and have been in decline for over a month. 

World Health Organization (WHO) figures show the number of new Covid cases fell by 16 per cent worldwide last week to 2.7million.