Boris Johnson has wished those getting back to team sports tomorrow “good luck” as England prepares for the next stage of its roadmap out of lockdown.
The prime minister said it is “great so many will be able to get back out there” following “a difficult few months” as the rules are set to relax on Monday.
England has been urged to hold its nerve when lockdown restrictions ease and stay-at-home orders end in the next step out of lockdown so as not to “squander the gains” made against coronavirus, as groups of six people or two households are again allowed to socialise in parks and gardens.
While Mr Johnson said he had seen “absolutely nothing in the data to dissuade me from continuing along our roadmap to freedom” by 21 June, NHS England national medical director Professor Stephen Powis warned Covid-19 still has the capacity to “wreak more havoc and ill health on a significant scale”, adding: “We need to hold our nerve and drive for the line.”
It came as Mark Woolhouse, a professor of epidemiology who advises the government, said it will be necessary to maintain the UK’s test and trace capacity as we learn to “live with this virus”, adding that self-isolation for those who have contact with Covid is “going to remain important for the entire future”.
Meanwhile, ministers celebrated as government figures showed 30 million people have now received their first dose of vaccine.
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