A Covid symptom tracking app has predicted that we will soon be in the same place as we were in June last year when lockdown easing was announced.
There are currently 14,818 daily new symptomatic cases of Covid-19 in the UK on average, according to the latest figures from the Zoe Covid Symptom Study app.
The data, which is based on swab tests data from up to five days ago, also puts the UK reproduction number (R) of coronavirus at 0.8.
The Zoe app figures, which includes information from around one million weekly reporters, estimates around one in 233 people in the UK currently has symptomatic Covid-19.
But by March 8 we should have less than 1 in 740 people with symptoms, it is predicted.
This is similar to where we were when Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced lockdown on June 23 last year.
Tim Spector, lead scientist on the Zoe app and professor of genetic epidemiology at King's College London, said: "Based on the Zoe data and our predictions we are soon to be in the same place we were in early June, with the advantage of having a large proportion of the population vaccinated, which could mean good news in terms of lifting some restrictions sooner rather than later.
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"By March 8 we should have less than 1 in 740 people with symptoms, allowing us to get kids back into the classrooms and starting to allow people to exercise and meet, at least outdoors, where the risk of transmission is much lower.
"Until then it's important to keep following the guidelines, even if you have had a vaccine, and keep reporting symptoms and getting tested even if your symptoms are not typical."
Prime Minister Boris Johnson is set to address the nation on February 22 outlining his "roadmap" to bring England out of lockdown.
Speaking during a visit to the Fujifilm Diosynth Biotechnologies plant in Billingham, Teesside, where the new Novavax vaccine will be manufactured, the Prime Minister said: "I'm optimistic, I won't hide it from you.
"I'm optimistic, but we have to be cautious."
He said his first priority remained opening schools in England on March 8 to be followed by non-essential retail and other sectors.
"Our children's education is our number one priority, but then working forward, getting non-essential retail open as well and then, in due course as and when we can prudently, cautiously, of course we want to be opening hospitality as well," he said.
"I will be trying to set out as much as I possibly can in as much detail as I can, always understanding that we have to be wary of the pattern of disease.
"We don't want to be forced into any kind of retreat or reverse ferret."
