Matt Hancock has provided an update on the next and final stage of the lockdown roadmap.
The Health Secretary, speaking at a Downing Street press conference, announced when a decision would be made on whether Step Four on June 21 will go ahead.
Mr Hancock was asked during the coronavirus briefing on Wednesday at what point the government would have enough data to be able to provide a clearer picture on the potential easement of restrictions.
He confirmed that the public can expect confirmation seven days earlier on June 14, similarly to previous lockdown easement announcements.
"We have set out that we will take Step Four no earlier than June 21," he said.
"A decision will be given on June 14 using all the information we have up until then."
He added: "Every day we are getting more information... a final decision will be made and published on June 14 - until then it is too early to say".
As the latest stage of the roadmap was eased on Monday, the Health Secretary said Covid hospitalisations and deaths remain very low, but warned 'we must proceed with vigilance' amid the Indian variant.
He confirmed there are now 2,967 cases known of this variant in the UK.
Early evidence suggests that the new strain is more transmissible than the Kent variant, Mr Hancock said, but there's 'increasing confidence' that Covid vaccines are effective against it.
Professor Jonathan Van-Tam, who joined Mr Hancock at the press conference, said he would advise people in Bolton to 'think very carefully about the freedoms they have, weigh up the risks and be very cautious'.
It comes as Professor Neil Ferguson, an epidemiologist at Imperial College London and a member of the Government’s Scientific Pandemic Influenza Modelling Group (SPI-M), told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme the June 21 date for lifting legal limits on social contact was 'very much in the balance'.
Asked if it would go ahead or need to be reconsidered, he said: “I think that’s actively being considered. I think it’s very much in the balance and the data collected in the next two to three weeks will determine that.”
He said it was not yet clear how much more transmissible the Indian variant is, but added: “Certainly, it is much easier to deal with 20 per cent, even 30 per cent (more transmissibility) than it would be 50 per cent or more.
“The challenge we have… is because of how it was introduced into the country."
He explained: "It was introduced from overseas, principally into people with Indian ethnicity, a higher chance of living in multi-generational households and often in quite deprived areas with high-density housing.
"So we’re trying to work out whether the rapid growth we’ve seen in areas such as Bolton is going to be typical of what we could expect elsewhere, or is really what is called a founder effect which is often seen in these circumstances.
“There’s a little bit of, I would say, glimmer of hope from the recent data that whilst this variant does still appear to have a significant growth advantage, the magnitude of that advantage seems to have dropped a little bit with the most recent data, so the curves are flattening a little, but it will take more time for us to be definitive about that.”
