Lockdown to ease by March, ministers hope
LOCKDOWN restrictions could be eased in March if the vaccination programme stays on track.
Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said ending measures will “not happen in one big bang”, instead insisting they will be “phased out” in individual regions.
He said people would then be expected to live under the tiers system throughout the spring.
Mr Raab said the Government wanted to end the national restrictions as soon as possible.
He told Sky’s Sophy Ridge on Sunday: “By early spring, hopefully by March, we’ll be in a position to make those decisions.”
“I think it’s right to say we won’t do it all in one big bang,” he added. “As we phase out the national lockdown, I think we’ll end up phasing through a tiered approach.”
England was plunged into its third national lockdown on January 5, with non-essential shops shut and schools closed to all but a minority of pupils.
Ministers initially suggested that the restrictions could be eased in mid-February, with a review of the rules due this week, but the legislation allows it to continue until the end of March.
That has prompted concerns from many Conservative MPs who have called on Downing Street to provide a road map out of lockdown in the coming months.
At the end of this week, ministers will begin drawing up a timetable to end the full shutdown after they see the first evidence of the effect of the latest national action.
Mark Harper, the Tory chairman of the lockdown-sceptic Covid Recovery Group, said people “need hope” and businesses “need a plan in order to survive”.
‘We won’t do it all in one big bang’