Boris Johnson 'very optimistic' about June 21 lockdown end

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Tuesday said that he is "very optimistic" about meeting a June 21 timeline for most legally imposed coronavirus lockdown restrictions to be removed as part of a four-step roadmap he tabled in Parliament.

During a visit to a school in London, Johnson was asked how confident he was about keeping to his roadmap, which has been designed to ease England out of the current strict stay-at-home lockdown in phases starting from March 8.

With the reopening of schools set as the first step, greater flexibility of different households mixing will be introduced from the end of March with most shops and businesses set to be reopened in two stages from April 12 and then May 17 as part of what Johnson has dubbed as a "cautious" approach.

"I'm hopeful but obviously nothing can be guaranteed and it all depends on the way we continue to be prudent and continue to follow the guidance in each stage. That's why it's so important to proceed in the cautious way that we are. I think people do understand it, they can see the logic of what we're trying to do.

"But genuinely, because of the immense possibilities now of the vaccination rollout, because science has given us this way of creating a whole shield around our population, we can really look at that June 21 date with some optimism. I'm very optimistic we'll be able to get there," he said.

Addressing the House of Commons and later a Downing Street press conference on Monday, he had stressed that the decision at each stage of lifting lockdown restrictions will be "based on data not dates" as part of a focus on keeping coronavirus infection rates under control.

Some members of his own Conservative Party have complained that the roadmap does not remove restrictions fast enough, while some scientists have expressed scepticism about whether it would in fact be possible to remove all restrictions from June 21.