Corona curbs could start to be lifted in March
But family shopping trips face ban
MINISTERS could start to lift lockdown restrictions as soon as March, Dominic Raab hinted yesterday.
The Foreign Secretary said 88 per cent of those most at risk of dying from coronavirus will have been vaccinated by the middle of February.
And by early spring, this should have risen to 99 per cent, meaning there could be a ‘ phased transition’ out of lockdown.
The plan could see shops and hairdressers opened as a first step, with other venues following later.
However, Mr Raab warned there would be no ‘big bang’ end to lockdown and indicated that the first step would be for different areas going back to tiered restrictions.
Sir Simon Stevens, the chief executive of NHS England, was slightly more cautious.
He said restrictions could be lifted as more vaccinations are carried out but said that this would happen some time between mid-February and the autumn.
Appearing on BBC1’s Andrew Marr Show, Mr Raab was asked about calls from Tory backbenchers to start lifting restrictions in early March.
They say this would be a good idea because the most vulnerable people will have received the jab by mid-February and there could be a three-week delay to avoid the risk of hospitalisations going up.
The Foreign Secretary replied: ‘The aim is by the middle of February to have 88 per cent of those most at risk of dying of coronavirus with their first jab and by the early spring to have 99 per cent. I think it’s true to say that when we get to a situation in the early spring, perhaps March if we succeed in hitting those targets – and we’ve made good progress so far – we can start to think about the phased transition out of lockdown.
‘It won’t be a big bang, it will be phased possibly back through the tiered approach we had before.’
He added: ‘I’ve set it out quite clearly, the targets, the milestones. I don’t want to get ahead of that. What we’re going to focus on now is delivering.’
It was reported yesterday that one idea could be to put areas into lower tiers once their death rates have fallen, hospitalisations have dropped and a sufficient number of people aged between 50 and 70 have been vaccinated, as this is the age group that spends the most time in hospital with Covid.
A Cabinet source told the Sunday Times: ‘For the first time there are no significant divisions between hawks and doves in the Cabinet. Everyone accepted that we needed to lock down hard and everyone accepts we need to open up before everyone is vaccinated.’
Interviewed on the Andrew Marr Show, Sir Simon said: ‘This is going to be a vaccination campaign that is going to take weeks and some months and of course the great benefit of starting with the most vulnerable is that that enables us to reduce the risk of death from coronavirus.
‘But it’s worth remembering that a quarter of patients being hospitalised for Covid right now are aged under 55. So I don’t think this is with one bound we are free. This is going to be a progressive improvement as we get more coronavirus vaccination supply.’
The NHS chief added: ‘It’s not going to be the case that on Valentine’s Day, [or] on February 15, with one bound we are free.
‘But equally I don’t think that we will be having to wait until the autumn. I think somewhere between those two. Subject of course to this uncertainty about new variants of the coronavirus.’
It comes amid reports that restrictions could get tighter before they are lifted, with proposals for a ‘shop alone’ policy in supermarkets to stem the spread of Covid.
Ministers are considering banning family outings, with stores encouraged to adopt a one adult shopper rule. Supermarket bosses would also be ordered to provide more hand sanitising stations and ban those without masks.
One source said: ‘Some people clearly see their visit as a bit of a family outing where they may get to chat to friends they bump into. Often there’s no reason why one household member can’t do the supermarket shop alone.’