Last night, the Prime Minister announced the roadmap by which lockdown and restrictions will be lifted.
The way out of lockdown will depend very much on the data and a minimum five week period will be given between each step to assess the impact of the previous step. There will be four weeks to allow the data to reflect the impact of the change and a further week to give the country notice. Each step will also be assessed against four tests:
- The vaccine deployment programme continues successfully
- Evidence shows vaccines are sufficiently effective in reducing hospitalisations and deaths in those vaccinated.
- Infection rates do not risk a surge in hospitalisations which would put unsustainable pressure on the NHS
- Our assessment of the risks is not fundamentally changed by new Variants of Concern.
The roadmap can be read in full here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-19-response-spring-2021
