Boris Johnson plots a staged exit from lockdown

Adviser says UK cannot reopen too quickly because vaccines are not perfect

Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson holds a vial of an Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, during his visit to a vaccination centre at Cwmbran Stadium in south Wales. Reuters

Boris Johnson disinfects a chair in the public waiting area of the vaccination centre at Cwmbran Stadium. AFP

A general view of a vaccination centre at Cwmbran Stadium. Reuters

Boris Johnson speaks to members of the public as they wait to receive an Oxford-Astrazeneca vaccine. AFP

Boris Johnson meets police officers who deal with Covid rule enforcement, during a visit to South Wales Police headquarters in Bridgend, Wales. AP Photo

Prince Charles talks to Chief Pharmacist Inderjit Singh on a visit to The Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham. Getty Images

Prince Charles and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall speak to staff at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital. AFP

Britain's Health Secretary Matt Hancock takes a selfie with staff at the vaccination centre at Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Birmingham. AFP

A woman accompanied by a boy and girl stand and gesture out of a window from inside the Radisson Blu hotel at Heathrow Airport, where they are undertaking mandatory quarantine. AFP

A man looks out of a window from inside the Radisson Blu hotel at Heathrow Airport. AFP

A traveller arrives by coach and is escorted by staff into the Holiday Inn hotel near Heathrow Airport. AFP

A woman wearing a face covering decorates a shop window in London. AP Photo

A man swabs the back of his throat at a mobile testing site at the Bramley Inn in the village of Bramley, west of London. AFP

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson ruled out a rapid reopening of the UK after insisting the country's lockdown exit must be staged.

Mr Johnson, who will outline the path out of lockdown next Monday, said on Wednesday the country must be reopened “cautiously and prudently”.

Ministers are drawing up plans for a rapid testing blitz under which more than 400,000 lateral flow tests will be posted to households each day.

Foreign minister Dominic Raab said rapid testing was a “key part” of the government’s lockdown exit strategy.

He told Sky News the aim was to do it “at scale and at pace so that when you do have upticks of the virus, we can come down on it like a tonne of bricks”.

Scientific advisers said that the path out of lockdown must be driven by "data and not dates".

There are also calls for potential spreaders of the virus to be prioritised for Covid-19 vaccines.

While office workers will be told to continue working from home for some time, parts of the economy such as holiday lets and larger hotels will reopen in April, the Daily Mail reported.

Outdoor leisure, such as theme parks and zoos, golf courses, open-air gyms and tennis, could also resume in April, but pubs, bars and restaurants will have to wait until May.

"It'll be based firmly on a cautious and prudent approach to coming out of lockdown in such a way as to be irreversible," Mr Johnson said.

Prof Dame Angela McLean, the government's deputy chief scientific adviser, said the UK needed to be cautious because the vaccines "are not perfect".

She said it was unclear whether vaccines reduced transmission of the virus.

“If that’s the case, then vaccination alone won’t be enough to allow a complete return to how we used to behave,” she told the Commons Science and Technology Committee, and that “data not dates” should guide decisions on when to end lockdown.

The UK has given 15.94 million people, about 23 per cent of its 67 million population, a first dose of vaccine, behind only Israel and the UAE in vaccines per head of population.

Another 738 Covid-related deaths and 12,718 new cases were recorded in the UK on Wednesday.

Mr Johnson said he wanted to see more data on how vaccines were affecting severe illness and death.

There is some data from Israel on that, but not enough from the UK to be absolutely sure of the impact, England's chief medical adviser Chris Whitty said on Monday.

Prof Jennifer Rogers from the Royal Statistical Society, however, said there were positive signs that death rates were declining in vaccinated groups.

“They are coming down overall – and that’s because of lockdown – but we’re seeing differences between the age groups and between those who have been vaccinated and those who haven’t,” she told the BBC.

Prof Rogers called for potential spreaders of the virus in high-risk professions such as taxi driving to be prioritised for vaccines in the next phase of the delivery plan.

She said: “Once you’ve protected all those individuals a sensible approach is targeting those people who may be responsible for transmitting the disease quite a lot.”