well the prime minister says he hopes to
begin lifting lockdown restrictions
in england from next month beginning
with schools then non-essential shops
followed by pubs and restaurants
mr johnson also said that people will
have to learn to live with coronavirus
echoing a suggestion by his health
secretary that it could be managed like
flu
by the end of the year some scientists
have warned against easing restrictions
too quickly even if the vaccination
program remains on target
here's our political correspondent
jonathan blake
day by day thousands more injections to
vaccinate people against coronavirus
by monday the government is confident it
will have met its aim of offering
15 million people their first jab
delicious on a visit to a vaccine
manufacturer in t-side today the prime
minister said he was cautiously
optimistic
about covid19 being contained long-term
new therapies are being discovered the
whole time which are enabling us to
reduce
mortality improve our treatments of the
of the disease so
yes i i do think that in due time it
will become something that
we simply live with
effective vaccines are crucial to
allowing restrictions to be lifted
and the government's promised a more
detailed timeline soon
but boris johnson gave some idea of the
order in which things would open up
starting with with schools we very much
hope
on march the 8th that's got to be the
priority our children's
education our kids education is the
number one priority but then
working forwards to getting
non-essential retail
open as well and then in due course as
and when we can
prudently and cautiously of course we
want to be
opening hospitality as well but some
advising the government
warned that even with effective vaccines
a resurgence in cases
can't be ruled out i don't believe
anyone expects we're suddenly going to
lift
all the social restrictions i i don't
think really anyone's thinking that way
we're just going to immediately lift
them
and not care what happens but if if
for some reason we did choose to to just
pretend it wasn't here anymore at some
point
then yes yes there is the potential to
go back to a wave that's the similar
size to the one we're in now
a drink in the spring sunshine might
feel a long way off and downing street
has dismissed as speculation
talk that pubs and restaurants could be
serving us outside by
april but the more people get vaccinated
and the more the government talks about
living with coronavirus long term the
more the pressure to get life back to
normal
will grow if it's the same level as flu
we don't think for a second
of locking down the country over flu
there will come a point where there will
be a death rate from
from uh from covid but it's at a normal
level
and then we have to cope with that
obviously we still try and prevent it
but we
but we accept it i think we have to
there's an acceptance in government that
this lockdown must be the last in
england so while ministers feel the
frustration
they're proceeding with caution jonathan
blake bbc news