Covid rules: On Monday we can put pandemic behind us, says NHS chief

Monday marks a "turning point" as the "toughest limits on our freedom" start to ease and Britons can start to return to pre-pandemic routines, a leading NHS official has said.

Prof Stephen Powis, the national medical director of NHS England, urges people not to "squander the gains" made over the past months because "this virus still has the capacity to wreak more havoc and ill health on a significant scale".

Lockdown rules start to ease further on Monday for the first time in months, with up to six people or two full households allowed to meet in parks or back gardens. Golf, tennis and team sports can also resume as part of the first stage of the Government's roadmap to restore normal life in England by June 21.

On Saturday Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister, told Conservative activists that he had seen nothing in government data to suggest that this timetable would have to slip.

Writing in The Telegraph, Prof Powis says: "One year ago the nation was beginning its first weekend in the tightest national lockdown and today we come to the end of what we all hope will be the last.

"On Monday, groups of up to six people or two households will be allowed to meet outdoors, offering millions of us the first chance in months to see close friends and family.

"We all hope this weekend marks a turning point: the last under the toughest limits on our freedom and the first when we can look forward to a week during which we can experience something akin to our pre-pandemic routines. The future looks much brighter now than in those dark and anxious first days of March's shutdown."

But he warns: "While the prospects for the country undoubtedly look rosier, we have seen false dawns before and must remember that Covid remains a clear and present danger."

He adds: "This week marks only the latest in a series of milestones that will mean the country can begin to loosen the curbs on our day to day life.

"Now, looking out ahead to the rest of the year, one of the greatest threats we face is complacency. This virus still has the capacity to wreak more havoc and ill health on a significant scale."

Prof Powis says: "The number of infections has fallen, fewer people are dying or seriously unwell and this week the country begins to experience the benefits of the past year's hardship.

"We've made enormous progress that we need to build on and not squander the gains we've made.

"We need to hold our nerve and drive for the line, so everyone can get back safely and soon to our normal lives."

Speaking to party members at the Conservatives' spring forum, Mr Johnson said he could see nothing in the data to dissuade him from continuing the roadmap of the lockdown. "In just a few days' time, I'm finally going to be able to go to the barbers," he said.

"But more important than that, I'm going to be able to go down the street cautiously [and] drink a pint of beer in the pub.

"And as things stand, I can see absolutely nothing in the data to dissuade me from continuing along our roadmap to freedom, unlocking our economy and getting back to the life we love."

Mr Johnson said the UK's successful vaccine rollout would not have been possible without "the might of the private sector - the free market economy".

He said: "At the heart of this vaccine rollout, there is a huge and unmissable lesson about the need for private risk taking capitalist energy. Never forget that Labour voted to stay in the European Medicines Agency."

Read more: What you can and can't do from March 29 as lockdown rules start easing