It’s still far too early to offer a timetable for easing the Covid restrictions. That’s the warning from the health secretary for England Matt Hancock.
He said the pressure on the NHS was just too great, with the number of patients being admitted to hospital almost double that at the peak of the pandemic last year.
A group of Conservative MPs is demanding that restrictions be relaxed and schools reopened as soon as the most vulnerable people have had their vaccinations.
But Public Health England has warned that death rates and hospitalisations still need to fall much further before any easing of the current restrictions.
Boris Johnson said parents would be told “as soon as possible” when schools can re-open. The Prime Minister said he understood why people wanted a timetable but he didn’t want to lift restrictions while the infection rate was “still very high”.
Huw Edwards presents BBC News at Ten reporting by political editor Laura Kuenssberg and education editor Branwen Jeffreys.
