Coronavirus: UK heading for 'population immunity' says expert

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The Government is on course to meeting its ambitious target of vaccinating 15 million people by the middle of February. Its successful vaccine rollout campaign has already seen 13.5 million people inoculated against the deadly virus. On Thursday alone, almost 450,000 Brits received their Covid jabs, as new data showed that deaths have fallen by a quarter in a week and new cases by as much as 34 percent.

The success of the vaccination programme has increased pressure on Mr Johnson from his own backbenchers to reopen schools on March 8 as previously promised.

Concerns are growing that the Government may seek a further delay in lifting restrictions, after it refused to confirm the exact date on which the Prime Minister will reveal his “roadmap” for easing lockdown.

The Prime Minister and his ministers have made conflicting statements about when the roadmap will be published, saying either on February 22 or later that week.

If the roadmap is published after February 22, then schools are highly unlikely to reopen on March 8.

This is because Mr Johnson has previously said that the Government will give teachers two weeks notice before children return to classes.

Asked to guarantee the school reopening date, his official spokesman said: “It’s for us to examine the data next week.

“That will inform the roadmap we publish on the week of the 22nd.”

This produced an angry response from the head of the Covid Recovery Group of 70 Tory backbenchers.

Mark Harper said: “It’s crucial we don’t backslide on this, not least because the Government has said it wants to give schools two weeks’ notice before they open.

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“And, as the PM said, it is the ‘settled will’ of most MPs that pupils should be back in school on March 8.”

Downing Street sources insisted that the Prime Minister was still 100 percent committed to reopening schools by the March deadline.

A Whitehall insider told The Sun: “Nothing in the PM’s goal has changed.

“We will be studying the data next week and ­fingers crossed it will allow us to proceed as the PM has set out.”

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