Vaccines will remain the first line of defence against Covid-19, the Prime Minister has told a Downing Street press conference.
After two years of living under restrictions in England, today (February 21) Boris Johnson unveiled the Government’s plans to live with and manage the virus without legally-mandated restrictions and testing.
Setting out the Living with Covid plan, Mr Johnson said that the new plan "charts a course back to normality", thanks to the vaccine programme.
The UK was the first country in the world to authorise the use of the Pfizer and Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines, he said, and home to the fastest booster programme in Europe.
Over 31 million boosters have been administered across England and almost 38 million UK-wide, helping break the link between infections and hospitalisations.
Mr Johnson said that scientists are certain that there will be new variants, adding: "We will continue to protect the most vulnerable with targeted vaccinations and treatments, and we have bought enough doses of vaccine to anticipate a wide range of JCVI recommendations."
Today the Government has accepted the JCVI recommendation to offer an additional booster to all adults aged over 75, all residents in care homes for older adults, and all over 12s who are immunosuppressed.
An autumn annual booster programme is under consideration, subject to further advice.
Further detail on deployment on the spring booster programme will be set out in due course.
The Government also said it will continue to be guided by the JCVI on future vaccine programmes.
On testing, he said the testing programme cost £2 billion in the last month alone, adding: "It's only because levels of immunity are so high and deaths are, if anything, below where you would normally expect them to be this year... that testing for Omicron on the colossal scale which we have been doing is much less valuable."
The public are encouraged to continue to follow public health advice, as with all infectious diseases such as the flu, to minimise the chance of catching Covid and help protect family and friends. This includes by letting fresh air in when meeting indoors, wearing a face covering in crowded and enclosed spaces where you come into contact with people you don’t normally meet, and washing your hands.
The Prime Minister confirmed domestic legal restrictions in England will end on 24 February as we begin to treat Covid as other infectious diseases such as flu.
