Boris Johnson said he will unveil plans for Freedom Day in the ‘next few days’, including foreign travel for Brits who’ve had both doses of a vaccine.
However, the PM also warned some restrictions could remain – as his spokesman refused to rule out keeping face masks on public transport.
During a visit to a Nissan plant in Sunderland, the prime minister told reporters: ‘I know how impatient people are to get back to total normality, as indeed am I.
‘I will be setting in the course of the next few days what step four will look like exactly.
‘But I think I’ve said it before, we’ll be wanting to go back to a world that is as close to the status quo, ante-Covid, as possible. Try to get back to life as close to it was before Covid.
‘But there may be some things we have to do, extra precautions that we have to take, but I’ll be setting them out.’
Step four in the government’s roadmap out of lockdown – dubbed ‘Freedom Day’- was originally earmarked for June 21.
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It was pushed back to July 19 amid a rise in cases of the Delta variant that emerged in India.
The extra time has allowed the NHS to ramp up the vaccine rollout, with three fifths of the adult population now fully jabbed.
The PM said ‘double jabs will be a liberator’ when asked about reports that people who’ve had both doses may be able to travel quarantine-free from amber list countries by July 26.
He said: ‘Everybody who is frustrated about travel over the summer – double jabs will be a liberator.
‘I want travel to be possible but I’ve got to stress that this year will not be like every other year because of the difficulties with Covid. People shouldn’t expect it will be completely hassle free.’
Speaking after the interview, Mr Johnson’s spokesman refused to rule out keeping some legal restrictions – such as masks on public transport – after July 19 in England.
He said: ‘We want to get rid of as many restrictions as is safe to do so – I’m not going to be commenting on what measures will or will not be in place after step four.’
The government said it hopes to be in a position to remove all legal limits on social contact by step four, meaning the rule of six will be scrapped, nightclubs can reopen and large events can go ahead.
The PM is set to make a final announcement about whether step four can proceed as planned on July 12.
He urged parents and pupils to be ‘patient’ over the possibility of scrapping isolation for whole bubbles in schools.
He said: ‘I understand people’s frustration when whole classes, whole bubbles, are sent home and people are asked to isolate.
‘So what’s happening now is Public Health England and the scientists are looking at the advantages, the possibilities, of going to testing rather than isolation.
‘They haven’t concluded yet so what I want to do is just to be cautious as we go forward to that natural firebreak of the summer holidays when the risk in schools will greatly diminish and just ask people to be a little bit patient.’
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