Lockdown is working with stagnant and falling cases and deaths, says Sir Patrick Vallance

The national lockdown is working, Sir Patrick Vallance said tonight, with new infections and deaths “stagnant and falling.”

The chief scientific adviser warned that “these are the first days,” but there is hope on the horizon, as the prime minister promised to establish a roadmap on February 22 to relax restrictions.

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Boris Johnson said that tonight March 8 will be the first time for children to return to school and that the lockdown could begin to lift.

But speaking in Downing Street, Sir Patrick said the key criteria for lifting the blockade were beginning to become reality.

“We were in a position where the locks have worked.

“They have slowed this down, they have come to a position where it has stagnated and is beginning to decline, and we see that in cases, we are beginning to see in hospital admissions and we are beginning to see in deaths.”

But he warned that the nation would still have to wait weeks for the number of new hospitalizations and deaths to plummet significantly, releasing pressure on the NHS.

Sir Patrick added: “It’s the first few days, this is not going down fast, we are staying at very high levels and it will take weeks for this to start to go down to really low levels.

The prime minister said the lockdown will remain in place until the vaccine launch is successful and reaches the correct targets, there is evidence that deaths and hospitalizations are declining and the infection rate has dropped.

He said today: “March 8 is the earliest we think, for the schools to come back.

“I’m hopeful, but that’s the soonest we can do it.

“Schools are the priority, they remain the priority. If we progress and those conditions continue to be met, we will be simultaneously analyzing the other restrictions we have.”

The prime minister originally said the lockdown would be in place, and schools would close, until mid-February, but left the door open for it to be extended.

It follows Johnson’s announcement earlier today that schools would remain closed after the February semester.

Johnson told MPs this afternoon: “It will not be possible to reopen schools immediately after the February semester.

“So our plan to get out of the lockdown will establish our approach to reopen schools.

“If we achieve our goal of vaccinating everyone in the four most vulnerable groups, with their first dose before February 15, and with each passing day we will see more progress toward that goal.”

“So those groups that have developed immunity against the virus about three weeks later, that is, by March 8, we hope it will be safe to begin reopening schools from Monday, March 8.”

“With other economic and social restrictions that will be eliminated at that time or later, as the data allows.”

The prime minister also imposed a hotel quarantine on arrivals from 22 countries to try to avoid mutant strains that could potentially “destroy vaccines.”

The British will also be questioned at the border and prevented from leaving the country.

Under the new regime, arrivals from higher-risk countries will have to be immediately quarantined in hotels near airports for 10 days.

A 10-day hotel stay could cost travelers up to £ 1,500.

It follows Johnson’s press conference last night, where he said he was “deeply sorry” for every life lost after the UK reached the tragic milestone of 100,000 deaths.

It came as:

Johnson said schools will be the “first sign of normalcy” when England comes out of the lockdown, noting that March 8 will be the earliest date for the rules to begin loosening.

“(Mid-February) We will also know how many people are still in the hospital with Covid, which we simply cannot predict with certainty today.

“Then we will be in a better position to chart a course out of the lockdown, without risking a further surge that would overwhelm the NHS.”

This morning, Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick said it was necessary to stop the spread of new variants to the UK.

But he conceded that it is impossible to “seal” Britain from the rest of the world and completely rule out the introduction of new strains.

He said: “The reason for responding now at the borders is mainly due to the variants that we are seeing in South Africa and Brazil.

“Also because of the good news about the vaccine, we are now becoming one of the few countries in the world in a prime position to vaccinate our population faster than others.”

And Jenrick defended government decisions during the pandemic, despite having the fifth worst death toll in the world.

Speaking to BBC Radio 4, the Housing Secretary said that the ministers had done “everything possible to protect the people and help the country during this period.”

When asked if some of the deaths could have been prevented, Jenrick said: “I’m sure we could or would have done some things differently with the benefit of hindsight, almost certainly. But there was no textbook.”

He added: “I can assure you that the best possible scientific and medical advice was taken every time, they took their responsibilities very seriously.”

And he said he was “proud” of how the government has “cared for the most vulnerable in society, such as the homeless and the protected.”