Easing of lockdown restrictions not before March, says Zahawi

Vaccines minister Nadhim Zahawi has suggested that a gradual easing oflockdown restrictions will not begin before early March.

He told BBCBreakfast: “If we take the mid-February target, two weeks after that you getyour protection, pretty much, for the Pfizer/BioNTech, three weeks for theOxford/AstraZeneca, you are protected.

“One of the things we don’t know yet,and the deputy chief medical officer Jonathan Van-Tam is on record as saying‘look give me a couple of months and I’ll tell you’, is the impact of thevaccine on transmission rates ie on infecting people.

“So there are a numberof caveats that stand in the way of us reopening the economy.

“It will begradually, it will be probably through the tiered system but you’re looking atthat sort of period, two to three weeks after the middle of February, afterwe’ve protected the top four cohorts.”