The government will not be setting an "arbitrary target" for when lockdown can end despite pressure from some MPs to lift all restrictions by May, the foreign secretary has told Sky News.
Dominic Raab said the plan was to "ease the lockdown" with the return of schools, which Prime Minister Boris Johnson has previously said will happen on 8 March at the "earliest".
More than 60 Conservative backbenchers are said to have backed a letter from the lockdown-sceptic COVID Recovery Group (CRG) to the prime minister, which said there will be "no justification" for restrictions to remain once all over-50s have been offered a jab.
But Mr Raab told Sky's Sophy Ridge on Sunday programme: "The plan is to get the 99% of people at risk of dying dispensed their first dose by the end of April, or certainly offered their first dose.
"By doing so, taking the fatality out of this virus, we're in a much better position to proceed to start to ease the lockdown... starting with schools, non-essential retail.
"I don't think you can set an arbitrary target and not be evidence led, which is why the review on 22 February is so important."
The CRG has described reopening England's schools on 8 March as a "national priority" that must be achieved, and said pubs and restaurants should be allowed to open in a COVID-secure way by Easter.
The group wrote: "COVID is a serious disease and we must control it. However, just like COVID, lockdowns and restrictions cause immense social and health damage, and have a huge impact on people's livelihoods.
"The vaccine gives us immunity from COVID, but it must also give us permanent immunity from COVID-related lockdowns and restrictions."
Mr Raab, however, said the government will not make what feels to him like a "slightly arbitrary commitment without reviewing the impact that measures have had on the transmission and the hospital admissions of the virus".
He told Sky News the government hoped to begin reopening schools in England on March 8 as planned.
"We need to wait to evaluate the data carefully and allow those plans to be put in place," he said.
"Because we are making progress I think we can be confident we will be able to start that process."
However, he said the government would take a "careful" approach towards the easing of lockdown restrictions.
"We do need to be very careful how we proceed. We have made good progress. We don't want to see that unravel because we go too far too quick," he said.
https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMiqgFodHRwczovL25ld3Muc2t5LmNvbS9zdG9yeS9jb3ZpZC0xOS1yYWFiLXNheXMtbm8tMTAtd2lsbC1ub3QtYmUtaGVsZC10by1hcmJpdHJhcnktdGFyZ2V0LWZvci1saWZ0aW5nLWxvY2tkb3duLWFmdGVyLWNhbGxzLXRvLWVuZC1hbGwtcmVzdHJpY3Rpb25zLWJ5LWVuZC1vZi1hcHJpbC0xMjIxNzc0M9IBrgFodHRwczovL25ld3Muc2t5LmNvbS9zdG9yeS9hbXAvY292aWQtMTktcmFhYi1zYXlzLW5vLTEwLXdpbGwtbm90LWJlLWhlbGQtdG8tYXJiaXRyYXJ5LXRhcmdldC1mb3ItbGlmdGluZy1sb2NrZG93bi1hZnRlci1jYWxscy10by1lbmQtYWxsLXJlc3RyaWN0aW9ucy1ieS1lbmQtb2YtYXByaWwtMTIyMTc3NDM?oc=5
2021-02-14 09:32:59Z
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