Boris Johnson urges the country to remain cautious as lockdown eases

Boris Johnson has said the new freedoms being enjoyed in England as lockdown eases were the result of the sacrifices made over recent months but warned it was “inevitable” there were more deaths to come.

At a Downing Street press conference, he said it has been a “big day for many of us” with the first chance to see friends and family outdoors since the lockdown was imposed.

“It’s only because of months of sacrifice and effort that we can take this small step towards freedom today and we must proceed with caution,” he said.

“It’s great to see that yesterday we recorded the lowest number of new infections for six months, deaths and hospital admissions across the UK are continuing to fall.

“That wave is still rising across the channel and it’s inevitable, as we advance on this road map, that there will be more infections and unavoidably more hospitalisations, and sadly more deaths.”

Mr Johnson warned that outdoors is generally safer than indoors activities and said he is looking forward to joining the country in outdoor exercise with tennis.

Government data up to March 28 shows that of the 34,119,095  jabs given in the UK so far, 30,444,829 were first doses – a rise of 293,542 on the previous day.