• Prime minister Boris Johnson confirmed that lockdown restrictions will remain in place, rather than easing on 21 June as previously planned.
• That could mean capacity limits for sports, pubs and cinemas will remain, and nightclubs would stay closed.
  
  

Commenting on the announcement that the easing of lockdown restrictions will be delayed, the chief executive of NHS Providers, Chris Hopson said:

"This has clearly been a difficult decision for the government but, from an NHS perspective, a cautious approach is prudent.

"There is welcome increasing evidence that, for this pattern of variants, vaccines are breaking the chain between COVID-19 infections and the high levels of hospitalisations and mortality we saw in previous waves.

"A delay of four weeks will enable the NHS to do two important things. It will enable us to confirm the extent to which vaccines have broken the chain between infections and hospitalisations and deaths. And, crucially, it will enable us to vaccinate many more people with double doses and a period of protection build up.

"It will also mean less pressure on hospitals at a point when they are very busy recovering care backlogs and dealing with increased demand for emergency care with significantly reduced capacity, due to the need to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in hospitals.

"So trust leaders will welcome the decision taken today, for operational reasons. But they will also understand the impact of continuing lockdown measures on people's lives, mental health and on the economy.

"Vaccines will enable us to exit this current pandemic soon. But we must all understand that the virus will be with us for a long time yet. So our next task will be to discuss what the NHS, and we as a nation, need to do to live with the virus longer term. That debate has barely started."