UK coronavirus LIVE: Boris Johnson says Covid lockdown ‘road map’ will come next month as hotel quarantine confirmed

(POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

Boris Johnson said he was “hopeful” that schools can start to reopen from March 8 but warned that lockdown restrictions were still necessary to drive down Covid-19 infections.

The Prime Minister told a Downing Street press conference that it was the “earliest” date that was “sensible” and safe for children to go back. “I’m hopeful, but that’s the earliest that we can do it and it depends on lots of things going right,” he said.

In an earlier Commons statement after the UK’s death toll passed 100,000, he said he would set out a road map for the “gradual and phased” easing of restrictions in the week beginning February 22.

The Prime Minister also confirmed that arrivals from “red list” countries will be sent to quarantine hotels for 10 days. He told MPs that passengers will be “met at the airport and transported directly into quarantine”.

Meanwhile, Sir Keir Starmer condemned the Government’s handling of the pandemic, as he asked the PM to explain why the UK had become the country with the highest Covid death rate in the world.