(Adds quotes)
LONDON, Feb 15 (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Boris
Johnson said on Monday that his plan to lift the COVID-19
lockdown would be cautious but irreversible and would include
the earliest possible dates for reopening the economy.
"We've got to be very prudent and what we want to see is
progress that is cautious, but irreversible," Johnson told
reporters. "If we possibly can, we'll be setting out dates."
"If because of the rate of infection, we have to push
something off a little bit to the right - delay it for a little
bit - we won't hesitate to do that."
Johnson, who will set out his plan to lift lockdown on Feb.
22, said the rates of infection were still very high and that
too many people were still dying.
"The risk is that if you have a large, as it were, volume of
circulation, if you've got loads of people, even young people
getting the disease, then a couple of things happen: first of
all, you have a higher risk of variants and mutations within the
population, where the disease is circulating," he said.
"Secondly, there will also be a greater risk of the disease
spreading out into the older groups again," Johnson said.
"Although the vaccines are effective and great, of course no
vaccination programme is 100% effective, so when you have a
large volume circulating, when you have got a lot of disease,
inevitably, the vulnerable will suffer. So that's why we want to
drive it right down, keep it right down."
(Reporting by Guy Faulconbridge and Kate Holton)
Astrazeneca (AZN)
