Berkshire lockdown easing: Key dates in Boris Johnson's plan

He is expected to announce when schools will return and when we can expect to see retailers and pubs reopening, as well as updates on rules for outdoor socialising.

The Prime Minister is due to address parliament at 3.30pm today.

Here are some key dates with what we can expect to see in Berkshire in the coming days:

READ MORE: Live updates as Boris Johnson unveils roadmap to end lockdown

March 8: Mr Johnson is due to tell MPs that all pupils in all year groups can go back to the classroom from March 8, with outdoor after-school sports and activities also allowed to restart.

It is also understood that, from March 8, people will be permitted to have socially distanced one-to-one meetings with others outdoors in a public space.

This means friends and family members could sit down for a coffee or have a picnic in the park, something not currently allowed under lockdown.

The Telegraph also reported that care home residents will be allowed a single visitor from this date.

March 29: It is expected that larger groups will be allowed to gather in parks and gardens from March 29.

The "rule of six" will return, along with new measures allowing two households, totalling more than six people, to meet.

Outdoor sports facilities such as tennis and basketball courts are also set to reopen at the end of next month.

Organised adult and children's sport - including grassroots football - can return.

Guidance asking people to remain in their local area will also be lifted, the Telegraph reported, meaning families could drive somewhere to go for a walk.

PM Boris Johnson

What about Berkshire pubs and non-essential shops?

The longer-term picture of the Government's plans is not yet clear.

Various reports suggest hospitality could return at some point between the Easter weekend and May, with an initial focus on outdoor provision.

The Telegraph reports that April is the earliest pubs and restaurants are likely to be allowed to reopen, with service only permitted outdoors.

What do the experts say?

Professor Sir David Spiegelhalter, a member of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage), said the Government will have to leave room for "highly local" interventions.

He told Times Radio on Sunday: "I think they are going to have to keep the possibility of having much more targeted interventions in certain areas."

Fellow Sage member Professor John Edmunds has said rapid easing could lead to a surge in hospital admissions "and indeed deaths", and placed emphasis on vaccinations.

He told the BBC's Andrew Marr Show: "We're all at risk and we can all spread the virus, and so, until we've all been vaccinated - I include children here - then there is going to be significant risk of a resurgence."

Door to door testing is to begin for the South Africa variant of Covid-19

Mass testing in Berkshire

Reading faced a wait for its own mass vaccination site, with similar sites having already been set up in Newbury, Oxford, and Slough.

But as of yesterday (February 21), The Madejski Stadium has become a mass Coronavirus vaccination centre.

The conversion was announced to the public on yesterday morning, revealing that the Reading FC home stadium would be offering life-saving jabs to those aged 65 years and over, and other eligible groups

Asymptomatic testing sites have been opened in South Reading Leisure Centre and Rivermead Leisure Centre.

Bracknell currently has testing sites across the town, with rapid test sites recently opened at Sandhurst Memorial Hall, Great Hollands Pavilion, Brownlow Hall, Warfield, The Morgan Centre, Crowthorne and the New Priestwood Community Centre, Bracknell.

In Slough, a rapid coronavirus testing centre was opened last month.

The testing facility is located at The Centre on Farnham Road and offers testing to any resident, with or without symptoms, and delivers results in approximately half an hour.

Two rapid Covid-19 test centres opened in Windsor and Maidenhead earlier htis month. 

Local mass testing began on Monday, February 8, in the sports halls at Braywick Leisure Centre and Windsor Leisure Centre.

READ MORE: More asymptomatic testing sites open in West Berkshire: Are you eligible?

A member of the medical team administers a Covid-19 vaccine injection at the NHS vaccination centre in Robertson House, in Stevenage

Vaccines

The Prime Minister has set a new target to vaccinate all adults aged over 50 - as well as those with underlying health conditions which put them at higher risk - by April 15.

By July 31, the Government hopes to have offered all adults in the UK a jab - though the order of priority for those under 50 has yet to be outlined by the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI).

Ministers had set a target to offer vaccines to all adults by September, with an aim to reach all those aged 50 and over in the first nine JCVI priority groups by May.

Downing Street said the JCVI will publish its priority list for the second phase of the vaccine programme in due course.