Covid restrictions 'more likely' to end if 70% target reached - BBC News
Dr Susan Hopkins of Public Health England also says she wants all over-30s double vaccinated by 19 July.
Queues outside a NHS vaccination clinic at West Ham's stadium in Stratford, east London Image caption: Queues outside a NHS vaccination clinic at West Ham's stadium in Stratford, east London

All coronavirus restrictions could be lifted in England on 5 July thanks to the huge numbers of people getting their jabs, a vaccine expert says.

Brendan Wren, professor of vaccinology at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, says it is "very encouraging" that more than 700,000 vaccine appointments were booked on Friday when jabs became available to people aged 18 to 20 in England.

Asked whether the success of the vaccine programme means England will not need to wait until 19 July to fully open up, he told Sky News: "We'd still need to be vigilant - but vigilance and vaccination are the two words.

"So, I think if the numbers continue to be promising then I think there's great hope we could open up on 5 July."

Official figures show the UK has recorded more than 10,000 daily Covid cases for three consecutive days .

But Prof Wren says the rise in cases seem to be "flattening off" and the number of people in hospital with coronavirus and "certainly the severe cases" have "not crept up in line" with the number of infections.

He says he does not particularly think that the UK is experiencing a third wave of coronavirus and he does not expect to see a "huge peak like we've had in January and last year."