All Covid restrictions are likely to be lifted in England come July 19 as emphasis is placed on people to “make their own informed decisions about how to manage the virus”.

While the lockdown lifting still has to be formally agreed in parliament on July 12, Mr Johnson set out the new five-point plan for ‘living with Covid’ which includes reopening of all businesses, ending limits for the number of people indoors and out, and getting rid of the 1m distancing rule.

However, he did not rule out the possibility of restrictions being re-introduced in the winter, although promised to “do everything possible to avoid” this.

Mr Johnson admitted that cases were still rising and were likely to continue to do so.

He said: “This pandemic is far from over. It certainly won’t be over by the 19th.

“We’re seeing cases rise fairly rapidly. There could be 50,000 cases detected per day by the 19th. We’re seeing rising hospital admissions and we must reconcile ourselves sadly to more deaths from Covid.”

He said there was only one reason why the government could “contemplate going ahead to step four” in circumstances where the country would normally be locking down further, and that was because of the “continuing effectiveness of the vaccine rollout.”

He said when the lockdown lifting was paused two weeks ago there were two reasons, one of which was to “get more jabs into people’s arms.”

By July 19 the expectation was that every adult would have had a chance to get a first dose and two thirds will have had their second dose.

The second reason was the government wanted more time to “see evidence of vaccines helping break the link between the virus and death.”

Mr Johnson said the majority of those admitted to hospital with Covid-19 now were unvaccinated.

He said: “As we come to the fourth step we have to balance the risks of the disease, which the vaccines have reduced but very far from eliminated, and the risks with continuing with legally enforced restrictions that take their toll on people’s lives and livelihoods, on people’s health and mental health.

“If we can’t reopen our society in the next few weeks, when we will be helped by the arrival of summer and the school holidays, we must ourselves when will we be able to return to normal?

“The alternative is to open in winter when the virus will have an advantage or not at all this year.”

Mr Johnson set out the government’s five-point plan for living with Covid:

1. Reinforce the vaccine more, with the gap between doses reducing from 12 weeks to eight weeks for under 40s, and a booster in the autumn.

2. Move away from legal restrictions and allow people to “make their own informed decisions about how to manage the virus”.

All legal limits will be removed from numbers meeting indoors and outdoors. All business will be able to reopen, including nightclubs.

The limit on named visitors to care homes will be lifted, along with the numbers of people visiting concerts, theatre and sports events.

There will be an end to the 1m plus rule on social distancing, with no legal obligation to wear a face covering, although guidance will suggest where people might want to such as when meeting people you don’t normally meet and in crowded public transport. It will no longer be necessary for the government to instruct people to work from home.

There will be no Covid certificate required as condition of entry to any venue or event.

3. Continue to manage the virus with a test, trace and isolate system proportionate to pandemic. People will still have to isolate if they test positive or are told to do so by test and trace, but the government is working on a different regime for fully vaccinated contacts of those testing positive and also for children.

He said tomorrow the education secretary will announce plans to maintain key protections in schools, but remove bubbles and contact isolation for pupils.

4. Maintain tough border controls including red list. The government will work with travel industry towards removing the need for fully vaccinated arrivals to isolate from an amber country.

5. Continue to monitor the data and retain measures during high risk periods such as the winter, but Mr Johnson promised to place emphasis on strengthened guidance and “do everything possible to avoid reintroducing restrictions.”