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Sounding a note of caution on a trip to Durham, he said: “We want to make sure we take all the prudential, cautious steps now that we could take, so there are meetings going on today to consider exactly what we need to do.
“There is a range of things we could do, we are ruling nothing out.”
The PM refused to close down speculation that local lockdowns could return in virus hotbeds such as Bolton.
But he remained optimistic about being able to ease restrictions next Monday as planned, and for the total end of lockdown next month.
The PM said: “At the moment, I can see nothing that dissuades me from thinking we will be able to go ahead on Monday and indeed on June 21, everywhere, but there may be things we have to do locally and we will not hesitate to do them if that is the advice we get.”
From Monday people will be allowed to meet indoors in groups of six for the first time this year.
And on June 21, dubbed Independence Day, all legal restrictions in England will cease.
Pressed if masks and social distancing would be scrapped at this point, Mr Johnson said more details would be fleshed out soon.
He added: “I think we have to wait a little bit longer to see how the data is looking but I am cautiously optimistic about that and provided this Indian variant doesn’t take off in the way some people fear, I think certainly things could get back much, much closer to normality.”
A meeting of the Government’s committee of top scientists, SAGE, is being held today and will brief ministers on the Indian variant
