Prime Minister Boris Johnson will announce a very limited easing of Britain's coronavirus lockdown next week, adopting a cautious approach to try to ensure there is no second peak of infections that could further hurt the economy.
Johnson is due to announce the next steps in Britain's battle to tackle the novel coronavirus on Sunday following a review by ministers of the current measures that have all but shut the economy and kept millions at home for over six weeks.
"Any changes in the short term will be modest, small, incremental and very carefully monitored," foreign minister Dominic Raab said during the government's daily news conference.
"If people don't follow the rules or if we see that the R-level (the reproductive rate of the virus) goes back up, we will tighten the restrictions again."
The government has been criticized for moving too slowly to tackle the outbreak which has led to more than 30,000 deaths in Britain – the worst official death toll in Europe.
Ministers have dismissed that charge, saying they took the right decisions at the right time.
But with an increasing number of anecdotal reports that more people are flouting the lockdown in anticipation of Sunday's announcement and a public holiday on Friday, ministers are under pressure to make any new rules as clear as possible after being criticized for mixed messaging.