UK Prime Minister: International Travel from England Banned until May 17 at Earliest

In its roadmap for easing restrictions, the UK government announced a review of travel which will report on April 12 with recommendations about how international travel should resume, while managing the risks of new variants of coronavirus.

"The government will determine when international travel should resume, which will be no earlier than 17 May," the government said in its statement.

Britain is looking at a system of allowing vaccinated individuals to travel more freely internationally, the statement added.

The announcement came as Johnson on Monday set out a phased plan on Monday to end England's lockdown, offering a "cautious" approach to try to prevent a return to wholesale restrictions that have hobbled the economy.

Johnson, under pressure to allow more freedoms to millions stuck at home and offer hope to shuttered businesses, said the first stage would prioritise schools returning on March 8 when only minimal socialising outdoors would be allowed.

The so-called roadmap will then pass through four stages, with five weeks in between, and the final step, when most restrictions will be lifted.

"There is therefore no credible route to a zero Covid Britain or a zero Covid world. And we cannot persist indefinitely with restrictions that debilitate our economy, our physical and mental well-being, and the life chances of our children," Johnson told parliament.

"And that is why it is so crucial that this roadmap is cautious but also irreversible. We're setting out on, what I hope and believe, is a one-way road to freedom."

With almost 130,000 fatalities, Britain has suffered the world's fifth-highest official death toll from the pandemic and its economy has seen its biggest crash in over 300 years.

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