Boris Johnson is expected to announce an easing of England’s Covid rules when he makes a statement on Plan B later.
The cabinet will review the latest data before Mr Johnson addresses Parliament in the afternoon.
A government spokeswoman said the decision was “finely balanced” but the latest data was “encouraging”, with cases falling since early January.
Plan B measures – including face masks and Covid passes – are due to expire on 26 January.
The government has committed to reviewing them before this date.
The restrictions were introduced in December to slow the spread of the highly transmissible Omicron variant and to buy time to administer more booster jabs.
On Tuesday, Health Secretary Sajid Javid told MPs he was “cautiously optimistic that we will be able to substantially reduce restrictions next week”.
And asked whether restrictions would be lifted during a hospital visit, Mr Johnson said: “We’ve got to be careful about Covid. We’ve got to continue to remember that it’s a threat.”
Source: BBC
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