Are the COVID trends positive enough for ministers to ease the lockdown?
Tomorrow is a massive day in the government’s efforts to control the pandemic with Johnson due to make a statement with what is being termed the “road-map” back to normality whatever that is deemed to be.
At 4pm every afternoon in the UK we get the latest data and what is in the panel above will be the core information on which decisions will be taken. Johnson is only too aware of the criticisms of his failure to act early enough a year ago and the desire to make Christmas as normal as possible which had to be put aside at the last minute. Ministers have to get this one right.
Is Johnson going to err on the side of caution which will not be popular in many parts of his party and in the media. Or will the widely acknowledged success of the vaccination programme give him the confidence to risk it?
Will pubs and restaurants be allowed to re-open?; what will be the scale of the school re-openings scheduled for next month and will people be able to travel once again for things like self-catering holidays? Most of all can the economy, already hit by Brexit, be helped to get better.
We all know that the PM really really wants to be popular and for the public to like him and he must be a tad uncomfortable by the stance the Daily Mail has been taking of late.
The big plus for the PM is the undoubted success and scale of the mass vaccination programme. The vast bulk of those deemed to be the most vulnerable had their jabs long enough ago for them to have developed the antibodies that make them less susceptible.
Maybe tomorrow will be a surprise.