British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has denied throwing "caution to the wind" as he prepares to end all pandemic-related legal restrictions in England, amid a political backlash and scientific unease.
Mr Johnson's premiership is in peril as police investigate a series of lockdown-breaching parties in Downing Street, and he stands accused by opposition parties of seeking to distract public attention with the new Covid plan.
But in a BBC interview broadcast today, he said that with case numbers and hospitalisations from the Omicron wave apparently under control, it was time to revert to "personal responsibility" rather than legal mandates. "I'm not saying that we should throw caution to the wind.
But it's time for everybody to get their confidence back," Mr Johnson said, after bringing forward the plan by a month from when the current law was due to expire in late March.