UK PM Johnson says end of lockdown in England will be slow unwrapping

[January 06, 2021]  LONDON (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Wednesday any end to the latest lockdown in England will be a "gradual unwrapping" when the regions of the country will move out of stringent restrictions step by step.

Addressing parliament before lawmakers are due to vote on the lockdown, Johnson said he had resisted shutting school until the last moment, but was forced to do so. Schools, he said, would be the very first to open when the lockdown ends.

Urging caution over any timetable for the re-opening of the country, he said: "And as was the case last spring, our emergence from the lockdown cocoon will not be a big bang but a gradual unwrapping."

(Reporting by William James and Elizabeth Piper)

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