Opening will go ahead next week despite India variant says Hancock

The health secretary told the BBC’s Andrew Marr that the next stage of opening England up from lockdown would still go ahead this week despite concerns about the India variant. ’I’m confident that we can take the step tomorrow, but we should all be careful about how we take that step,’ Hancock said. He said the government would announce a decision on whether to end all lockdown measures – currently planned for 21 June – on 14 June  Subscribe to Guardian News on YouTube ► Covid live: Matt Hancock says ‘high degree of confidence’ vaccines work against Indian variant, but urges caution ►