Johnson has lifted restrictions in England and is betting he can get one of Europe's largest economies firing again because so many people are now vaccinated, a decision which marks a new chapter in the response to the novel coronavirus.

The number of new daily COVID-19 cases has fallen each day for the last six days, though Johnson stressed the pandemic is not over, Reuters reported.

"I've noticed obviously that we're six days into some better figures, but it is very, very important that we don't allow ourselves to run away with premature conclusions about this," Johnson told broadcasters, noting it would take a while for the lifting of restrictions in England to feed through to the data.

"People have got to remain very cautious and that remains the approach of the government."

Imperial College epidemiologist Neil Ferguson said the end of Britain's pandemic could be just months away as vaccines have so dramatically reduced the risk of hospitalization and death.

"We're not completely out of the woods but the equation has fundamentally changed," Ferguson, whose modelling of the virus's likely spread at the outset of the pandemic in early 2020 alarmed governments across the world, told the BBC.

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