BORIS Johnson’s restrictions-lifting roadmap will be accompanied by an ad blitz urging “one more heave” of lockdown.
The Government is currently spending millions on a Covid public awareness campaign designed to shock people into staying at home.
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But ahead of the first restrictions easing on March 8, a new softer message will be deployed as more freedoms are restored.
A source said: “As we wait for the vaccine rollout to reach everyone, it’s essential that the rules are not ignored at the final stretch.
“The adverts will urge one more heave to get the country over the line.”
The PM was due to tell fellow world leaders today that we face the “tantalising prospect of a return to normality”, but the mistakes of the Covid pandemic must never be allowed to happen again.
He will use this year’s presidency of the G7 — the annual gathering of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK and US — to begin work on an international pandemic early warning system to stop any future virus from crippling the planet.
At his first virtual meeting in charge, the PM will say: “The development of viable coronavirus vaccines offers the tantalising prospect of a return to normality, but we must not rest on our laurels.
“As leaders of the G7 we must say today: never again.”
He will urge the group to back an ambitious target of supporting the development of vaccines for emerging diseases in 100 days in future, a third of the time it took to successfully develop the Pfizer-BioNTech jab.
And he wants funding to increase for Covax — the vaccine drive for poor countries.
Last night, he pledged to donate “the majority of surplus coronavirus vaccines” to poorer nations.
