A YORK MP said the Government's decision to move the country from the Plan B Covid restrictions is "totally reckless" as infection rates are still high.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced yesterday (Wednesday) that the country’s Plan B restrictions will be lifted as England moves back to Plan A.

The Prime Minister said that people will no longer be told to work from home and mandatory Covid certificates, such as passports, will no longer be required unless a business chooses to continue to use them from next Thursday, January 27. The Government will no longer require people wear facemasks anywhere from next Thursday and they will be scrapped in classrooms from today, with school communal areas to follow.

But, York Cenral MP, Rachael Maskell, said this decision was "premature".

Maskell said: "At a time when Covid-19 infections are at a dangerously high level and when the NHS and social care sector are under extreme pressures, it is totally reckless of the Prime Minister to call for an end of public health measures. These measures do not restrict work or our way of life, but do help prevent the virus spreading and people dying.

“With a Prime Minister so focused on saving his own job, it is clear that this premature decision was to keep his backbenchers on side, rather than act in the interests of the nation.

"I urge everyone in York to listen to the health experts who are asking us to all continue with Hands – Face – Space, good ventilation and putting barriers between us and the virus as the way to control Covid.

"The vaccine will also provide good protection, so if you have yet to have your vaccine or booster then please make this your priority. Let’s continue to help each other beat this pandemic."

The latest data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) shows that one in 20 people in private households in England is estimated to have had coronavirus in the week to January 15.