Boris Johnson has warned that it is “still early days” to start talking about opening up society, as reports suggested UK pubs could reopen in May.

The British prime minister has committed to setting out a “road map” later this month for easing restrictions as he faces pressure from Conservative MPs to relax the current lockdown once the most vulnerable have been vaccinated.

Downing Street confirmed on Friday that the vaccine programme planned to reach all those aged 50 and over, as well as adults aged 16-65 in an at-risk group, by May.

Mark Harper, chairman of the Covid Recovery Group – made up of lockdown-sceptic Tory MPs, said it would be “almost impossible to justify having any restrictions in place at all” by the time the top nine groups had been inoculated.

The former chief whip also asked Mr Johnson to consider getting pupils back into classrooms this month rather than delay until his target date of March 8.

The devolved administrations in Wales and Scotland have both announced that some primary schools year groups will return by February 22.

Mr Johnson reiterated his promise to announce a “steady programme for beginning to unlock” in just over two weeks’ time, but warned it was “still early days” and urged the public to continue following lockdown rules.

He said: “I want to stress that it is still early days and we have rates of infection in this country (that are) still very, very high and (have) more people – almost twice as many people – in our hospitals with Covid now than there were back at the peak in April.”