COVID-19: STILL no need to delay June 21 roadmap amid Indian variant fears says Boris Johnson.

Coronavirus latest: BORIS Johnson was on Wednesday still pressing on with plans to end lockdown on June 21 - but warned that the decisive data was still "ambiguous".

The PM apologised to frustrated Brits for leaving their Freedom Day plans in limbo and insisted he was busily scrutinising all the latest evidence.

Speaking in Downing Street this afternoon he said: "I can see nothing in the data at the moment that means we can't go ahead with Step 4 on June 21 - but we have to be so cautious."

June 21's Freedom Day is the final waypoint of the Government's roadmap and marks the end of all legal restrictions after almost 15 months.

But in recent days the PM - back at his desk after marrying Carrie Symonds on Saturday - is being pulled in the opposite direction by scientists.

Gloomy boffins have called on Mr Johnson to slam the brakes on his roadmap for fear of fuelling the spread of the Indian variant.

One Nervtag adviser even warned Britain could be heading for a third wave and urged the PM to press the pause button for a month.

Yet today the bullish PM stressed the Government expected a rise in cases as the UK eased restrictions - and was now looking to see if jabs were stopping deaths.

He said: "What we need to work out is to what extent the vaccination programme has protected enough of us, particularly the elderly and vulnerable, against a new surge.

"And there I'm afraid the data is just still ambiguous."

He relayed concerns from scientists that we "just need to wait a little bit longer" for a surefire answer and acknowledged the uncertainty was "frustrating".

Mr Johnson "every day we're having long sessions interrogating the data, looking at the models".

The PM is due to come to a final decision about June 21 one week before on June 14.

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