The country is “in a different world” from when the Covid pandemic started, Boris Johnson has said, meaning the last remaining restrictions can begin to be lifted from next week.

Ahead of an announcement on Monday about the government’s “living with Covid” strategy, the prime minister signalled free mass testing would end imminently and told people to return to the office and “get their confidence back”.

“We’ve reached a stage where we think you can shift the balance away from state mandation – away from banning certain courses of action, compelling certain courses of action – in favour of encouraging personal responsibility,” he said on Sunday.

Concerns have been raised by some scientists and health experts about the mooted plans to drop the legal requirement for people to self-isolate, scrap the majority of free lateral flow tests and end most contact tracing.

Johnson did not rule out restrictions being re-imposed. He said: “I don’t want to go back to that kind of non-pharmaceutical intervention. I want to be able to address the problems of the pandemic with a vaccine-led approach … but I’m afraid you’ve got to be humble in the face of nature.”

Wes Streeting, Labour’s shadow health secretary, told the same programme that the move “seems very premature” and used the analogy of a football team being one goal ahead and then taking off their best defender in the closing minutes of the game.

Hospitals in England will be able to use private hospitals and staff under a deal with the NHS to maintain services as Omicron cases surge, avoiding delays in treatment for patients with illnesses such as cancer.

The move comes as hospitals have also been told to find extra beds in gyms and education centres owing to rising numbers of Covid patients.

The three-month agreement means private healthcare staff and facilities will be on standby to support the NHS if required and to maintain services for patients who can be referred, including some of those waiting for cancer surgery.

Nightingale hubs are being created in the grounds of some hospitals as part of a move to create up to 4,000 extra beds.

Secondary school and college pupils will be required to wear face masks in communal areas outside of their classrooms in areas of the south west of England in response to a surge in coronavirus cases.

Starting Friday, Cornwall, the Isles of Scilly, Devon, Plymouth and Torbay local authority areas – which have seen an uptick in cases – will get help to increase vaccine and testing and deliver more public health messaging, the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) said.

Although schools will resume from next week as planned, students in secondary schools and colleges will need to wear face masks in communal areas after the guidance was scrapped on July 19.

The coronavirus crisis has disrupted routine healthcare disproportionately across society with women, older people and minority ethnic groups most likely to report cancelled or delayed appointments, prescriptions and procedures, researchers say.

Public health experts trawled through data from nearly 70,000 people enrolled in 12 major UK studies that surveyed the population before and during the epidemic. They found evidence for widespread inequalities, with disadvantaged groups often facing the greatest disruption to their medical care.

“Many of the people who report experiencing the greatest healthcare disruption often had poorer health prior to the pandemic,” said Vittal Katikireddi, a senior author on the study and a professor of public health at the University of Glasgow. “While experiencing healthcare disruption is common across all social groups, our study raises the possibility that the health of the most disadvantaged in society might actually be more impacted by the disruption to the health system.”

The Indian virus variant could pose “serious disruption” to lockdown easing in England on 21 June, the PM says.

Boris Johnson said if it was found to be “significantly” more transmissible there could be “some hard choices”.

The wait between jabs will be cut from 12 weeks to eight for the over-50s and clinically vulnerable because of concern over the variant, he added.

Cases of the Indian coronavirus variant have nearly tripled in the past week, Public Health England figures show.

Surge testing is already taking place in 15 areas across England, including Bolton, Blackburn, London, Sefton and Nottingham.

According to Friday’s government figures, a further 17 people have died in the UK within 28 days of a positive test and another 2,193 coronavirus cases have been recorded.

Speaking at a Downing Street briefing alongside the UK’s chief medical adviser, Prof Chris Whitty, Mr Johnson said first Covid vaccine doses will also be prioritised “for anyone eligible who has not yet come forward”. Currently, England’s vaccination rollout is open to people over the age of 38.

The prime minister said he did not believe that the “present evidence” showed a need to delay the next stage in the easing of lockdown in England on Monday – when pubs and restaurants will be allowed to serve customers indoors and six people or two households can meet in a private home.

More than two fifths (43%) of UK adults are considering moving to a different type of setting, as a result of the events of 2020.

But while many experts have predicted an exodus to the country, as city dwellers spend more time working from home, a new study from Aviva reveals a more complicated picture.

A survey of 6,000 people suggests those living in rural or semi-rural locations are actually more likely to want to move to different surroundings than those living in urban and sub-urban areas. More than half of UK adults living in rural (52%) and semi-rural (53%) locations would like a change of scene, a higher proportion than those dwelling in suburban or urban places (39% in both cases).

While the grass may be greener for some in the countryside, many residents of rural and semi-rural locations show a desire to move to places with more facilities. Nearly a third of people (31%) in a rural dwelling wish to move to a semi-rural setting, while almost the same proportion (30%) of people in semi-rural properties hope to move to a suburban location.

When it comes to why people wish to live in a certain location, reasons differ according to the new setting. People are more likely to believe rural (42%) and semi-rural (36%) locations would provide a better quality of life for their family/children. Similarly, more people believe there will be health benefits due to lower pollution in rural (37%) and semi-rural (28%) locations.

Compared to all other types of setting, urban locations are more likely to be chosen for a better social life (23%) facilities (22%), and transport links (22%).

A relatively small number of people say they plan to move because they could work from home and wouldn’t need to commute as often. This is fairly consistent at around 15% across all location types.

Regional restrictions in England are “probably about to get tougher” to curb rising Covid infections, the prime minister has warned.

Boris Johnson told the BBC stronger measures may be required in parts of the country in the coming weeks.

He said this included the possibility of keeping schools closed, although this is not “something we want to do”.

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has called for new England-wide restrictions within 24 hours.

Sir Keir said coronavirus was “clearly out of control” and it was “inevitable more schools are going to have to close”.

It comes as the UK recorded more than 50,000 new confirmed Covid cases for the sixth day in a row, with 54,990 announced on Sunday.

An additional 454 deaths within 28 days of a positive test result have also been reported, meaning the total by this measure is now above 75,000.

As G20 leaders pledged to ensure the equitable distribution of Covid-19 vaccines, drugs and tests so that poorer countries are not left out, the US, UK and Germany each announced plans to begin vaccinations in their countries in December, while Spain said it would start administering the vaccine to its citizens in January.

Britain could give regulatory approval to Pfizer-BioNTech’s Covid-19 vaccine as early as this week, even before the US authorises it, the UK’s Telegraph newspaper reported on Sunday. Pfizer and BioNTech could secure emergency US and European authorisation for their Covid-19 vaccine next month after final trial results showed a 95% success rate and no serious side effects.

Moderna last week released preliminary data for its vaccine showing 94.5% effectiveness.

The better-than-expected results from the two vaccines, both developed with new messenger RNA (mRNA) technology, have raised hopes of an easing of a pandemic that has killed more than 1.3 million people.

Migrant healthcare workers are having to return to their countries of origin, potentially hampering Britain’s response to the second wave of coronavirus, after the expiry of visas to support the NHS, trade unions and charities have warned.

Unison has called on the government to stop forcing out key workers in the health and care sectors and to stop barring potential new ones from coming to work here.

Along with key workers forced to return to their home countries, many who are still in the UK are struggling to renew their visas due to delays and prohibitive costs and have become overstayers as a result, something which can further hamper their ability to renew their visas.

Unison says that the policy is having a serious impact during the second wave of the pandemic and at a time when there are 122,000 vacancies in the health and care sectors in England.

Doctors Association UK has called for indefinite leave to remain for migrant healthcare workers and raised concerns about visa processing delays.

The government must immediately deliver a new deal for social care with major investment and better terms for workers, the Care Quality Commission has said, as it warned that the sector is “fragile” heading into a second wave of coronavirus infections.

In a challenge to ministers, the regulator’s chief executive, Ian Trenholm, said overdue reform of the care sector “needs to happen now – not at some point in the future”.

Boris Johnson said in his first speech as prime minister, in July 2019: “We will fix the crisis in social care once and for all.” But no reform has yet been proposed, and more than 15,000 people have died from Covid-19 in England’s care homes.

Trenholm said Covid risked turning inequalities in England’s health services from “faultlines into chasms” as the CQC published its annual State of Care report on hospitals, GPs and care services.

The report reveals serious problems with mental health, maternity services and emergency care before the pandemic, and says these areas must not be allowed to fall further behind.

In routine inspections carried out before March, 41% of maternity services were found to require improvement for safety – for example, because a baby’s heart rate was being monitored in labour by staff who lacked training.

More than half of urgent and emergency care services were also rated as requiring improvement or inadequate. Thirteen per cent of wards for people with learning disabilities and/or autism were rated inadequate, a sharp increase from 4% the previous year.