UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said it would not be possible to reopen schools immediately after the February half-term, as a result of new rules in which the government has promised to provide two weeks’ notice to teachers and students ahead of any institution reopening.

Johnson told MPs in the House of Commons on 27 January that if the vaccination target for mid-February is reached, those groups should have developed immunity from the virus approximately three weeks’ later. That would mean schools could reopen from roughly 8 March.