THE UK Government has knocked backed suggestions that it is poised to introduce a graduated plan to swiftly lift lockdown restrictions, which could see the first schools reopened next month.

The so-called “traffic light” approach had been mooted last week, whereby some businesses such as small shops and schools would reopen in the first red phase, followed by larger shops and public transport networks in an amber phase before a full return to normality in a green phase; each phase only happening after a full assessment of progress.

But Michael Gove insisted the country should “not get ahead of ourselves” and that the Government was using a “balanced judgement” based on scientific advice and that restrictions would be lifted “in the right way with safeguards”.

However, he did accept that pubs, restaurants and hotels would be the last to emerge from the lockdown.

The minister admitted the Government was looking at which areas of the current restrictions could be lifted and in which way but stressed lifting them too early would be dangerous.

“It is a complex and interconnected picture. There are some other countries that are relaxing some aspects of their existing restraints. They are confident they can do so without prejudice to the overall health of their populations. We are looking at what those countries are doing, we are looking at our own data and evidence.

“But one of the things we absolutely will not do is precipitately relax any of the current restrictions before we are confident that we have a scientific check in the round that allows us to make the right decisions.”

The Cabinet Office Minister told Sky News's Sophy Ridge on Sunday: "It is the case that we are looking at all of the evidence but we have set some tests which need to be passed before we can think of easing restrictions in this lockdown.

"It is entirely understandable, of course, that there should be a public debate about how we approach these difficult choices."

Later, Mr Gove made clear the Government was developing a strategy for so-called “contact trace and testing,” so people could be tested in the community and be tracked through the use of technology. He mentioned a telephone app that could help in this regard.

He stressed UK ministers were taking a “deliberately cautious and measured approach guided by the science” and that a number of things had to happen before the Government was confident enough to begin to lift the restrictions; these included testing and contact tracing, the NHS capacity being as resilient as it could be and that the number of deaths was falling.

“It is only if we can be certain that we have all of those factors in place we can confident about relaxing some of the measures we currently have in place,” explained the Cabinet minister.

Asked if there would be contact tracing within the community within three weeks, Mr Gove said “over the course of the next few weeks” the Government would be able to increase the number of tests and made clear he was “confident” it would meet its target of 100,000 a day by the end of this month; the current number of tests remains just over 21,000 a day while the capacity is 38,000 a day.

He told the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show: “It is also the case we hope to have community testing as well but I can’t give you a precise timescale. We are working as fast as we can to ensure we can increase the number of tests and also develop contact-tracing infrastructure.”

Asked about the Government telephone app, the Scot explained: “It is in beta-testing, at the moment. One of the things we want to ensure is that when we start operating at significant scale we want to make sure it is robust and that it works.

“It is better to have no app than a bad app to paraphrase a principle we have outlined in respect to testing. We are currently developing it. We are making sure it is inter-operable with other apps that other countries are developing as well.”

Earlier, Gavin Williamson, the UK Education Secretary, took to social media to dismiss an imminent return to school in England.

He tweeted: "No decision has been made on when we will reopen schools. I can reassure schools and parents that they will only reopen when the scientific advice indicates it is the right time to do so."

Sir Jeremy Farrar, a member of the Government's Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies[SAGE], said he was "optimistic" about finding a vaccine for the Covid-19 coronavirus with advances in science.

But he acknowledged "the truth is we don't have another vaccine for any other human coronavirus" and said finding a safe and effective treatment for the latest strain was "not a given".

He told Sky News: "I hope we would have a vaccine towards the end of this year - but that's a vaccine in a vial, it's a vaccine that we believe to be safe, a vaccine we think might be effective.

"It's crucial to realise having a vaccine in itself, in say a million doses, which you know to be safe and you believe to be effective. That is not the end game.

"The end game is making sure that it is truly effective. It's effective in the elderly, effective in young children, effective right across the age group in all populations.

"And then you have to manufacture that in billions of doses to administer them to the world. That is an enormous scientific challenge, it's also an enormous logistics and delivery challenge," he added.

Niall Dickson, chief executive of the NHS Confederation, said a shipment of PPE that was due to arrive in the country was "a few days' supply" and "may be enough to avert an absolute crisis over this weekend" but added that "it doesn't solve the longer term problem".

Meanwhile, speaking about Mr Johnson's health following his treatment for coronavirus, Mr Gove said: "The Prime Minister is recovering well. He's in cheerful spirits. He had the opportunity to talk to Dominic Raab, his deputy, the First Secretary of State, on Friday.

"And the Prime Minister's instructions to the rest of us in Government were communicated by the First Secretary of State when we had a conference call yesterday morning."

Mr Johnson was treated for Covid-19 in intensive care at St Thomas's Hospital in London earlier this month and is now recuperating at his official country home of Chequers in Buckinghamshire.