People deemed "extremely vulnerable" must continue to be shielded from the coronavirus pandemic despite initial moves to relax a nationwide lockdown, Boris Johnson has said.
Speaking in the House of Commons on Monday, the Prime Minister said such individuals should "remain at home and avoid any direct contact with others".
"I know that easing restrictions for the many will only increase the anguish of those who must remain shielded," he added.
"So the Government will look at every possible way of supporting the most vulnerable."
About 2.5 million people have been told to shield themselves amid the Covid-19 crisis by the Government.
Among those told to stay at home at all times are solid organ transplant recipients, people on immunosuppression drugs and others with severe respiratory conditions.
Mr Johnson on Monday said the Government was also asking "clinically vulnerable" individuals - including pregnant women and people over 70, or those with pre-existing chronic conditions - to "minimise contact with those outside their households".
In other key developments:
- The Prime Minister told the Commons he has instructed the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) to look into when people from two different households might be able to meet safely.
- Mr Johnson said the Government would be driven by “data and science and public health” in easing the restrictions.
- He added the UK “can, with the upmost caution, gradually begin to rebuild our economy and open our society”.
The Prime Minister's comments came after the Government unveiled new guidance earlier on Monday detailing its plan for exiting the Covid-19 lockdown.
Under the strategy, from Wednesday, people will be permitted to meet one other person in a public space such as a park. But social distancing and a gap of at least two metres must be kept.
Friends and relatives will not be permitted to visit one another in their homes, however, with any further relaxation of restrictions dependent on success in curtailing the pandemic.
Mr Johnson said the Government now faced the challenge of finding "a way forward that preserves our hard-won gains while easing with the burden of lockdown".
"And I will be candid with the House, this is a supremely difficult balance to strike," he said.
“There could be no greater mistake than to jeopardise everything we’ve striven to achieve by proceeding too far and too fast.
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“We will be driven not by hope or economic revival as an end in itself, but by data and science and public health.”