In a press conference from Downing Street this evening, Johnson confirmed that non-essential retail, gyms, hairdressers, libraries and zoos will reopen from next Monday, 12 April.

Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are also set to launch their own similar pathways to open up their economies.

The government aims to give all adults at least one shot of the vaccine by July, and hopes that a combination of vaccination and mass testing will allow indoor socialising and large-scale events to return. It comes as the government announced plans for twice weekly free coronavirus tests for everyone in England to be rolled out from the end of this week.

The government has said it will not lift the travel ban before May 17.

The lateral flow tests, which are being widely used in schools, can provide results in as little as 30 minutes, with the two-tests-per-week available from 9 April.

Another 2,762 people in Britain have tested positive for COVID-19, bringing the total number of coronavirus cases in the country to 4,362,150, according to official figures released Monday.

Tanzer pointed to Abta research which suggests 63% of people hope to book a holiday overseas and urged them to book package holidays for "the best level of protection should circumstances change".

Under the traffic light system, assessments will be based on a range of factors, including the proportion of a country's population which has been vaccinated, rates of infection, emerging new variants and the country's access to reliable scientific data and genomic sequencing.

For people who have been in countries classed as "amber" or "red", arrivals will be required to isolate or enter quarantine.

He said "the goal must be to have unrestricted travel to "green" destinations" and said current testing costs "may be a deterrent to many United Kingdom travellers", urging government to "ensure that testing is required only where the public health risk justifies it".

A series of events will start this month, including soccer matches, comedy shows and marathon races.

Vaccine passports to facilitate global travel are very likely to be required in the future, the PM said, as other countries seek to ensure tourists do not bring disease with them. The idea is opposed by a wide swath of British lawmakers, from left-of-center opposition politicians to members of Johnson's Conservative Party.

Interim findings of the government's review said public transport and essential shops would not require vaccine passports.

Sir Keir Starmer said it would be against the "British instinct" to use certification and shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth told BBC Breakfast that Labour was "very sceptical" about the idea.

"Even without government intervention, Covid-status certification is likely to become a feature of our lives until the threat from the pandemic recedes", the document said.

The government said the first events will rely only on testing, "but in later pilots vaccination and acquired immunity are expected to be alternative ways to demonstrate status".

Countries are fighting "a more infectious variant, a shortage of vaccines and public weariness with lockdowns", it said.

Johnson acknowledged that vaccine passports raised "complicated ethical and practical issues" and stressed their introduction wasn't imminent.