A top public health boss believes there is an “opportunity to exit this pandemic” after Boris Johnson revealed his road map out of lockdown.

Jim McManus, Hertfordshire’s director of public health, said he is “hopeful” that England’s third national lockdown will be the last of its kind and has urged residents to “do the right thing” by sticking to the rules as restrictions are gradually eased.

On Monday, Mr Johnson said England is approaching “seasons of hope” that will usher in changes making lives “incomparably better” as he set out his road map to ease the lockdown by June 21 at the earliest.

The first step of the plans is to get students back in the classroom on March 8, with restrictions then gradually being lifted every few weeks.

But progressing along the road map will depend on meeting four tests: the success of the vaccine rollout, evidence of vaccine efficacy, an assessment of new variants, and keeping infection rates below a level that could put unsustainable pressure on the NHS.

Speaking at a press conference yesterday (Tuesday) Mr McManus backed the plans and said there is an opportunity to make them “work”.

But in order to do this, he urged residents to continue following the rules and to “not let their guard down”.

He said: “I think we have an opportunity to exit this pandemic - we could make this plan work.

“But this plan will only work with residents doing what they’ve been doing, so there are several things people really can do to make this plan happen, so that we all do exit by that date in June if at all possible.

“The first is for people to get their vaccine when they are called up, because although we don’t yet know that the vaccine stops transmission definitely, what we know from both Israel and Scotland, is that the vaccine has massively reduced hospital admissions and deaths - and that’s a brilliant thing.

“So it’s like a seatbelt, it might not stop you having the accident – ie getting Covid – but it will certainly stop you dying from the accident.

“The second thing is because the disease is not yet one that can be eradicated by vaccination, we're still in the point where we've got a large population of people who are susceptible to the virus and not immune.”

Mr McManus explained that we are now coming into a period where “we have to live with Covid”, which will be about “continuing to minimise your risk, continuing to ease off of seeing people, continuing to take the hygiene measures, and when we are able to see people still taking some of those measures".

“The road map is clear, but the one thing I would have said is that this road map is dependent on residents being as fantastic as they have been,” Mr McManus said.

“We have to give this our best shot because it seems to me both hopeful and realistic to get out of there, despite the fact that I’m sure a number of us would like things to be open earlier.”

Asked if future lockdowns could be avoided, Mr McManus said: “If we all do the right thing and if we don’t let our guard down, which a lot of people did last summer understandably, then I am hopeful that this is the last time that we need certainly a lockdown of the type we have had.

“We might need occasional local restrictions, but I think if we can come out of this and keep the virus at a low level and live with it and learn those skills we won’t need to go back into restrictions, that is my hope.”