Minister unable to say if she’ll continue wearing face mask after 19 July

Helen Whately suggests she will ‘follow the guidance’

A health minister was unable to say whether she will continue wearing a face mask after 19 July when Covid restrictions are to be further relaxed during an interview on Monday.

Later in the day, the prime minister, Boris Johnson, is to give an update on England's roadmap out of lockdown.

He is expected to confirm that rules requiring people to wear a mask on public transport and in confined spaces will be axed.

Mr Johnson will say "we must learn to live" with the virus and tell the public that mask-wearing will be a matter of personal choice.

Helen Whately, a care minister, refused to state what she will do in two weeks' time. When pressed on the matter during an interview with BBC Breakfast, Ms Whatley said: "Personally, what I will do is follow what the guidance is."

Despite her colleague Robert Jenrick, the local government secretary, on Sunday all but confirming masks will be scrapped, Ms Whately claimed she was not clear on what the new guidance could look like. "As I said, there's nothing different I can say at this point," she said.

In a separate interview, the care minister said she expected face mask rules to remain in hospital and care settings, where people are more vulnerable to the disease. Visits to both are unlikely to go back to normal, she added.

Mr Johnson will address the nation on Monday afternoon at a Downing Street press conference, when he is widely expected to scrap the majority of social distancing restrictions.

Antipication of the rule change comes amid a backlash from scientists and medics, who argue that cases are rising too quickly for restrictions to be further eased.

There were 24,248 new cases reported on Sunday, down by around 600 compared with Saturday but up 66 per cent in the past week.

Despite surging cases, hospitalisations and deaths remain relatively low, with 15 fatalities recorded on Sunday.

Around half the UK population has had a second dose of a vaccine and although the link between rising infections and hospitalisation has not been eradicated, it is greatly "weakened".

Earlier Professor Stephen Powis, national medical director of NHS England, said the health service is preparing itself to "learn to live with Covid".

He said that the rise in infection numbers were "geographically very localised" and higher in the northwest of England.

"The NHS always has its local and regional plans so ... we have got well used to coping with this," he said when asked if rules could differ locally. "We will have to learn to live with Covid now and that is what the NHS is preparing to do."

He encouraged people to continue hygienic practices and said that he would continue to wear a face mask in crowded places, such as public transport.