We're on a 'one-way road to freedom,' Boris Johnson tells Britain after Covid lockdowns - CNBC

Prime Minister Boris Johnson had some good news for the country on Monday after months of lockdown, saying an "unparalleled" vaccination program meant it was "now traveling on a one-way road to freedom.".

It comes as Johnson confirmed that over 17.7 million Britons had received their first dose of a coronavirus vaccine.

"Nearly a year after this pandemic began, this unparalleled national effort has decisively shifted the odds in our favor," Johnson said in a press conference Monday evening.

To date, it has counted over 4.1 million coronavirus cases and has seen 120,987 fatalities as a result of the virus, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

It saw a sharp rise in cases heading into winter as a new, more infectious strain of the virus emerged in the southeast of the country.

It has now become the dominant strain of the virus across the country, and has been detected in numerous countries worldwide, alongside other more virulent strains of the virus.

It was the first country in the world to approve a coronavirus vaccine, the candidate from Pfizer and BioNTech.