The prime minister said people will no longer be told to work from home "from now on", and from Thursday next week mandatory mask-wearing and COVID certification will end.

He confirmed the intention to end self-isolation rules for people with coronavirus in the coming weeks. The legal requirement would lapse when the regulations expire on 24 March, he said, and that date could be brought forward.

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The PM told the Commons cases were falling and the Omicron wave had likely peaked nationally, meaning rules could now be eased.

Mr Johnson said it was time to "trust the judgement" of the public on the use of masks in enclosed and crowded places, and they will be scrapped in classrooms from tomorrow.

Restrictions on visits to care homes would also be eased further, with Health Secretary Sajid Javid setting out plans "in the coming days".

The prime minister went through the latest COVID-19 data on Wednesday morning with his ministers, before making his statement to MPs.

What's the latest UK COVID data?

Coronavirus infection levels in three of the four UK nations - England, Scotland and Wales - have fallen for the first time since before Christmas.

An estimated one in 20 people in private households in England are likely to have had the virus in the week to 15 January - about three million people - down from a record 3.7 million the previous week, according to the latest Office for National Statistics (ONS) data.

For Northern Ireland the latest figure is also one in 20, but the number of people testing positive is up slightly from 99,200 to 104,300, with the ONS describing the trend as "uncertain".

In Scotland, the figure is about one in 20, or 236,600 people, down from 297,400 - and in Wales the estimate is one in 25, or 112,100 people, down from 169,100.

Has Omicron peaked?

The highest number of new cases to be reported on a single day during the current wave was 218,724 on 4 January.

A further 94,432 lab-confirmed COVID cases were recorded in the UK as of 9am on Tuesday, suggesting the peak of the latest wave of coronavirus may have passed.

There were 19,450 people in hospital with the virus as of 17 January, which is down 2% week-on-week.

More than 34,000 people were in hospital with the virus at the peak of the second wave back in January 2021.

Another 438 people were reported to have died within 28 days of a positive test, taking the total since the pandemic began in 2020 to 152,513.

Tuesday's figure is the highest daily total since last February, but Sky's science correspondent Thomas Moore said a "large part" of this is due to reporting delays.

Is the pandemic entering its endgame?

Mr Johnson signalled his intention to start treating COVID-19 more like flu, saying: "There will soon come a time when we can remove the legal requirement to self-isolate altogether, just as we don't place legal obligations on people to isolate if they have flu.

"As COVID becomes endemic, we will need to replace legal requirements with advice and guidance, urging people with the virus to be careful and considerate of others."

Read more:
What are the COVID rules across the UK and how do they differ between countries?
The government's Omicron strategy was a gamble that paid off - will lifting Plan B rules be the same?

The PM said the government intended to set out its long-term strategy for "living with COVID" and relying on medical advances including vaccines "which have already saved so many lives".

More than 90% of over-60s across the UK have now had booster vaccines, he said.

"The United Kingdom can start to see the light at the end of the tunnel," he said, but warned that to avoid any future restrictions "we must all remain cautious during these last weeks of winter".

"The pandemic is not over," he said.

Pressure to oust PM mounts

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer accused Mr Johnson of being "too distracted to do the job".

He said: "The 438 deaths recorded yesterday are a solemn reminder that this pandemic is not over.

"We need to remain vigilant, learn the lessons from the government's mistakes, with new variants highly likely we must have a robust plan to live well with COVID."

Mr Johnson's Commons announcement comes as pressure continues to mount over parties and gatherings held in Downing Street and other government departments in 2020 and 2021.

There is speculation that a confidence vote in the PM's leadership of his Conservative Party could soon be triggered by restive Tory MPs.

Around 12 more letters of no confidence in the PM were submitted this morning, according to Sky News political correspondents Sam Coates and Joe Pike.

And just before Prime Minister's Questions earlier, Bury South MP Christian Wakeford announced he had defected from the Conservatives to Labour, accusing Mr Johnson of being "incapable of offering the leadership and government this country needs".

Scrapping of rules 'a risk and could backfire'

Scientists and nursing leaders warned the relaxation of COVID rules is "premature" amid extremely high levels of infection and "unrelenting" pressure on health services.

Professor Lawrence Young, a virologist from the University of Warwick, called for a need to "stay alert" for a possible resurgence of Omicron and the arrival of new variants.

Royal College of Nursing chief executive Pat Cullen said: "The prime minister's decision to loosen the restrictions may have relieved the pressure from his backbenchers but will do nothing to relieve the pressure on the NHS."

She said the government "will regret sending the wrong signal to the public for political expediency".

Dr Stephen Griffin, associate professor in the School of Medicine, University of Leeds, said ministers had "repeatedly failed to act in a timely fashion to prevent now five consecutive waves of (COVID) resulting in profound human and economic cost".

"There is a mistaken notion that the virus is somehow evolving to become less virulent... viruses do not evolve to become less virulent, necessarily, they evolve to ensure they can thrive and transmit effectively," he said.

Omicron cannot be used to set a trajectory for how COVID will behave in the future, he added.