The Guardian’s lead warns that ministers are thinking about “diluting” plans for England’s “freedom day” on 21 June – when it is hoped all Covid restrictions will lift – and delaying the end of all social distancing, after new data showed another surge in the Indian variant in the UK. But the paper tempers this with the comment that No 10 has “not lost hope” of being able to end restrictions by 21 June, with one source noting there was now a more optimistic feeling than there was previously about the prospect of unlocking the country as planned.