The prospect of some kind of normal summer this year seems so far away for us at the minute. But Prime Minister Boris Johnson has given a small glimmer of hope for Brits today, saying that he is “optimistic” about holidays this year – so long as a range of factors “go right”.
Speaking during a visit at Batley, the Prime Minister said: “I don’t want to give too much concrete by way of dates for our summer holidays. I am optimistic – I understand the reasons for being optimistic – but some things have got to go right.”
“The vaccine programme has got to continue to be successful. We have got to make sure we don’t get thrown off course by new variants, we have got to make sure that we continue to keep the disease under control and the level of infections come down.”
For the rules to be relaxed there is a range of factors that need to occur first – such as the local coronavirus transmission levels, pressure on NHS hospitals, and the rollout of coronavirus vaccines. The vaccine roll-out has been “phenomenal”, according to the PM who praised the NHS, pharmacies, volunteers, and the Army – who he said has done an “outstanding job”.
The Prime Minister also said “We are starting to see some signs of a flattening and maybe even a falling off of infection rates and hospitalisations.” But, noted that it was too early to “take your foot off the throat of the beast” by easing restrictions.
The Prime Minister told reporters: “We are starting to see some signs of a flattening and maybe even a falling off of infection rates and hospitalisations.”
The news comes just days after Matt Hancock provided an optimistic view of the summer when speaking on BBC’s Politics East programme, saying: “I think we are going to have a great summer, but we will have a tough few months between now and then.”
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