One of the scientists leading the study tracking the spread of Covid across the UK says that thanks to vaccination the country is effectively no longer in a pandemic.
Professor Sarah Walker says we have moved into a new phase of the disease where it becomes endemic - like flu -rather than pandemic.
Professor Walker is chief investigator with the national Covid Infection Survey, which is run by the University of Oxford and the Office for National Statistics
Prof Walker, professor of medical statistics and epidemiology at Oxford told The Telegraph that Britain had “moved from a pandemic to an endemic situation”.
She added that she was “cautiously optimistic” that the vaccination programme could keep Covid under control.
“Without vaccines, I don’t think getting close to zero is really feasible in the situation now in the UK where we’re effectively endemic, we’ve moved from a pandemic to an endemic situation.”
“Long-term lockdown isn’t a viable solution so vaccines are clearly going to be the only way that we are going to have a chance to control this," she said.
Pandemic means a widespread - even global - outbreak of an infectious disease.
Endemic means that the disease exists 'perpetually'.
