Coronavirus restrictions could be brought back next winter - even if the risk level decreases.
Professor Chris Whitty said that some of the measures may have to be brought back into place to control the virus.
England’s chief medical officer told the Downing Street press conference: “If we did not do all the things all of us must now do, if people don’t take the stay at home seriously, the risk at this point in time, in the middle of winter with this new variant, is extraordinarily high.”
He said the risk level will gradually decrease over time with measures being “lifted by degrees possibly at different rates in different parts of the country, we’ll have to see”.
“We’ll then get over time to a point where people say this level of risk is something society is prepared to tolerate and lift right down to almost no restrictions at all,” he added.
“We might have to bring in a few in next winter for example, that’s possible, because winter will benefit the virus.”
The vaccine timetable has been described by Professor Whitty as 'realistic but not easy'.
He said: “The NHS is going to have to use multiple channels to get this out but they are very determined to do this, but that does not make it easy.
“And, of course, in the case of the Pfizer vaccine, as I think is widely reported, it’s more difficult to handle because of the complicated cold chain model.
“We also, with both vaccines, wanted to be very careful in the first two or three days that we went a little bit slowly just in case there were some initial unexpected problems.”
