There are fears over how the UK will continue to trade with France, and how travel restrictions can be eased, as the foreign country faces another Covid lockdown.
Professor Neil Ferguson, from Imperial College London said there needed to be important decisions made on how the UK can trade with France as the country faces a third lockdown.
Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, he said: “I think there are important decisions coming up, and it’s always a balancing act.
“How much we relax the current ban on international travel except for essential services.
“As a lot of essential travel between ourselves and France for business, commerce and trade, how can we reduce the risks associated with that travel.
“Those are policy decisions, I’m just raising the issue that we are doing so well with the vaccination campaign, we are driving down deaths at a faster rate than I ever thought was possible and that will allow us to open up.”
When asked whether he thought France should be added to the red list, he said: “I don’t think that’s necessarily a practical issue given the amount of trade.”
Prof Ferguson said the delay in vaccine supply in the UK will not have a big effect on the vaccine rollout.
Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, he described the delay as “slightly disappointing”, but added: “I don’t think the delay will have an enormous effect.
“We’ll still have enough vaccine to largely continue with the programme.”
He said of bigger concern was the South African variant of Covid-19, adding: “Overall, I’m optimistic with this one caveat that we do need to keep these variants of concern at bay.
“Until we can update the vaccine, rolled out the vaccine and really hopefully the whole adult population which will be this summer, at that point we’ll be in a much safer position.”
