Dr Hilary Jones has urged Brits to be cautious as thoughts turn to the possibility of foreign holidays this summer.
He told Good Morning Britain that he didn’t want to be a killjoy but it would be a mistake to throw caution to the wind.
There are hopes that some holiday destinations will be open for UK tourists this summer, but Dr Hilary said he wasn’t sure about whether people should be thinking about travelling abroad.
He said the pandemic is not over as it is still raging in parts of the world, and new variants could be brought to the UK.
And he said: “Air travel is what brought the virus to the UK and took it around the world.
“We just need to be really cautious and people want to think the pandemic is already over, and it isn’t. It’s still raging in parts of the world and as it rages new variants will be created and they can be brought here very quickly and may not be susceptible to the virus."
During his morning’s appearance, he hailed the UK’s vaccination programme and paid tribute to the NHS and volunteers for the roll out with half the adult population fully vaccinated.
He said this can give us confidence, but new variants are still emerging and we need to be cautious with higher rates in Europe.
“Everyone wants to go on holiday, I want to go on holiday, but I think it’s right that people are expressing caution and not rushing out of a pandemic too quickly because we don’t want to be back in a situation we were in before.”
And he used the example of India, which thought it was out of pandemic but is now in a “desperate state” and that’s what the UK needs to avoid.
He said the lockdown had saved lives, but throwing caution to the wind would "be a big mistake."
Also urging caution this morning was International Trade Secretary Liz Truss, who told Sky News that people in England shouldn't book foreign holidays yet.
She said: “The really important thing is that we don’t move too fast and jeopardise the progress we’ve made, so people will have to wait a bit longer, I’m afraid, to be able to hear the news on exactly what’s happening on the travel front, but I can assure you the Government’s working very hard.”
Taking a foreign holiday is currently illegal for people living in England. A decision on which countries may be open for summer holidays is being worked on by the Government.
