Health Secretary for England Matt Hancock said he is “optimistic” about the prospect of people being able to enjoy a holiday in the summer.
“I’m optimistic that we will have a great British summer,” he told ITV’s Good Morning Britain.
“The challenge we all still have is we have to keep control of the virus, so we have got to monitor progress.
“But the vaccine rollout is going well, the vaccines clearly work and so this is really, really good progress.”
On Monday Boris Johnson also said he is “optimistic” people will be able to enjoy a summer holiday this year, provided the disease can be kept under control.
“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,” he said during a visit to Batley, West Yorkshire.
“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.”
The Prime Minister said the rollout of the vaccination programme has been “phenomenal” but declined to be drawn on whether the Government would meet its targets.
“I think it would be unwise to speculate at the moment. I think the NHS, the pharmacies, the volunteers, helped by the Army, they have done an outstanding job,” he said.
“The rollout has been phenomenal so far but it is still, relatively speaking, early days.”
