Anyone tempted to book a summer 2021 holiday has been warned it is "too early" to say whether or not they will go ahead.
The vaccine minister Nadhim Zahawi told BBC Breakfast: "I would say it is too early to begin to speculate on summer holidays.
“I think the right thing to do now is to continue with our vaccination drive. I think on Saturday we got to half a million first dose jabs in a single day – we continue to make great progress.”
He told Sky News: “At the moment we have reached Base Camp, if I could describe it as that – over 6.5 million people now with the first dose. There is a long way to go.”
The Government is aiming to vaccinate all adults by September.
Covid-19 lockdown restrictions currently ban international travel other than for essential reasons. Anyone who lands in the UK must self-isolate on arrival unless they are travelling from Ireland. The Government is considering a requirement to force arrivals to quarantine in hotels, which Prime Minister Boris Johnson will discuss today.
Mr Zahawi warned that UK country needs to be “very careful” as new strains emerge, and said an announcement on the quarantine plans would be made later.
He told Sky News: “There will be an announcement on this issue later on today, so I can only say to you that it is the right thing to do, because I am the vaccines minister, that as we vaccinate more of the adult population, if there are new variants like the South African or the Brazilian variants, we need to be very careful.
“We acted on those very quickly and of course dealt with travel from those countries, and from Portugal and elsewhere, rapidly so it is important we continue to review our border policy and an announcement will be made when a decision has been taken.
“And of course the industry itself will be engaged with heavily, including (Health Secretary) Matt Hancock engaging with the industry to explain the decision making at health, as well as of course the business department with the Business Secretary.”
