GROUNDED
SUMMER holiday getaway hopes have been dashed as a minister warned today that travel restrictions likely won't be eased for the "foreseeable future".
Cabinet minister Liz Truss said current rules which require quarantine and negative Covid tests would likely be "quite permanent".
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She told LBC: "The priority is opening schools... children are desperate to go back to school, it is really important for their education. Parents, it is important for them as well.
“We have to just focus on step by step and summer holidays, I’m afraid, are a lower priority than getting kids back to school.”
Despite the warning, Ms Truss added there was an "awful amount of water to flow under the bridge before summer".
She said: "If there is one thing we have learnt during the coronavirus crisis so far, is how unpredictable things are, what things could emerge,” she continued.
“I think it would be very dangerous for a government minister to [make] promises about people’s summer holidays."
Asked by LBC whether these measures were likely to become “quite permanent” and would be in place for the “foreseeable future”, Ms Truss said: “Yes”.
NO-GO ZONE
Currently, all non-essential travel from the UK is banned.
Anyone entering the UK must have proof of a negative Covid test taken less than three days before they departed.
People who travel from 30 high risk countries have to pay for quarantine in a hotel for 10 days.
Earlier today, Health Secretary Matt Hancock said Brits should be able to enjoy a "happy and free Great British summer" once most adults have the Covid jab.
Mr Hancock hopes restrictions will be eased in the warmer months as the vaccine rollout picks up pace.
In a boost to lockdown-weary Brits, Mr Hancock said most adults will have had the jab by the summer.
But he warned the country will "have a few tough few months between now and then", with many restrictions likely to be in place until the late Spring.
He told BBC Politics East: "In six months we'll be in the middle, I hope, of a happy and free Great British summer.
"I have a high degree of confidence that by then the vast majority of adults will have been vaccinated."
But Brits were today told they should be able to enjoy a "happy and free Great British summer" once most adults have received the Covid jab, Matt Hancock said.
The Health Secretary hopes restrictions will be eased in the warmer months as the vaccine rollout picks up pace.
In a boost to lockdown-weary Brits, Mr Hancock said most adults will have had the jab by the summer.
But he warned the country will "have a few tough few months between now and then", with many restrictions likely to be in place until the late Spring.
He told BBC Politics East: "In six months we'll be in the middle, I hope, of a happy and free Great British summer."
VACCINE MISSION
It comes as a record-breaking 598,389 people received at least one dose of the vaccine yesterday.
Of that figure, 549,943 were given in England.
A further 25,299 jabs were administered in Wales and 23,055 in Scotland.
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Britain's immunisation campaign has surged ahead of many nations in Europe and the West, while poorer countries have struggled to begin the rollout.
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The World Health Organisation yesterday urged the UK to halt its vaccination programme once vulnerable groups had received their jabs in order to ensure the global rollout is fair.
The UK is aiming to vaccinate around 15 million vulnerable Brits in the top four priority groups by mid-February - a target which is seen as key to beginning to lift restrictions.
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