First published on Wed 17 Feb 2021 10.46 EST
The success of the vaccination programme makes it possible to consider lifting the lockdown restrictions, scientists have told MPs, but the UK should not expect to become Covid-free like New Zealand.
Mark Woolhouse, professor of infectious disease epidemiology at the University of Edinburgh, told the Commons science and technology committee on Wednesday that the country could begin to ease out of lockdown earlier than it did the first time round.
“I think we do have reasons to be more confident that we can move out of lockdown swifter than we could have done out of the first one,” he said.