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SPECULATION is rife about what Boris Johnson will tell us on Monday. But let’s not get carried away. I suspect it will be long on generalities (a mix of testing, proof of vaccination and, above all, questionable caution) while remaining short on detail.
No doubt the PM will be flanked by Chief Medical Officer Professor Chris Whitty, who is likely to repeat how the virus ‘is not going to go away’. Which is surely right. But if something is not going to go away, then you have to find a strategy to live with it.
That’s where the much-touted traffic light system comes into play. No-go for red countries unless you want to spend ten nights in an airport hotel; quarantining on returning from amber countries and a pre- and postflight test when coming back from a country on the green list.
Sun, sea, sand and swab is the new catchphrase.
What’s certain is that holidaymakers will need to be quick on their feet to see where infection rates are going up or coming down, but it looks as if we’ll get a week’s notice rather than 48 hours, as was the case last summer.
The longing for sunshine gathers pace — and not always positively, as those park scenes proved this week — but let’s not forget how much countries such as Spain, Portugal, Turkey, Italy, France, Greece and Cyprus (Paphos pictured) are longing to have us back, too. The UK’s vaccination programme means our stock as tourists is accruing each week. And it’s time we cashed in.
Malta is the latest country to announce that it will welcome British holidaymakers this summer provided they are fully vaccinated against Covid-19.
This is great news for older people, who will have had both jabs by June 1. Many of those will be just as happy to stay in the UK, which is fine. But we were always promised that inoculation was the passport to freedom. And that day has now come.