Patience paramount as freedom beckons

SOME may see an inconsistency between the announcement that all adults in Wales should have been offered their first Covid vaccination by the end of July and Health Minister Vaughan Gething’s caution over whether we will be able to take holidays abroad this summer.

In fact there is no inconsistency, and Mr Gething is right to be cautious.

Everyone wants the restrictions that have been imposed on our lives to be lifted as soon as possible. Having certainty about when we can go back to doing what we want to do will be an enormous relief and make these difficult times easier to cope with. Yet adopting the gungho approach of Boris Johnson – where dates are more important than data – is, we believe, a mistake.

We have seen how the lifting of earlier lockdowns resulted in a significant increase in the rate of infections. Unfortunately, there is no guarantee that a similar resurgence will not happen again.

The rollout of the vaccine programme is, of course, a major step forward towards the end of restrictions, but it does not mean that lockdown measures should be lifted immediately.

There was an unseemly clamour from some Conservative backbenchers, as well as from sections of the media, before the Prime Minister announced his “roadmap” out of lockdown for England. He was clearly put under pressure to specify dates by which restrictions would be progressively removed.

The more cautious “data rather than dates” approach adopted in Wales and Scotland is far more sensible.

Pledging to vaccinate all the adults who want a jab by the end of

July is great – but the programme will only be complete when everyone has received a second jab too.

While Mr Johnson is giving the impression that the ability to go on foreign holidays in the summer is a given, Mr Gething’s caution is far more realistic.

Most Britons take their foreign holidays in EU countries, where the rollout of vaccines has been slower than here and where there will be a natural wariness about letting UK citizens in because of our shockingly high Covid death rate.

Although Mr Johnson has made it clear that the UK Government will not be issuing “vaccination passports”, it is highly unlikely that foreign countries will allow us to visit them unless we can prove we have received two vaccine doses.

Freedom may be almost within reach, but the need for patience remains paramount.