Government needs a strategy to manage travel as virus declines
TRANSPORT Secretary Grant Shapps’ warning yesterday that it is “too soon” to book a holiday, internationally or domestically, has come a bit late for families planning a break in the Westcountry this summer. Bookings are well up for holidays from the middle of the year onwards with one company saying 60% of its cottages are already taken for the most popular weeks of the school summer break.
Mr Shapps is technically correct. With the uncertainty around the path the virus will take next and with new variants of coronavirus appearing all the time, planning a holiday right now is premature to say the least. But one of the things that has kept many people going during the lockdown is the thought of getting away later this year. And with the success of the vaccination programme it seemed reasonable to start planning. We suspect that, whatever Mr Shapps says, many people will keep on doing just that.
The prospect of having to wait until, as he said “everyone is vaccinated” seems just too grim a prospect to contemplate. That pretty much rules out a holiday, either abroad or here at home this year. And since many people have already heard Health Secretary Matt Hancock reveal he has plans to holiday in Cornwall this summer, they’ll be taking the Transport Secretary’s warning with a pinch of salt.
What all of these warnings that link vaccination with the chance of travelling also do is raise the likelihood of vaccination passports becoming increasingly important in the months and perhaps the years ahead.
Ministers are anxious to avoid creating a two tier society where those who have had the jab and can prove it are able to live a near normal life while those who have not – for a range of reasons – will be excluded. But while the government may worry about the difficulty of discriminating against people on the basis of whether or not they can show evidence of protection against Covid, businesses, including airlines, tour operators and even restaurants, theatres and other venues, are likely to want to use proof of vaccination as a way to allow access to their services.
It is not difficult to see the situation where, say, a cruise company uses as part of its promotional material the boast that guests can travel in safety and confidence because “all our passengers will be vaccinated.” Those same promises could be made about a whole range of services on offer to the public which involve close contact with others.
The messaging today is fairly straightforward: we remain in the grip of this pandemic and while case rates remain high and there are still millions in the higher risk age brackets to vaccinate, holidays are simply not on the agenda.
But we are, all being well, moving forward at pace. The Government needs to give careful thought to how we manage travel and other activities that people will want to enjoy once a certain level of populationwide protection is reached, especially as the virus is never likely to be eradicated. “Too soon” is the right message to would-be holidaymakers now. But the issue must be tackled.
THE two major NHS hospitals here in Bristol, Southmead and the BRI, are currently overwhelmed with Covid cases and associated staff sicknesses.
Imagine my surprise the other day to receive a “flyer” from a private hospital located less than three miles from both, advertising its services, including hundreds of available treatments, many involving short residential care. The leaflet includes photos of smartly dressed medical staff standing in front of obviously expensive medical equipment.
I simply cannot believe that at this time at the worst phase of the coronavirus pandemic any private hospital fully staffed and with spare treatment rooms is allowed to stand aloof from what is going on around them, to let it all fall on the beleaguered NHS.
I wonder if the public have any idea what is going on; certainly I did not until I received this extremely insensitive pamphlet. The said hospital organisation claims to have a further 38 such private hospitals nationwide.
If I extrapolate this across the whole of the UK there must be thousands of available beds and treatment facilities not being used in this war against Covid-19. All in this together? I think not.
Richard Hensey Coombe Dingle, Bristol