Covid news - live: Hope for summer holidays, says Sage expert as Boris Johnson defends NHS pay rise

The Independent

Covid news - live: Hope for summer holidays, says Sage expert as Boris Johnson defends NHS pay rise

The Independent 7/03/2021 15:46:55 Chiara Giordano

A leading government adviser has predicted Britons will all have a summer holiday this year - but warned the NHS will have to prepare for a possible "hard winter" ahead.

Public Health England's response director for Covid-19, Dr Susan Hopkins, told The Andrew Marr Show she thought "we will hopefully all have summer holidays" but we must also have "options available for the country in case things are not as satisfactory as we'd all like them to be".

Dr Hopkins warned there could be "surges in flu" as well as other respiratory viruses because public health measures against Covid-19 could mean there is less "population immunity".

Boris Johnson on Sunday defended his controversial pay offer to "heroic" NHS staff, suggesting his government had given "as much as we can".

Nursing leaders and unions expressed anger last week when it emerged ministers had recommended a 1 per cent pay rise.

Speaking on a visit to a vaccination centre in Brent, north London, the prime minister, who was himself hospitalised with Covid-19 last year, said he was "massively grateful" to NHS and social care staff.