Matt Hancock tells Chris Evans life ‘may return to normal’ after Easter

Virgin Radio

23 Nov 2020, 11:10

Well here's some much-needed news to cheer up a Monday. The Secretary of State for Health and Social Care joined the Chris Evans Breakfast Show with Sky today with words that the nation has been longing to hear. Our lives could potentially resume to ‘normal’ after Easter - while Christmas may be looking a bit sparklier too.

The 42-year-old told Chris: “I think that after Easter we should be able to get back to normal. The reason I say Easter - this year it’s on 6th April - is if this vaccine and the Pfizer one that we heard about two weeks ago… if they're both approved by the regulator, then we will have tens of millions of doses that can be injected by the NHS over January and February, hopefully in both cases starting next month, but then the big numbers in January, February and March. 

“By then we should have been able to vaccinate all the people who are at serious risk of dying from Covid and that then means that we can really start to get things back to normal because dealing with this virus is going to take time. 

“Once we can protect the people who are most at risk then that will just allow us all to start to get back to normal, and I know how much people want to be able to, but people only want to be able to do that when it's safe.”

So how does that translate into the real world, Chris asked? Matt explained: “So we'd start with older people and all the people in health and social care, then basically work down the age range because you'll know that you're more likely to die or have serious conditions from Covid, if you are older.

“It’s just a straightforward correlation. So that’s the plan... They think that they can get that going for next month then do the mass rollout next year in the first couple of months.”

So what does summer 2021 look like? Matt said: “Our scientific advisors tell us that we can confidently think that we are likely to be able to get back to normal after Easter and it means that by next summer - when there's another couple of vaccine candidates that will come out in the spring - then I think we'd be pretty confident that we're going to be having a pretty close to normal summer.”

And what about the next step and the ‘festive bubble’? He said: “I know how everybody is looking for the answer to this question… but I can't tell you the answer and the reason I can't is because, like I said, we're trying to get this agreed between the four different nations of the UK…

“We've agreed in principle that we're going to have a common set of rules, but I'm not going to prejudge where that lands, because I want to respect that Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland will want to sign off on any proposal before it goes live, so really sorry I can't answer the question now but I hope you understand the reason.”

On a lighter note, Chris asked if he had been watching any of The Undoing, with Matt replying: “We've seen a bit. I watch Gogglebox religiously and I've seen a bit of it on there. 

“In fact, we were going to start watching it last night but I had to go to bed early because I had to get up at 5am to do the morning media round.

“I haven't got much time, but it’s something to look forward to.”