David Davis MP joins ITV’s Robert Peston to discuss the UK Covid-19 response

As published by the Daily Express:

David Davis hopeful hot summer weather to help slow down Covid pandemic in UK

FORMER UK Brexit negotiator David Davis was hopeful that things would return to normal after May as he predicts the hot season will defeat or slow down the virus like it did the previous year.

David Davis suggested that while the Government put in restrictions to slow down the spread of Covid last year, the weather played a huge part in keeping numbers down. On June 9 2020, the UK recorded 55 deaths which was one of the lowest figures recorded. Currently, daily deaths have been floating between 700-1,400 per day on average with February 3 recording 1,322 but the rate of new cases has shown signs of dropping.

Speaking to Robert Peston on his ITV show, Mr Davis discussed when restrictions in the UK would start to be lifted.

He said: “We’re not going to get back to normal until the summer.

“I mean, what happened last year, we did lots of things to restrain the virus but the thing that brought it to the end was the season, was the summer.

“It will be the same this year, we will be struggling until April/May and maybe the mutation will make it a bit more difficult… but will we get to herd immunity by then?”

Despite data from summer 2020 showing a significant drop in new coronavirus cases in the UK, the World Health Organization has so far found no substantial evidence the weather plays a significant role in slowing down there transmission of COVID-19.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he was “optimistic” that Brits would be able to have summer holidays this year but did not reveal if this meant foreign or domestic trips.

Mr Johnson said: “I don’t want to give too much concrete by way of dates for our summer holidays.

“I am optimistic, I understand the reasons for being optimistic but some things have got to go right.

“The vaccine programme has got to continue to be successful.

“We have got to make sure we don’t get thrown off course by new variants, we have got to make sure that we continue to keep the disease under control and the level of infections come down.”

The UK hit the ten million vaccination milestone yesterday as the country’s vaccination programme edges closer to their 15 million vaccine target.

A trial has also been launched to test the effects of two different vaccines.

It would allow the UK to be more flexible in distributing doses and would help reach more people.

For example, some people may receive an AstraZeneca jab as their first and a Pfizer jab as their second.