Matt Hancock predicted this morning that restrictions on social life and business would be lifted after Easter as optimism rose that vaccines will bring the coronavirus under control.
The health secretary said that “some parts of social distancing” and hand-washing would remain commonplace but told MPs he was confident that the most intrusive legal curbs would go as a result of vaccination.
“Those damaging social distancing interventions that have big downsides, whether economic downsides or social in terms of our wellbeing, I should hope that we can lift those after Easter, if these two vaccines are approved by the regulator,” he told a joint session of the Commons science and health committees.
However, he said the extent and scale of this would depend on how
