The British Government's Minister of Vaccines, Nadim Al-Zahawi, said that the Corona virus will soon be managed like influenza, as we emerge from lockdown, and that the world must learn to live with the disease.
Al-Zahawi indicated that England is likely to progress along the Boris Johnson roadmap to deal with the disease, with the continued decline in deaths, according to the British newspaper "Express".
Under the British government's plans, the ban on family mixing will be eased within two weeks, and all legal restrictions on social contact can be removed after June 21.
"I don't see any evidence that would lead me to believe that we will not be able to meet others on May 17th - bearing in mind that we are continuing to analyze the data," Al-Zahawi said.
He added: "We have to get ourselves out of this epidemic into a world that we deal with the way we deal with the regular influenza virus, with an annual vaccination program from next year onwards."
Official figures show that more people are now dying from influenza and pneumonia than the coronavirus in the United Kingdom.
Data from the Office for National Statistics showed a decrease in deaths in England and Wales where injury is indicated on the death certificate. There were 260 deaths during the week ending April 23, the lowest number in seven months and down from 362 the previous week.
For comparison, influenza and pneumonia were the underlying causes of 278 deaths in the same seven-day period.
Overall, there were 9,941 deaths from all causes over the seven days - 5.3 per cent less than the same period between 2015 and 2019.
Infections and deaths have decreased dramatically since the second wave of the virus, as thousands gained protection through vaccination every day.
Yesterday's daily figures showed that 2,144 cases of the virus were confirmed, down slightly from 2,166 cases on Wednesday. There were 27 deaths from the Coronavirus, compared to 29 deaths in the previous week.
To date, more than 34.7 million people have received the first vaccine dose in the UK and 15.8 million have received the second vaccine. Among those over the age of 70 are at the forefront of the vaccine waiting list, as deaths from COVID-19 have fallen 98 percent since the height of the second wave.
After reports that individuals over 50 will be vaccinated this fall to virtually eliminate any threat from the virus by next Christmas, Al-Zahawi said no decision has been made yet.
However, he confirmed that England's chief medical officer, Professor Chris Whitty, was looking at several options. It is understood that these options include giving people a third dose of one of the vaccines already in use or deploying modified vaccines that target variants.
Al-Zahawi said that the timing has not been set, but the Health Care Authority will be "ready to be published from September onwards."
"There is a clinical trial being conducted by [Deputy Chief Medical Officer] Jonathan Van Tamm that is looking at the vaccine that offers the best defense," he added.
Al-Zahawi also indicated that work is underway to identify areas where the vaccine has been used the least and where the Coronavirus could still be spread.
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