Some of you are too keen...
Covid: Too soon to book holiday, minister warns - BBC News
People in the UK should not be booking holidays at home or abroad yet due to coronavirus, the transport secretary has warned.
Grant Shapps told the BBC he did not know "where we'll be in terms of cases, deaths and vaccination" by the summer.
He said the UK was talking to other countries about setting up an "international system" for checking if people have been tested or vaccinated.
But this should not be likened to a Covid "passport", Mr Shapps added.
As it attempts to reduce the spread of new coronavirus variants from abroad, the government has promised maximum jail sentences of 10 years for people lying about their recent travel history.
An extra 1,052 deaths of people with Covid-19 were confirmed on Tuesday, bringing the total to 113,850.
Under the current lockdown rules, holiday travel is not allowed in the UK.
But a fall in the number of new coronavirus cases has fuelled hopes of a return to relative normality - in terms of restrictions on travel and other activities - by the spring or summer.
However, Mr Shapps told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "Please don't go ahead and book holidays. I simply don't know the answer to the question of where we'll be up to this summer.
"It's too early to give that information. The best advice to people is: do nothing at this stage."
Mr Shapps added that this applied to those wanting to take breaks "domestically or internationally" and that the prime minister's much-awaited "roadmap" statement on possibly easing the lockdown, on 22 February, could contain more detail.
"But we don't know yet whether that will include information on things like holidays, simply because we don't know where we'll be up to [by the summer], in terms of the decline in cases, deaths, vaccination," Mr Shapps said.
"And not just the vaccination programme here, but the vaccination programme internationally, because people will be going outside of our borders. So it's too soon."
The comments come amid extra travel restrictions - from Monday, people arriving in England from "red list" countries must isolate for 10 days in hotels, at a cost of £1,750.
Covid: Too soon to book holiday, minister warns - BBC News
People in the UK should not be booking holidays at home or abroad yet due to coronavirus, the transport secretary has warned.
Grant Shapps told the BBC he did not know "where we'll be in terms of cases, deaths and vaccination" by the summer.
He said the UK was talking to other countries about setting up an "international system" for checking if people have been tested or vaccinated.
But this should not be likened to a Covid "passport", Mr Shapps added.
As it attempts to reduce the spread of new coronavirus variants from abroad, the government has promised maximum jail sentences of 10 years for people lying about their recent travel history.
An extra 1,052 deaths of people with Covid-19 were confirmed on Tuesday, bringing the total to 113,850.
Under the current lockdown rules, holiday travel is not allowed in the UK.
But a fall in the number of new coronavirus cases has fuelled hopes of a return to relative normality - in terms of restrictions on travel and other activities - by the spring or summer.
However, Mr Shapps told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "Please don't go ahead and book holidays. I simply don't know the answer to the question of where we'll be up to this summer.
"It's too early to give that information. The best advice to people is: do nothing at this stage."
Mr Shapps added that this applied to those wanting to take breaks "domestically or internationally" and that the prime minister's much-awaited "roadmap" statement on possibly easing the lockdown, on 22 February, could contain more detail.
"But we don't know yet whether that will include information on things like holidays, simply because we don't know where we'll be up to [by the summer], in terms of the decline in cases, deaths, vaccination," Mr Shapps said.
"And not just the vaccination programme here, but the vaccination programme internationally, because people will be going outside of our borders. So it's too soon."
The comments come amid extra travel restrictions - from Monday, people arriving in England from "red list" countries must isolate for 10 days in hotels, at a cost of £1,750.
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