A top scientist says the UK is "well-equipped" to stay ahead of Covid variants amid hopes for a better summer. Professor Sharon Peacock, head of the Covid-19 Genomics UK scientific body, says new strains of coronavirus are “very unlikely to send us back to square one”.
Instead, the scientist is hopeful that things will be better by summer with vaccines adapting quickly to different variants.
Professor Peacock, who is in charge of tracking new variants of coronavirus, is "very optimistic" that the nation can stay ahead of the virus that has killed 124,000 people in the UK.
The emergence of new strains that could be resistant to vaccines had sparked concerns. But Professor Peacock says those variants may not take off in Britain and show no