PEOPLE are more likely to catch and spread Covid-19 when they mix indoors. This is naturally more likely in winter, when we are largely confined indoors by temperatures and inclement weather, than in the approaching summer, when we enjoy being outside, and even when indoors, windows are usually open.

This fact, and the continued roll-out, of vaccines should ensure the “incomparably better” summer that the Prime Minister’s planned relaxation of the lockdown promises.

However, Boris Johnson’s plan does not aim to effectively eliminate Covid-19, as many (mainly far-eastern) countries have already successfully done.

Rather, it relies on vaccines to hold new hospital admissions at levels the NHS can sustain, and losses of working days at levels our economy can bear. In the meantime, Covid-19 will continue to circulate in the population, with the risk that the virus will mutate into new variants that the available vaccines are not effective against.

If this occurs, we could face another wave of Covid-19 later in the year, necessitating a repeat of restrictions, with the consequent damage to our economy, and more arguably unnecessary deaths.

For all our sakes, I hope that the Government are lucky, and my fears prove unfounded. However, is this really a risk worth taking? If other countries can effectively eliminate Covid-19, why shouldn’t we?

A slower more controlled relaxation of the current lockdown, with a little more pain in the short-term, would avoid the possibility of a lot more pain in future!

Alan Jordan, Middridge.