Covid: 'Kent' variant could put a stop to foreign holidays and devastate tourism here – Helen Martin

On the other hand, there are certainly millions who are not fantasising but genuinely planning to book a holiday for this summer, assuming Covid-19 will be sorted by then.

I admit it’s very rude of me to describe them as “not very bright” or delusional. And to be fair to those in England, the UK government is still trying to be positive and win people over by expressing “hope” that holidays abroad will return soon. I suspect they know that is not true.

The Scottish government is rather more honest. Nicola Sturgeon simply tells people not to book holidays at all now, whether abroad or staycation elsewhere in Scotland or the UK. And national clinical director Jason Leitch recently predicted holidays might be ruled out until 2022.

Perhaps a miracle could happen, but without that how could anyone believe Covid-19 will be “over” by summer? It’s also worrying that – as I discovered on social media – some people believe that once they’ve had their first vaccine jag they can meet up with pals.

It’s not just the UK government that, to me, seems to be trying to put out non-existent positivity, but the BBC also has a strange, admiring attitude rather than maintaining a journalistic challenge to the PM and Cabinet members. I don’t usually watch it.

But I was shocked by a 10am BBC news report on Thursday. One of the first listings in what was coming up was that the Kent coronavirus variant (strangely “Kent” rather than “English”) is now predicted to be the whole world’s dominant strain.

So, I carried on watching the programme. The first topics covered were social care staff issues, patients waiting for hospital treatments in England, again English people still demanding the right to go on holidays this summer and the question of whether that would be possible after a “jab”, then another report on Trump’s Capitol riot. It was almost 25 minutes later when the Kent variant’s dominance of the world came up in a brief interview lasting for 120 seconds.

It’s also worth understanding that the Kent variant, which possibly could be called the English variant, but is also now referred to as “the UK variant”, puts the risk of dying 35 per cent higher.

I consider all that as an explanation of why I don’t usually watch BBC news.

Anyone who thinks this pandemic is likely to be safely dealt with by summer may not be silly or deluded, but listening too much to the UK government.

Last February when the virus began, most of us hoped that by now it would be under control. Instead, deaths soared in the UK. Even now they are worse than back then. Mutations, strains and variants might have been expected each year but not several times in 12 months.

If the Kent variant really does dominate the world, it’s logical people from the UK will not be welcome around the globe. And who would want to come here?

The loss to tourism is catastrophic. But nothing, other than the hoped-for “miracle”, can solve that.

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