Prime minister should reconsider allowing foreign travel amid India Covid variant, warns Drakeford – and third spike ‘likely’ this summer

Wales’s first minister hopes situation will give government ‘real pause for thought’ about reopening international travel

The prime minister should reconsider allowing foreign travel to resume next month given the coronavirus situation in India, Wales’s first minister has warned.

Mark Drakeford said he hoped mounting concern about the number of Covid-19 cases in India and the emergence of a variant of the virus there would give the UK government “real pause for thought” about reopening international travel on 17 May.

He also warned a third wave of coronavirus was “likely” during the summer – but that he hoped a spike in cases would not lead to social-distancing restrictions being reimposed.

He told PA: “We have cases of the Indian variant in Wales, as we've had cases of the South African variant.

“The UK government has a very important decision to make about 17 May and the reopening of international travel.

“I really hope that what we've seen in India in the last week will give them real pause for thought, and that we don't run the risk of opening up international travel too quickly on too broad a front, and that results in the virus coming back into Wales.”

Asked whether it was better to ease restrictions early in the hope a spike in cases would occur during the warmer months, he added: “The modelling does show a third spike is likely to happen in the summer.

“But there's a tension there. If it happens in the summer, in some ways that makes it more manageable.

“On the other hand, every week we can push it back is another week where we vaccinate people and that might make that wave a smaller one and less steep.

Wales’s first minister Mark Drakeford (pictured) has warned the prime minister should reconsider allowing foreign travel this summer amid the Indian coronavirus variant (Welsh government)

“In a way, governments are not in control of where those waves come. I am hopeful that when we see a further wave that it will not be of the sort that will need us to take the sorts of very blunt actions we've had to take in the last calendar year.”

Professor Sir John Bell, Oxford University's Regius Professor of Medicine, also raised concerns about the prospect of holidays abroad resuming this summer.

Asked how he felt about international travel, he told BBC Radio 4's The World At One programme: "You only have to look at what is going on in India.

"I think you have to say, really? Do we want people flying around the world and getting exposed to those sorts of issues?”

Scotland’s national clinical director echoed the concerns, saying international leisure travel this summer would be “challenging”.

Professor Jason Leitch said he was “hopeful” some foreign travel “might exist” but that it would likely be “gradual”.

He told BBC Radio Scotland’s Good Morning Scotland programme: “I think there will be time and countries that we bring back gradually because it's crucial both for individuals and society but it's also crucial for the industries that rely on that travel, the airlines, the travel industry more broadly.

Additional reporting by PA