What this all leads to is the question over whether the UK could or should expect the question of restrictions to return to annals of Parliament.
On this topic, few are sure.
Professor Kinane says on the subject of heightened protective measures: “The supercharged rollout of the booster vaccination programme and a further jab in autumn should prevent severe infections seen earlier in the pandemic.
“The population is also in a better place immunologically to counter COVID-19 infections and it is crucial that whenever another dose of the Covid vaccine is offered, uptake should be swift and across the board.”