A leading scientist says the UK should expect to be “alert” to coronavirus for many years to come.

But Mark Woolhouse, professor of infectious disease epidemiology at the University of Edinburgh, has revealed how we can return to some semblance of normality, even with coronavirus in our lives.

His comments come just days after former supreme court judge Lord Sumption warned face masks and social distancing could be around for another 10 years.

Speaking on the Andrew Marr show today, Prof Woolhouse said that while the vaccine should make any new outbreaks small and easier to contain, there was still going to be the need for social distancing and testing, tracing and isolating.

He added: “Hopefully, because, as I said, the vaccines are performing so well – certainly against the variants we know about – that we will be fairly close to the herd immunity threshold and what that means is that any outbreaks will be fairly small and, hopefully, fairly easily contained.

“I still suspect that looking forward, and I am talking now right through 2021 and into the years ahead, that we are still going to have to be alert to coronavirus.

“There are still going to be situations where we might need to use personal protective equipment, we might well need to do some kind of social distancing, put some kind of biosecurity measures in place.

“The important thing is, in case I’m being too optimistic and we are not close to the herd immunity threshold, that we also maintain our capacity to test and trace, and particularly to isolate people who are infected. That final thing is going to remain important for the entire future, that when we get cases of novel coronavirus that those people are then going to have to be asked to self-isolate and their contacts.”

Last week, Matt Hancock said he hoped face masks would become a matter of personal responsibility in future, and that a regular vaccination programme, rather than restrictions, will combat Covid.

Mr Hancock told the Commons: “We will eventually see Covid as something that has to be managed, rather like flu. We don’t put in place restrictions on normal life to tackle flu but we do have a regular vaccination programme and that is where I hope, with vaccines, we’re able to get to.”

The Health Secretary added the UK needs to “live with risk” as a society and said part of the strategy is to increase NHS capacity and continue the vaccine effort.

He went on: “And the continued efforts that people will take personal responsibility for, like mask wearing, people will highly likely do this to protect themselves and others after the experience we’ve just had.

“But I want to get that to a point of personal responsibility, plus the vaccine, plus the test and trace programme so people can be regularly tested and use that to break the chains of transmission, and manage Covid in that way while restoring our freedoms. I think that is the best way once we’ve made our way carefully down this road.”