British PM Johnson says: I know people yearn for a summer holiday abroad

LONDON (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Wednesday he understood that people yearned for summer holidays abroad and that the government's swift vaccine rollout was enabling holidays in the European Union.

"I know how important holidays are to people: people think about them, they save up to them, people yearn to go abroad this year - I totally get that," Johnson told reporters. "We've got to balance that against the need to protect our country against the influx of new variants."

"We've got to balance policy but clearly we have the benefit now of the double-jab system that is enabling us to, to go to countries in the EU and to come back to countries, come from countries in the EU without having to quarantine and same for the same goes for the U.S.."

(Reporting by Guy Faulconbridge; editing by William James)