Normality could return in summer 2021 if vaccine succeeds - Hancock

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain could return to pre-lockdown normal by next summer if a vaccine succeeds and was rolled out in the early part of 2021, health minister Matt Hancock said on Monday, adding that the most vulnerable might be vaccinated at the end of this year.

"For the mass rollout we're talking about the first bit of next year, if all goes well... There's still a chance of it coming on stream before Christmas, but we've then got to roll it out, and the first people who get it, are the people who are most vulnerable people," Hancock told ITV's This Morning.

Asked when there would be a return to the old normal, Hancock said: "If... one of the vaccines comes off, in the early bit of next year, we are looking, I hope, by next summer."

(Reporting by Guy Faulconbridge and Kate Holton, writing by Alistair Smout)