HEREFORDSHIRE'S health experts have said coronavirus will continue to circulate throughout 2021, despite the roll-out of the vaccine.

More than 90 per cent of over-70s have been given their first dose of the coronavirus jab, latest NHS England figures show, but experts think Covid-19 is here to stay.

Herefordshire's public health director Rebecca Howell-Jones said people need to start thinking that we will be living with Covid.

She said the disease will not be eradicated the virus, but people will be living in an environment which enables it to be managed, like is done with other diseases.

"We will, as we have over the last year, need to continue to learn in terms of that response; whether people will need another dose of the vaccine, whether the vaccine will get changed to respond to different variants, whether we have to different levels of social distancing at some point," she said.

"We need to expect things to continue over the next year.

Dr Simon Lennane, from Alton Street Surgery in Ross-on-Wye said that new variants can cause problems, and that's one of the main reasons for trying to keep the number of cases low.

Every new cases carries a small chance of Covid-19 mutating, such as the one dubbed the South African variant which has led to widespread mass testing in certain areas of the UK.

He said: "I saw an analogy this week that said if you buy one lottery ticket it's unlikely, but if you buy 30 million lottery tickets then there's a strong chance.

"It's the same sort of odds, each time you're getting mutations and each time there's a chance that it might become a bit more transmissible, or give us more severe illness.

"We need to work hard, I have no doubt that it's in our hands and it's under our control. If we are sensible and do the right thing then we can keep cases low."

Dr Lennane said in the Healthwatch Herefordshire Q&A, which was streamed live on Facebook, that he thinks coronavirus will change the way people interact long-term, as some will be more cautious.

"They still find it hard not to be at a particular distance away from someone and keeping that distance away is something we're going to have to get used to because it's just sensible, it's just a way we protect ourselves," he said.

"I now where a mask outside where I wasn't last summer. If I'm in town I wear a mask outside because it just reduces the risk to other people.

"These are the cultural changes which we will see more often. Hopefully we will get to a point where we don't need them, but they're the changes.