THE Prime Minister is optimistic that things will be ‘very different’ by the summer after what he thinks will be the ‘last part’ of the pandemic.

The Prime Minister Boris Johnson visited Wales on Wednesday to praise the "outstanding performance" of a Cwmbran vaccination.

In an interview with journalists, Mr Johnson paid tribute to not only the vaccinators, but everyone who is putting up with the difficult restrictions.

He told the Leader: “It’s taken its toll on people’s patience and people’s resilience but we are a very resilient country. People have come together to deal with this in an amazing way.

“There’s not only a light at the end of the tunnel, but we can plainly see how long we now have to wait, logically we can see things will be much better by the summer.

“There’s a road map coming out in just few days which I hope in time will give much detail as we possibly can about the way ahead.

“What I would say to people whose patience is frayed, I do think we are in final period now of this pandemic, that’s our ambition as government, to make sure that this lockdown is the last one.

“That’s why we take steps now that are realistic, cautious but also irreversible. That’s what people want to get on with their lives, they want life to get back normal but don’t want to going reverse again.

“That’s a difficult balance to strike, but people would rather us be cautious and get it right and that’s what we are aiming for.

“Am I optimistic? Yes absolutely, I really think things will be different in a couple of months and after that different again.”

When asked about the high death rates that some communities have suffered, he said there is no doubt sadly some parts of the UK have been worse hit than others.

He added there would be a time to go over when the pandemic has come to an end, to isolate the causes but it is ‘multi-factors’ in why some areas are recording more deaths.

Mr Johnson said there will be a time when they need to look at why the UK has been ‘very prone’ to the virus and there would be ‘many things’ to look at, but the moment for that reflection is ‘not yet here’.

The Prime Minister was also asked about the Welsh/English border and whether a united nations approach would have made the pandemic less confusing.

He said: “It can be sometimes confusing for people. It’s been confusing to have two different sets of rules throughout the country but on the other hand, as time has gone on people have got a better understanding of what they have got to do and where, that is my experience.

“One of the striking things about the UK is the handling of the pandemic is, overall, if you look at is and compare it to other countries, there’s far more similarities in the way we have done things than differences.

“It’s really quite a unified approach overall.

“There’s lessons to be learnt in how we handle pandemics in the future, is there more we can do to give people confidence in what we are doing, particularly in the early stages.”

Mr Johnson backed his decision to travel to Wales today saying it was the ‘right thing’ for him to thank everyone involved in the vaccination roll-out.

He added he has to hear ‘directly’ from people in ‘as many places he can get to’ and is ‘important’ for him to be able to thank people directly.

When asked about vaccine supplies, the Prime Minister said there are currently no plans to differentiate different parts of the country as they want to get the vaccine out as fast as they can to the ‘groups who need it the most’.