The UK is likely to have to deal with Covid for at least another five years, the education secretary has warned.

But Nadhim Zahawi said the country is ‘witnessing the transition of the virus from pandemic to endemic’, meaning that people should be able to live with a greater degree of normality than in the last two years.

Mr Zahawi was speaking as he signalled support for cutting the self-isolation period for people who test positive from the current seven days to five.

He’s also announced that GCSE and A-Level exams will go ahead as planned this summer after two years of cancellations due to the pandemic.

He told The Sunday Times that the current Omicron wave is ‘a big bump in the road but we have to make sure we are able to cope.’

Mr Zahawi, who previously served as vaccines minister said he believes the country will soon be able to deploy ‘polyvalent and multivalent’ vaccines, which can protect against any new Covid variants.

He said: ‘The virus is going to be with us for maybe five or six years longer and we are going to continue to have variants but vaccines will get better and we are going to have polyvalent and multivalent vaccines by next year.’

Scientists have previously said the the emergence of the milder Omicron variant will help make Covid endemic.

The country appears to have past the peak of the latest wave of cases but infections remain high with 146,390 reported on Saturday.

The former head of the UK’s vaccine taskforce, Dr Clive Dix, has called for a major rethink in the UK’s strategy to contain the virus and replace the lockdowns and mass vaccination programmes seen in the last two years with a ‘new normality.’

He told The Observer: ‘Mass population-based vaccination in the UK should now end.’

He added: ‘We should consider when we stop testing and let individuals isolate when they are not well and return to work when they feel ready, in the same way we do in a bad influenza season.’

Mr Zahawi became the first Government minister to signal his support for a further loosening of the rules around self-isolation as he said it could help reduce staff shortages in critical industries like teaching and the NHS.

He told Sky’s Trevor Phillips on Sunday: ‘It would certainly help mitigate some of the pressures on schools, on critical workforce and others.

‘But I would absolutely be driven by advice from the experts, the scientists, on whether we should move to five days from seven days. What you don’t want is to create the wrong outcome by higher levels of infection.’

He added: ‘I hope we will be one of the first major economies to demonstrate to the world how you transition from pandemic to endemic, and then deal with this however long it remains with us, whether that’s five, six, seven, 10 years.’

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