A country at the center of the new transition is entering a ‘dangerous new stage of the pandemic’, a gov’t chief adviser says.
The British government needs to introduce stricter coronavirus locking rules to prevent a new wave of deaths from a new strain of the disease, a leading epidemiologist and government adviser warns.
Britain reported 41,385 new COVID cases on Monday, the highest number since tests became widely available in mid-2020, and English hospitals say they have more COVID patients than at the first wave of the pandemic in April.
“We are entering a dangerous new phase of the pandemic, and we will need early national action to prevent a catastrophe in January and February,” said Andrew Hayward, professor of epidemio- infectious disease studies at University College London, Tuesday.
More than 71,000 people in Britain have died within 28 days of a positive diagnosis of the disease.
Hayward, who sits on the British government’s advisory group on respiratory diseases, said the new strain of COVID made it easier for infected people to mean that lock-in measures in England are unlikely to be slows the spread of the disease.
On December 26, the British government extended the strictest range of COVID restrictions, under which non-essential vendors are closed and people are usually unable to meet in person, to cover nearly half of England’s population.
Hayward told the BBC that these loops needed to be extended further.
“We’re really looking at a situation where we’re moving into a nearby lock,” he said.
Schools in England are expected to open for large numbers of pupils on January 4th. Hayward said that, from an purely epidemiological point of view, it would be sensible to keep them closed longer, but poor pupils who were opposed to online learning had difficulties in making loops on other public realm. better.
Authorities in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland set their own policies on schools and measures to combat COVID.