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A leading scientific adviser to the government said that any removal of Covid restrictions this month would “inflame” the flames of rising infections in England and could lead to levels similar to the second wave of last winter within two months.
Professor Andrew Hayward, an adviser to the Sage and Nervtag Committee, said that the country should slow down rather than speed up its return to normal before Boris Johnson announced on Monday that it will postpone the final lifting of the lockdown. June 21.
“I think we must be very cautious because we are still very likely to have a wave of hospitalizations, which will put a lot of pressure on the NHS, and at this time the NHS is trying to deal with a large backlog of cases. People are waiting for hospital care. ,” Hayward told BBC One’s Andrew Marr show on Sunday.
Hayward said: “If we are driving on the road and you are entering a curve and you are not at all sure what is around the curve, but you think there may be something wrong, don’t step on the accelerator.” Hayward said. “If you slow down anything, you won’t speed up. I think it’s similar to this.”
Marr later asked whether the government could re-impose some restrictions to slow the spread of the new delta variant. Foreign Secretary Dominique Raab did not deny this possibility.
“We have weakened the link between the spread of the virus and hospitalization, but the serious test is whether we have broken this link?” he said. “That’s the point… We have been looking at the data.
“Our ongoing competition is for everyone to take up to two doses [of vaccine] Because this can maximize the risk of harm to people and reduce the effectiveness of transmission. “
Downing Street sources said on Friday that the government expects to postpone the last step of lifting the lockdown restrictions by two to four weeks. The infection and vaccination data are still being studied.
78% of adults received one dose of vaccine, and 55% of adults received two doses of vaccine.
According to Hayward, a scientist at University College London, the fact that the new Delta variant appears to be 60% more infectious is “very worrying.” “The level of hospitalization caused by this infection seems to be as high as that of the previous infection. People worry”.
“One of the key issues is that the first dose of the vaccine can actually only reduce the risk of infection by about a third, so we do need two doses of the vaccine to achieve a good level of protection.”
Hayward said: “It is now clear that we will usher in the third wave of large-scale infections.” “The real big question is to what extent this wave of infections will turn into hospitalization. In fact, we have 55% of the infections. Adults are vaccinated with a double vaccine, which means it will be much more serious than it could be, but we still don’t know how bad it will be.”
Raab said he felt the same pain as those whose companies or employment might be terminated due to a delay in the schedule, but he said: “We don’t want to move around, we want to deal with it in an irreversible way.”
The Labour Party also stated that it believes that “people are unlikely to go abroad this summer” and criticized the government for failing to close the border to travelers from India as soon as possible.
Shadow International Trade Minister Emily Thornberry (Emily Thornberry) told Sky News: “You want to know why they kept the border with India open and closed the border with Pakistan and Bangladesh. I think it’s because of Boris. Johnson continues to fantasize that he will be allowed to travel to India and sign some kind of pre-trade agreement.”
Thornbury said: “We have to follow the scientific advice. The scientific advice is obvious. We cannot lift the blockade at this time.” “Need a delay.”
At the same time, former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown accused the G7 leaders of failing to make more commitments to the global vaccination plan. This is an “unforgivable moral failure”. The G7 leaders will end in Cornwall on Sunday. s meeting.
“I think this summit will be seen as a missed opportunity. When we needed 11 billion vaccines, we only got a plan for 1 billion vaccines,” he told Sky News. “When we only had 5 billion U.S. dollars, we needed 50 billion U.S. dollars for world vaccination.
“Now that we have discovered the vaccine, we have not yet formulated a comprehensive plan for vaccination by the middle of next year… Millions of people will not be vaccinated, and thousands more will die.
He said this problem will once again plague the wealthiest countries, because even people who have been vaccinated in these areas may be infected with the virus due to mutations and mutations.
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