Coronavirus: ‘Waves on waves’ of new cases could hit Britain and ‘second peak’ still likely

MULTIPLE waves of coronavirus could hit Britain in the coming months and a second “peak” is still likely, the Deputy CMO warned tonight.

Jenny Harries said that a second wave – or even a series of them – can’t be ruled out at the moment.

A series of second waves could be on the cards

Jenny Harries warned today that the pandemic is not over yet

Speaking at the Downing Street press conference she said that other countries had seen successive waves.

Ms Harries said: “A second wave is quite a possibility.  That is not ruled out at all.

“A second peak, an epidemic peak, another one, is not ruled out.

“In pandemics you can also see successive ones. We are talking about a second one but-you can get waves on waves.”

But she inisted that as a country, it was likely that local lockdowns would occur rater than waves across the UK.

“What is should reasure parents is, that where there are local rises, that we started to see, the focus of energy is to make sure they do not become another peak,” she said.

Schools may have to be temporarily shut down in some areas, but only for a “short while” to manage local spikes.

Gavin Williamson told HOAR that by taking “decisive action” on local spikes “we ensure we avoid the situation where we will ever have to see a national shutdown again”.

But he refused to say that it could not happen.

The news came after the Government outlined its plans to get all kids back in school from September.

Mr Williamson admitted he knew that many parents “would have doubts” about sending their kids back, but assured them: “Their safety, their well-being is our top priority.

Gavin Williamson outlined safety measures to get kids back to school today

“We will make sure their hopes and dreams of the future will not be knocked off course.”

The plan in full includes:

• Staggered breaks and start times
• Year group ‘bubbles’ to minimise spread and whole schools could have to isolate
• They even have to stay in their bubble on the bus to and from school
• Fringe subjects can be dropped to focus on Maths and English at the start of the year
• Kids will HAVE to go back to school from September, or their parents will face a £120 fine again.
• Nursery class size limits scrapped
• All kids can attend summer clubs but only in groups of 15
• Adapted class rooms to social distance
• No school choirs or assemblies
• A £1billion plan to include a tutoring programme for disadvantaged kids to catch up