BRITS have been urged to use common sense to avoid a deadly second spike of coronavirus by the Government’s top experts.
Deputy Chief Medical Officer Jenny Harries warned people they needed to be sensible and not to take unnecessary risks such as piling into cars with people from outside their household.
Dr Harries warned: “This is a really, really critical time. The public really, really need to stick to those messages.
“It is not just about what it is possible to do, it’s about what it is sensible to do and what is sensible to do is have as few interactions as possible.
“There are plenty of opportunities to go out and exercise, be out in the sun, without being next to other people.
“So I think it’s really important that people just try to use those measures sensible for their own benefit, but don’t risk transmission with other people.”
The warning came before lockdown measures were formally relaxed today – allowing Brits to meet with people from other households in groups of six, and easing restrictions on meeting in private gardens.
But many people flocked to parks and beaches, enjoying picnics with family and friends they had not seen for months, over the weekend.
Top scientists have warned that Britain could be relaxing measures to keep new coronavirus infections and deaths on a downward trend too soon – and there could be a deadly second wave of the virus.
Professor Peter Openshaw, an immunologist on the Government’s New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisor Group (Nervtag) said “unlocking too fast carries a great risk” and the nation needed “to proceed with great, great care at this point.”
He said the full effect of eased measures would not be seen in the data for two to three weeks.
The Government has repeatedly said having a track and trace system to follow new infections and isolate them from others would be crucial to releasing huge swathes of the country from lockdown.
But the system, launched on Friday, was branded a “shambles” by trained contact tracers.
Dr Harries said the risk of catching the virus was low – and revealed last night there was now roughly a 1 in 400-500 chance of catching coronavirus from someone outside of your household.
Previously that was 1 in 40.
Everyone still needed to be on high alert and not push measures further than they were designed to go.
She said: “There’s a very very low risk of transmission, which is why most of these measures in this early phase, where we’re going very carefully, are to do the outdoor measures first.
“The vision reported of people crowding almost certainly comes with the behavioural elements of people cramming into cars for example, potentially not sticking to the rules.
“It should be yourself or your household only (in the car), potentially (people are) swapping bits of cutlery or picnic kit on the beach and being very close together.”
Did you miss our previous article…
https://www.hellofaread.com/politics/parents-could-face-fines-for-keeping-kids-off-school-from-september-childrens-commissioner-suggests/
