'FUEL TO THE FIRE'
UK should NOT return to normal on July 19 after ‘dangerous’ rise in Covid cases and NHS backlog, top doctor warns
THE UK should NOT return to normal on July 19 after a "dangerous" rise in Covid cases, a top doctor has warned.
Throwing away all coronavirus precautions on Freedom Day is alarming and will "add fuel to the fire" as Britain is already battling a "dangerous wave," Professor Helen Stokes-Lampard said.
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Britain is also facing an NHS backlog that has built up over the last 15 months - which will increase pressure on the health service.
Dr Mike Tildesley, a member of the Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group on Modelling Government advisory panel also agreed that "there is a risk" with the planned July 19 reopening.
All Covid restrictions, including mask-wearing, isolation, and social distancing, are set to come to an end in just over a week's time.
But this comes at a time when cases are rising - and Prof Helen Stokes-Lampard, chairwoman of the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges, said deaths were beginning to rise again too.
She told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "I have been profoundly concerned for a week or two since talk of July 19 is ramping up.
"There seems to be a misapprehension that life will return to normal from then (July 19), and that we can throw away all the precautions, and frankly, that would be dangerous.
"The rising number of cases, the rising number of people requiring hospital treatment and intensive care, and sadly the number of deaths are beginning to rise again too.
"We all want to make sure that the public is aware that this pandemic is far from over. And that when the 19th comes we need a responsible approach and a very cautious approach to relaxing restrictions.
"We've heard some pretty alarming reports of companies saying 'all restrictions are removed, everyone back in the office, sitting close to each other, no masks indoors.
'FUEL TO THE FIRE'
"And I do feel that is going to add fuel to the fire of this current quite dangerous wave that we're in."
She added: "The previous waves were high pressured in a different way.
"What we've got at the moment is we're dealing with the backlog that's built up over the last 15 months. We all know the record number of people waiting for operations and for investigations.
"And also we're seeing a sudden spike in the number of young children requiring hospital attention and people having infections that they didn't have before."
Dr Tildesley agreed that the UK is living in a "bit of an experiment" in relation to lifting most restrictions.
He told Times Radio: "In a sense, we are.
"But also I think when we compare with most other countries we do have much higher levels of vaccine rates than most other countries."
He urged people to ensure they get their second dose of vaccine due to the "much higher" levels of protection it provides against the Delta variant.
He said the risk "should decrease as we go through August and we get more people vaccinated."
But he added: "There is a risk with July 19 in terms of exposing more people to infection as a result of further reopening."
He warned: "Of course the more cases you have, particularly with high levels of vaccine protection, that does then kind of challenge the virus a little bit more and gives more potential for it to mutate into a form where the vaccines are less effective."
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This comes after the reported that the government is to go ahead with the easing of restrictions on July 19 - but will tone down the 'Freedom Day' rhetoric.
Two Whitehall insiders said internal polling had sparked concern amongst ministers.
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Another source said that it would be "political suicide" to U-turn on the July 19 promises.
It was also admitted that despite the Prime Minister's warning to the public not to be "demob happy" at Monday's press conference, the message had "got slightly lost" as he announced that July 19 was going ahead.
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