England entered a third blockade amid the coronavirus pandemic, and it does not appear to be creating any decline in COVID-19 cases, reports Reuters.
What is happening?
The researchers warned on Thursday that the highly transmissible variant of COVID-19 continues to spread across the country, which has had a small decline in recent days despite the blockade, according to Reuters.
- In fact, the researchers said there was “no evidence of a decline” in the first 10 days of new restrictions added in England.
Key quote
- “The number of patients hospitalized with COVID-19 (in the hospital) is extremely high at the moment, and we cannot expect it to fall unless we can reach lower levels of prevalence,” said Steven Riley, professor of infectious disease dynamics, from according to Reuters. “The fact that (prevalence) is not decreasing has potentially serious consequences.”
Context
In early January, England announced that it would enter a new national blocking of COVID-19 to deal with the fast-spreading variant of COVID-19 originally discovered in the UK, as I wrote about Deseret News.
- Everyone in England was advised to stay at home, unless they were allowed to leave.
- People could leave their homes for “essential medical needs, food purchases, exercise and work for those who cannot do this from home”, according to BBC News.
So, what’s next?
Paul Elliott, a specialist in public health epidemiology and medicine and director of the REACT program, told Reuters that people need to “double public health measures”.
- “Wear face covers, keep your distance and wash your hands,” said Elliott. “There will be continued pressure until we can reduce the prevalence.”