Social distance measures and masks can be used “for years”, according to a leading epidemiologist.
Public Health England chief of immunization Mary Ramsay said on Sunday that “people have gotten used to these lower-level restrictions now, and people can live with them, and the economy can still continue with those less severe restrictions” .
Warning the government should “look very carefully before any restrictions are lifted”, Dr. Ramsay also said that returning large events to spectators requires careful monitoring and clear instructions on how to stay safe.
“So, I think certainly for a few years, at least until other parts of the world are as well vaccinated as we are, and the numbers have dropped everywhere, that’s when we can come back very gradually to a more normal point”, she told the BBC.
Half of all UK adults have already received their first dose of the Covid vaccine, with Friday setting a record for the highest number of vaccines administered in a single day. A combination of 711,156 first and second doses was given to members of the public.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock called the latest milestone a “phenomenal achievement”.
Professor Chris Whitty previously told parliamentarians that “simple interventions such as hand washing, masks when appropriate, testing and screening and, above all, vaccines”, hopefully, would keep the virus controlled beyond the script, out of the way.
Sir Patrick Vallance, the chief scientific adviser, also said that masks may be necessary in certain situations if the number of infections increases in winter.
Although Boris Johnson’s plan to ease restrictions in England has all the legal limits for social contact ending on June 21, a government adviser issued a warning on Friday about the potentially unsafe return of foreign holidays during the summer.
“We should have learned from what happened last year,” said Professor Peter Openshaw, vice president of Nervtag, who advises the government on emerging respiratory threats.
“There were many imports of new cases from Greece, Croatia, Spain and these were the main contributors to the cases that were seen in the UK at the end of last summer.”
He added: “I am afraid we will see the same again, because the virus is by no means defeated.”
Defense Secretary Ben Wallace previously suggested that he did not rule out the extension of the ban on foreign holidays.
He told Sky News’ Sophy Ridge on Sunday that “we can’t ignore what’s going on outside the UK”, adding that booking a break abroad now would be “premature” and “potentially risky”.