Meanwhile, in the UK …
A SAGE adviser suggested today that a third national blockade, including the massive closure of schools, may be necessary to suppress Covid, as he insisted that ‘keeping people apart’ prevents the virus from spreading.
Professor Sir Mark Walport said the coronavirus ‘mutant’ strain was spreading rapidly among children, with those aged 12 to 16 years seven times more likely to ‘infect’ a family.
Speaking on the BBC’s Andrew Marr program, while Liverpool leaders called for a general closure, he said it would be “very, very difficult” to keep the disease under control “without stricter social distance measures”.
Sir Mark also suggested that the UK has struggled to contain the cases because it is a “Western liberal democracy”, suggesting that draconian countermeasures adopted in non-free countries like Vietnam have suppressed the virus.
Asked if Tier 4 restrictions were sufficient, the former Chief Scientific Adviser said today: ‘These are Tier 4 restrictions, it is to obey them.
“It means thinking about essentially breaking all possible transmission routes. These are absolutely necessary things and it is quite clear that we will need more. ‘
Speaking about the ‘mutant’ Covid, he said: ‘We now have a much more transmissible variant and I fear that this is the natural evolution of viruses.
‘Those that can transmit more effectively have an advantage over other variants and it is therefore clear that this variant is transmitting more readily. It is also being transmitted more easily in younger age groups.
‘It is good to note that it does not seem to cause a worse disease or that it will be more resistant to the effects of the vaccine, but it will be very, very difficult to keep it under control without stricter social distance measures. ‘
Sir Mark continued: ‘What really stops the virus, and we know it can do it, is to keep people separate. The virus can only pass from one person to another through proximity and, therefore, it is about doing everything possible to keep us as safe as possible. ‘
Boris Johnson today refused to rule out the total closure, telling Marr that he is ‘reconciled’ to imposing more restrictions on public life as the number of coronavirus cases increases.