‘Foolish’ to push ahead with June 21 reopening, government scientist warns

On Friday the UK recorded its highest number of new confirmed coronavirus cases since late March.
Packed outdoor tables
PA Wire

Pushing ahead with a full reopening in England later this month would be “foolish” and a “major risk”, an expert has warned.

There is currently enough evidence to show that one of the Government’s four key tests for its roadmap out of lockdown has not been met, according to Professor Stephen Reicher.

This is due to the spread of the Indian variant, he said.

Several reports suggest plans to lift all restrictions on June 21 could be scaled down, with the wearing of face masks and social distancing set to continue.

Concerns that the variant that originated in India, now known as Delta, is fuelling a surge in cases.

On Friday the UK recorded its highest number of new confirmed coronavirus cases – 6,238 – since late March, according to official figures.

Saturday’s figure was down slightly at 5,765 lab-confirmed cases.

It is about data not dates, and if you make it too much about the dates then you box yourself into a corner and I think that’s what the Government has done

Professor Stephen Reicher

It marks the nation’s highest tally since mid-April, with the R value between 1 and 1.2.

Prof Reicher, a member of the Scientific Pandemic Insights Group on Behaviours (Spi-B) which advises the Government, said the criteria about the current assessment of the risks not being fundamentally changed by new variants of concern is “not upheld”.

“I think by the Government’s own criteria it’s quite clear that it would be foolish to proceed on the data that we’ve got at the moment,” he said.

“The risk would be very great indeed. And of course it’s a balance of risks but I think it would be a major risk to go further in opening up.”

He added: “Again, I make the point that it is about data not dates, and if you make it too much about the dates then you box yourself into a corner and I think that’s what the Government has done.”

A UK Government spokeswoman said “no decision” had been made on whether to ease all coronavirus restrictions on June 21, amid reports Boris Johnson could delay the move by at least a fortnight.

“As the Prime Minister has set out, we can see nothing in the data at the moment to suggest that we need to deviate from the roadmap,” said the spokesperson.

“We continue to look at the data and the latest scientific evidence and no decision on Step 4 has yet been made.”

Professor Reicher’s comments come as more surge testing is to be rolled out in parts of Berkshire amid community spread of the Delta variant.

Everyone aged 12 and above in some postcodes in Reading and Wokingham offered PCR testing from Monday.

Daily confirmed cases of Covid-19 in the UK
PA Graphics

Dr Mike Tildesley, a member of the Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group on Modelling Government advisory panel, said the Government has a “difficult call” to make about easing restrictions on June 21.

He told Times Radio: “The difficult situation the Government have is of course if you delay that then of course you’ll get a smaller subsequent wave.”

But he added: “Of course, if you delay that we know that negatively impacts businesses, people’s livelihoods, and so forth.”

Hospitality chiefs have already voiced concerns over a delay to restrictions being lifted, saying it could threaten the viability of the sector.

Sacha Lord, night time economy adviser for Greater Manchester, branded June 21 a “make or break” date for many and vowed that he was “up for a fight” over the possible shift in timeline.

According to the Telegraph, a two-week delay to the final stage of Boris Johnson’s road map will be used to accelerate second jabs for over-40s, moving from a 12 to eight-week gap between doses, echoing the practise that is already in place for over-50s.

Those aged over 25 will also be offered their first doses from next week, the newspaper said.

It comes as laboratory data from the Francis Crick Institute backed up a policy of reducing the gap between jabs.

The study found that after just one dose of the Pfizer jab, people are less likely to develop antibody levels against the Indian (B.1.617.2) variant as high as those seen against the previously dominant Kent variant, which has been dubbed Alpha.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in