TOP scientists had reportedly asked the government to consider having everyone over the age of 45 shield under new coronavirus plans.
Papers from SAGE have suggested that those over 45 were at greater risk from the killer bug and said could be “segmented” from the rest of the population.
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However, the idea was eventually advised against as it was considered unlikely to be successful – but it is still being kept under review.
It follows a similar plan to potentially target over-50s with another lockdown.
The minutes of the 48th meeting of the Sage scientists state: “Although under-45s are at less risk from Covid-19, including lower risk of death, they are nonetheless at some risk and long-term sequelae (consequences) are not well understood.”
The document from July 23 adds: “Around two-thirds of people in the UK live in a household which includes one or more individuals aged 45 and above.
“Any segmentation based on this age threshold would therefore affect most households.”
The “segmentation” would have involved those over 45 shielding.
Early in the pandemic that meant staying home and avoiding unnecessary contact with others.
Minutes from the July 16 meeting say there is likely to be “merit” in shielding society by age, particularly “to vulnerable people and those likely to have more contact with vulnerable people”.
It continues: “Data shows that people tend to have more contacts with others around their own age, but also have a significant number of contacts with those 20-30 years older and younger than themselves (likely to mainly be contacts between parents and children).
“There are also significant levels of contact between grandparents and children.”
Figures have shown that children and those aged below 45 are at a lower risk of dying from Covid-19 compared to those over 75.
Office for National Statistics data has shown that only four coronavirus deaths were recorded in children aged one to 14 years old in England and Wales – which is less than 0.01 per cent of the total.
And 574 have been recorded in those aged 15 to 44, or 0.96 per cent of the total.
In comparison, a total of 39,058 people aged 75 and over have died from the virus – which is 65 per cent of the total.
It comes after Covid-19 cases have jumped 60 per cent in a week to nearly 10,000 infections a day – but app data suggests it could be nearly double.
New figures from the ONS shows there were around 9,600 new Covid infections per day in England – up on 6,000 last week.
During the last week the ONS said that there were approximately 1.75 new Covid-19 infections for every 10,000 people per day in the community – equating to 9,600 new cases per day.
The ONS stated that around 103,600 people within the community in England had the virus in the last week, this equates to around 1 in 500 people.
The ONS stated: “There is evidence of higher infection rates in the North West, Yorkshire and the Humber, London and North East; both West and East Midlands are recently showing a small increase.”
