BORIS Johnson’s lockdown roadmap could be delayed – because the UK faces a fresh Covid surge as restrictions ease, an expert has warned.
Dr Peter Drobac, a former assistant professor at Harvard Medical School, warned there will be a spike in cases as Brits enjoy their new-found freedoms – including pubs reopening yesterday.
And he said that unless we take it slow and steady, Britain could face a similar future to Chile – which has just gone back into a strict lockdown, despite one of the world’s best vaccination programmes.
Speaking on Sky News, Dr Drobac called the South American country a “real Covid vaccination success story. Some 40 per cent of people have received one dose, and 25 per cent have received two doses – and at the same time, they’ve got a surge that is the worst they’ve experienced throughout the pandemic,” he said.
Chile has, however, largely been using a Chinese made vaccine that is understood to be less effective than the Pfizer, AstraZeneca and Moderna vaccines currently being rolled out in the UK.
Last night it was revealed that surge testing is to begin in parts of south London after 44 cases of the South African Covid-19 variant were found.
People living and working in Wandsworth and Lambeth are being urged to get tested after “significant” reports of the mutated virus, in the largest surge testing operation to date.
Additional testing and genomic sequencing will take place predominantly in these boroughs, where 44 confirmed cases and 30 probable cases of the variant first identified in South Africa were found.
The variant is deemed to be more transmissible – potentially up to 50 per cent more infectious.
All identified cases are isolating or have completed their isolation, and their contacts have been traced and asked to isolate.
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