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A top government adviser has predicted that all Britons will have summer holidays this year, but warned that the NHS must prepare for a possible “harsh winter” ahead.
Dr Susan Hopkins told Andrew Marr that the UK could see “surges in flu” and other viruses because public health measures against Covid-19 potentially mean less “population immunity”.
The Public Health England doctor went on to say that “hopefully we will all have our summer holidays” but cautioned that the NHS must be ready for a “difficult autumn”.
“We have to prepare for a harsh winter, not only with the coronavirus, but we have had a year without respiratory viruses of any other type and that potentially means that the immunity of the population is lower,” he told the BBC.
“We could see surges in flu, we could see surges in other respiratory viruses and other respiratory pathogens.”
While waiting for a “normal winter”, be “prepared from an NHS point of view and [with] contact tracing ”is“ really important, ”emphasized Dr. Hopkins.
“My job is to advise the government and prepare for the worst scenarios,” he added.
But summer vacation is possible, you think. “I think hopefully we will all have a summer vacation,” Dr. Hopkins said, but we must have “options available to the country in case things are not as satisfactory as we would like them to be.”
Boris Johnson’s “cautious but irreversible” roadmap out of lockdown runs through June 21, the earliest date by which all legal limits on social contact can be removed.
But financial support schemes have been further expanded. Rishi Sunak announced during his budget speech that the license plan will run until the end of September.
The £ 20 increase to weekly Universal Credit payments spanned six months.
While June 21 has already been hailed as “freedom day” by some, “six months is a long time” under the current circumstances, Dr. Hopkins said, adding that it is “really difficult to predict what will happen. in the future”.
