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Scientists advising the government on the COVID-19 epidemic believe that a medium-term “circuit breaker” is still worth it, and that it should be repeated during future school holidays, Sky News understands.
The Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE), which advises the government on its coronavirus The response, made the case of a brief and abrupt shutdown just over three weeks ago, but the recommendation was rejected by the prime minister.
Evidence suggests that a two-week circuit breaker would roll back the epidemic by 28 days, reducing cases, hospital admissions and deaths.
Due to the recent spike in cases, it would no longer be possible to revert the numbers to August lows, which would have allowed the underperforming test and tracking system a chance to catch up, but could still bring the R number under. 1, reducing the epidemic.
Announcing a circuit breaker now, when schools are only a few days away during the October semester, would be upsetting for parents.
Senior government advisers are believed to be in favor of scheduling circuit breakers during future school holidays so that parents have time to make the necessary arrangements.
Interventions could be canceled at a later stage if they are no longer needed due to the low number of cases.
Dr. David Nabarro, special envoy of the World Health Organization (WHO) for the COVID-19 In response, he told Sky News that the UK needs to “order tests, trace and isolate”.
He added: “There are many who say that if you lock yourself in now, how are you going to be able to get out after two weeks, because this virus is not going to disappear?
“The only way to get rid of it is through a very simple process of finding people with the disease and isolating them, finding their contacts and isolating them, and then protecting the people who are most at risk.”
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He added that his request to decision makers was “very straightforward.”
Dr. Nabarro continued: “Organize the tests, track and isolate, and have a really strong communication program, so that everyone in the country knows the basics about wearing masks, physical distancing, hygiene and staying out of the walk when you get sick and make sure things are working well locally.
“This is a really punitive thing, putting Britain back in lockdown, even for two weeks, so I’d like to suggest that decision makers actually fix these issues, rather than saying it’s too difficult, we can’t do We have spent a lot of money on it, but it’s not working so we’ll have to re-lock it. “
Dr Nabarro also said that the UK “has the potential to be absolutely brilliant.”
He said: “I don’t think the UK should see that they are at the bottom of the league table.
“I think there are other countries, I really don’t want to mention them, in Western Europe and North America that don’t look good at the moment.
“But I have high hopes for Britain and I have high hopes for other countries that have good quality public health records.”
He also claimed that the UK could “learn from East Asian countries”.
He continued: “From Singapore, South Korea, Vietnam and elsewhere as well.”
The head of the Europe office of the World Health Organization said the exponential increase in coronavirus cases across the continent has justified the adoption of restrictive measures, calling them “absolutely necessary” to stop the pandemic.
At a press conference on Thursday, Dr. Hans Kluge warned that even more drastic measures may be necessary in these “unprecedented times.”
He called on countries and their citizens to be “uncompromising” in their attempts to control the virus and said that most of the spread of COVID-19 is occurring in homes, indoor spaces and communities that do not comply with the measures of protection.
“These measures are meant to keep us all ahead of the curve and flatten its course,” said Dr. Kluge, while wearing a dark green mask.
“Therefore, it is up to us to accept them as long as they are relatively easy to follow rather than going down the road of severity.”
He said the coronavirus is now the fifth leading cause of death in Europe and noted that the region recently passed the threshold of reporting 8,000 deaths per day.
