Coronavirus: young people who break the rules risk a ‘second wave’

The UK could see a second spike in coronavirus cases if young people don’t follow social distancing rules, the health secretary says.

A third of all cases in England last week were people between the ages of 20 and 29.

“The numbers have been increasing. And we’ve seen other countries where this leads, and it’s not a good place,” says Matt Hancock.

Students starting college this month is a “concern,” he adds.

Speaking to Radio 1 Newsbeat, the Health Secretary pointed to France and Spain, “where that second wave began largely among young people, then spreads.”

“And now we are seeing a sharp increase in the number of people hospitalized and the number of people dying in those countries.

“That hasn’t happened here yet. And if people follow the social distancing rules, then we can prevent that from happening here.”

On Sunday, the government announced 2,988 new cases, the highest number since May 22.

Experts are monitoring infection rates across the UK and imposing restrictions in places where coronavirus numbers are increasing.

Leeds has been added to the blockade watch list. Authorities said there had been an increase in music events, house parties and illegal raves in the city.

Meanwhile, up to 300 people who attended a charity soccer game near Sunderland were asked to isolate themselves for two weeks after 28 people who attended the event tested positive.

And a school in Suffolk closed after five members of the teaching staff tested positive.

The health secretary highlighted how serious the coronavirus can be for young people, although they are less likely to die or become seriously ill.

“Long Covid is really serious. And people can be sick for months and months and months,” he says.

“The second really important message is that younger people transmit the disease, even if they don’t have symptoms.

“Don’t kill your grandmother by spreading the coronavirus and then transmitting it. And you can transmit it before you’ve had any symptoms.”

Go up in the ‘always probable’ cases

There is an understandable concern about the increase in infections that have been observed.

But you need context: At the peak of the pandemic in the spring, around 100,000 new cases were being seen a day.

Part of the increase seen in recent weeks is due to more testing, but that will not be the only factor.

It was always going to be the case that as people mixed more (to go to work and school, not just to socialize) and the summer ended (respiratory viruses tend to work better in colder months) the cases would increase.

The crucial question is how much and to what extent they will spread to the oldest and most vulnerable age groups.

If it can be limited to the younger age groups, who have such a low risk of complications, in theory it wouldn’t be a big deal.

But achieving that is going to be difficult.

The social distancing that is now becoming a routine part of our daily lives and established test and trace teams will help.

But sadly, hospitalizations and deaths will soon start to increase; They do it every winter because of the flu, although we have a vaccine and some immunity.

Keeping that increase as low as possible, while allowing society to function with children going to school and people being able to work, is the tightrope that we will all need to walk now.

Matt Hancock said that the LBC areas in the UK that saw an increase in coronavirus cases during the summer were some of the most disadvantaged. But in recent days the increase has been among “the wealthiest young people.”

The health secretary also outlined a new testing system for people returning from vacation.

He claimed that doing a temperature check at the border, which does not happen in the UK but does in other countries, “does not work” because the virus can “incubate for a period inside your body without a test being able to detect up” .

Testing people eight days after they return is “one of the things we’d like to bring in as soon as practical,” Hancock said.

It is suggested that this could reduce the 14-day quarantine period when returning from countries with higher numbers of cases.

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