Government adviser and microbiologist Professor Ravi Gupta said the unlocking of coronavirus restrictions in England next month should be delayed “by a few weeks” due to signs the UK is in a new wave of Covid-19 infections.
He told BBC Radio 4’s Today: “I think the problem is we are not too far from reaching the sort of levels of vaccination that would help us contain the virus and I think that people are not saying we should abandon the June 21 date altogether but just to delay it by a few weeks while we gather more intelligence and we can look at the trajectory in a clearer way.
“If you look at the costs and benefits of getting it wrong, I think it is heavily in favour of delay, so I think that’s the key thing.
“Yes, we will learn to live with it but this date that was set did not take into account the fact we would have a new variant on the horizon, with properties that allow it to evade antibodies to some extent and a virus which is more transmissible.”
Professor Adam Finn, from the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation, said there is a question mark over how fast the rise in Covid cases is going to be and how high numbers will go.
“And in those circumstances we’d all be better off doing everything we can to minimise that risk so that we don’t get to a position where we have to really go backwards in terms of the restrictions that we’re all having to endure,” he told Times Radio.
Prof Finn said the JCVI will give advice to the Government on vaccinating children but said more evidence is needed before it can give clear advice.
