Face masks should still be worn in pubs and restaurants, according to a top government scientist.
England’s Deputy Chief Medical Officer Prof Jonathan Van Tam has said made the intervention as he warned: “Too many people believe that this pandemic is now over.”
Currently people in England are not required to wear a face mask in public spaces, whether inside or outside.
This is despite large amounts of evidence that it stops transmission of the coronavirus, and the UK's relatively high case and death rate.
The popular Government scientist was being questioned as part of a joint broadcast on BBC Breakfast and Radio 5Live.
Asked how a Christmas lockdown can be prevented, Prof Van-Tam, said: “Christmas, and indeed all of the darker winter months, are potentially going to be problematic.
“And I think the things that are really going to determine this are, first of all, human behaviours and caution over the winter months, but particularly in the next couple of months.”
He insisted that masks should be worn in pubs, restaurants, theatres and cinemas.
“If you then went into an indoor setting, which involves food and drink, then it becomes very difficult because you don’t wear them at the table,” he added.
“You can’t take them on and off in between sips of a drink. And so really what you should do, in my view, is to wear masks when mobile, and use them as you’re entering and exiting the premises.”
Despite a recent 10% dip in weekly cases, the UK remains at the top of the European charts when it comes to daily coronavirus infections.
The UK also has the fourth highest death rate in the continent, even though the country's vaccination programme is among the most wide reaching.
He outlined a number of situations when masks should be worn but when asked on BBC Radio 5Live if MPs should wear them in the Commons, he ducked the question.
Prof Van Tam replied: “I don’t think I’m in a position to judge every single type of interaction that occurs in any work premises, including the House of Commons.”
Prof Van Tam said face masks in schools “could be quite inhibitory to the natural expressions of learning in children involving speech and facial expression”.
Asked if we are at “half-time” in the pandemic, he said: “I would say we’re kind of half-time in extra time, and I think the final whistle in terms of - I can’t predict it - but my personal view is that we’ve got a few more months to run, and I think we’ll be in a much calmer set of waters by spring.”
Sage last month warned that if the Government wanted Covid case rates to go down it needed to initiate Plan B measures such as legally mandated mask wearing, Covid passports and advice to work from home were possible.
Prof Van Tam warned that increasing numbers of deaths show “the infection is now starting to penetrate into older age groups”
He added: “Deaths are increasing. There might be some artefacts in the very latest figure but essentially deaths are increasing.
“If you then look at hospital admissions, those have plateaued in the last four days. And if you look at the total number of patients in hospital with Covid, those have gone down in the last two or three days, but only a small bit.
“So what that tells me is that we have to just wait and see a bit longer - this could be a pause before things go up, it could be the very first signs that things are beginning to stabilise but at a high rate.
“On cases, they are now starting to fall, but that mainly reflects the fact that this big wave we’ve had in teenagers is now starting to slip away.
“But my worry is that the deaths are increasing and that shows that the infection is now starting to penetrate into those older age groups.”
