In an interview with Robert Peston For ITV News, Professor John Edmunds – Member of Government Scientific advisory group for emergencies (Sage) – Warns that coronavirus cases are “increasing rapidly”.
Edmunds, a professor at the Faculty of Epidemiology and Population Health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said: “. Allows simultaneous control of more common economic activity and spread of the virus.
Prof Edmunds said the fall would be a challenge. Because the virus’s reproduction rate or R rate is above One – when schools and universities reopen.
He not only raised expectations More local lockdowns But also the latest national restrictions on our freedom – because the opening of schools and universities will have an “epidemiological effect” everywhere.
“I did not want to relax the measures so much that we could not open schools safely without raising the fertility rate above 1. And we’re already over 1 and we’ve opened schools. So this is a risky time. “
He added: “The epidemic is growing and then we have Christmas. And it’s very difficult. What is Christmas? Well it’s getting very close to your family. Restaurants and pubs and things like that. And this Everything is high risk. And that’s it. Inside the house. It makes a difference inside the house. “
He continued: “We are lucky with the weather – and it has changed”.
In a comprehensive interview on the epidemic and its aftermath, Prof. Edmunds told ITV News’ political editor, Robert Paston, that visiting people at home is “risky.”
“You’ve been there a long time. It’s impossible to make social distance with family members, such things,” she said.
“It simply came to our notice then. And we can see that the epidemic is coming to an end again. So I don’t think we’ve hit the sweet spot where we’ve been able to control the epidemic and allow the economy to return anything. Types of common types. I don’t think we’ve managed that. “
Regarding the return of schools to the UK, the scientist said: “I am very concerned that schools have just returned, cases are now increasing rapidly. They are now increasing rapidly, from a relatively low level. But they are increasing. Are. “
“Schools are back. Universities are at high risk. They are going back in the next few weeks. And the government is trying to get us back to work and back on TB and get our sandwiches from the Pret A Manager.” Trying to buy, and things like that.
“It will have an epidemic effect,” he told ITV News.
“There’s a bit of caution here. We’re not going back to what we were doing before. One thing I’m doing is we’re measuring people’s contact behavior. And it’s not going back to where it was before the march. But it is. There is a risk of coming back and with it “.
With local lockouts in various parts of the UK, Professor Edmunds was asked about the possibility of further enforcement.
He told Robert Peston: “Local lockdown is a vague word. We will no doubt see other measures. I hope we can do it locally. But I don’t think that’s a guarantee.”
“We are now taking a number of these measures, such as opening schools and universities across the country,” he said. Many towns and cities have a university or further education college. And every village has a school. And one of them would be “the effects of the epidemic in all countries.”
The scientist spoke of his fear of balancing the Lakda restrictions against lowering the fertility rate.
“I have been scared for the last few months […] I did not want us to relax the measures so much that we could not open schools safely without raising the fertility number above 1. And we’re already over 1 and we’ve opened schools.
He described the time in which we are “a risky period.”
