On a knife edge
As police struggle to shut down parties, scientists warn: Virus cases could surge again within days
BRITAIN is on a ‘knife edge’ and could see coronavirus cases rising again within days, a leading scientist warned yesterday.
Following recent scenes of crowded beaches during the day and illegal gatherings at night, Sir Jeremy Farrar, a member of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage), said he was ‘worried’ about a possible spike of infections.
‘I would predict... that we will start to see a few increases in cases towards the end of June or the first week of July,’ he said. ‘The continued lifting of restrictions, and also people deciding to take it into their own hands and go about life as normal... we’re on a knife edge.
‘It’s very precarious, the situation, particularly in England, and I would anticipate we would see an increase in new cases over the coming weeks.’
His warnings came after the Metropolitan Police swooped to break up illegal raves for the fourth night in a row, amid claims that drug dealers are paying DJs to organise parties in order to drum up business.
Northamptonshire Police said up to 50 people had been moved on following an operation to disrupt an illegal rave near Wellingborough on Saturday night. Hours earlier, football fans in Liverpool caused chaos when they descended on the city centre to celebrate their club’s Premier League victory on Friday. Several officers were injured while dispersing crowds after the Liver Building caught fire.
Priti Patel warned yesterday that ‘what we’ve seen with mass gatherings and protests is unacceptable’. The Home Secretary told Sky News: ‘I would urge people not to participate in gatherings of that nature... but I would also add that, if people do assault police officers, they will feel the full force of the law. It is simply unacceptable to have people gathering in these awful ways that we have been seeing.’
Warning of the potential consequences of flouting rules on mass gatherings, Miss Patel said she could not think of ‘anything worse than us having another wave of this awful disease’. Her comments came as England prepared for looser lockdown rules which will see hair salons and pubs reopen.
Sir Jeremy told the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show that May had been ‘too early’ to ease the lockdown, but lower daily numbers of new coronavirus cases now made it ‘reasonable’ to do so.
He urged caution, however, particularly when indoors, and said the next three months are ‘absolutely critical’. The government adviser said that if we use the coming months ‘ sensibly’ the country ‘can prevent the national catastrophe that happened in March and April’ – but ‘ if we don’t... we will see a very nasty rebound in the winter’.
Another Sage member, Sir Mark Walport, called for people to remain ‘sensible and responsible’, adding: ‘The virus is out there, it is very widely distributed, and we have to have constant vigilance.’
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