Covid ‘will not be going away’: Prof

PEOPLE will have to come around to the fact they will catch Covid more than once, an expert has warned.

Dr David Spiegelhalter, statistician and professor at Cambridge University, believes we must accept that Covid will not go away.

And he said it will mean a greater awareness of disease.

“Covid is endemic – it is not going to go away and will always be around,” he said.

“You are going to catch it and might catch it again – we are going to have to get used to it and work out a cost-effective way of keeping an appropriate lid on it.

“It is a big, challenging problem and it rightly makes us scrutinise what we can do in the winter to combat the spread of flu.”

His comments came amid the insistence lateral flow tests will remain free – despite reports they faced the axe within weeks.

The UK Government’s Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi was responding to criticism after it was suggested they could be limited to high-risk settings and for people with symptoms.

The Sunday Times said that Boris Johnson would make the announcement “within weeks”.

However, Mr Zahawi told Sky’s Trevor Phillips on Sunday he was “puzzled” by the report and insisted ministers were “not calling to an end to free lateral flow tests”.

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said the Scottish Government had not signed up to the move, but if Mr Johnson was “really considering this” it would be “utterly wrongheaded”.

She added that it was “hard to imagine much that would be less helpful to trying to ‘live with’ Covid”.

The FM also questioned the funding arrangements for UK nations who want to continue to offer free lateral flow tests. The Scottish Government accesses tests procured by the UK Government and pays for them via funding arrangements as part of the UK-wide national testing programme.

Mr Zahawi said: “For January alone, 425m lateral flow tests (are) coming in and they will continue to be available for free.”

■

See also story on page 17