Christmas lockdowns are unlikely, says expert
THE expert behind the first Covid lockdown said he does not think new restrictions will be needed in Britain this Christmas.
Professor Neil Ferguson says it is “unlikely” we will see a “catastrophic winter wave” similar to last year.
The expert – dubbed “Professor Lockdown” in some sections of the media – says the UK is in “quite a different situation” to its European counterparts due to greater immunity among the population after months of high virus prevalence.
He said modelling from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine has indicated that rolling out booster
vaccinations to “younger age groups”, once the most vulnerable people have been jabbed, could help “drive down transmission to low levels” in Britain.
More than 10 million people in England have now received their booster.
Prof Ferguson said the fast rollout has given the UK an advantage.
He told BBC’S Today programme: “We’ve had very high case numbers – between 30,000 and 50,000 a day – really for the last four months, since the beginning of July.
“That has obviously had some downsides.”
But he added: “It has also paradoxically had an upside of boosting the immunity of the population compared with countries like France, the Netherlands and Germany, which are only now seeing an uptick.
“We might see slow increases as we did in October, but not anything as rapid as we saw last year.we can’t be complacent, but I don’t think we’ll be in a situation the Netherlands is coming to.”
There were 38,351 cases and 157 deaths reported yesterday, up from 30,693 and 155 last Saturday.