Official adviser:We’ll never stop Covid coming into the country. We need o get better at halting it when it does
Scientist says improved test-and-trace is needed to contain virus as Scotland records highest positive test in month
A government adviser warned local outbreaks must be tracked and halted or Britain could endure a second wave of Covid-19 within months.
Sir Ian Boyd, a member of the UK advisory group for emergencies, also warned that Scotland cannot stop the virus coming into the country but can prevent it spreading by bolstering test-and-trace operations.
He said the current operation to trace contacts of newly-confirmed Covid patients was “not working well” at the moment but said he expected it to become more effective in the weeks ahead.
His warning came as Scotland recorded its highest daily positive coronavirus tests for almost a month. Figures released by the Scottish Government yesterday showed 21 new cases but no deaths over a 24-hour period.
Sir Ian, speaking as Scotland enjoyed its first weekend since the reopening of pubs, restaurants and indoor shopping malls, said Britain was at a “pretty advanced” stage of containing coronavirus. He said: “We’ve got it on the back foot but we need to keep it there.”
“Winter flu and colds will interact with Covid-19 and make it more difficult to detect it, and we may get co-infections. Come September or October, when that starts to become more of an issue, we will be more challenged by the Covid-19 problem.”
Sir Ian, professor in biology at the University of St Andrews, is a member of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage), the group of scientists that has been advising UK Government ministers on coronavirus.
He was chief scientific adviser at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs from 2012 until 2019.
He said: “I think some of the relaxation of social distancing is very sensible, but we have to be very, very vigilant. It is very likely that a second wave would be caused by local outbreaks and the earlier we can identify and react to those local