Xmas bubbles ‘fuelled spread of new strain’
A DISEASE expert from Staffordshire has claimed we wasted the summer in the fight against Covid and allowing households to mix on Christmas Day fuelled the spread of the mutant strain of the virus.
Dr Arthur Hosie, a senior lecturer in biological and biomedical sciences at Staffordshire University, said: “It was extremely disappointing that the Government knew about this new strain in mid-december but still went ahead and allowed households to mix on Christmas Day.
“Now we’re seeing the case numbers rise, and the new variant is part of that but it is not the full picture.”
He was speaking as 1,723 people have died within 28 days of a positive Covid test in Staffordshire and since the pandemic began 45,016 people have tested positive for the virus. Nationally 89,261 people have died and 3,395,959 people have had the disease.
Dr Hosie has welcomed the latest travel restrictions imposed by the Government after a new mutant coronavirus strain has emerged in Brazil. Travellers from across South America have been banned from entering the UK amid growing concerns.
Dr Hosie said: “There needs to be travel restrictions, and especially when there is a new variant that is more effective, the travel restrictions should be part of the scheme.
“When something like this happens, you have to act quickly. The reason the new British variant is here and so widespread is that we wasted summer and the virus came back. Waiting a few days before putting in travel restrictions is dangerous.”
But he said the vaccine rollout was the way forward, but people should not now become complacent as there was still a long way to go. He said: “There is light at the end of the tunnel with the vaccine rollout, but there is still a long way to go. Even if you have had the vaccine, people can still spread it and people can still catch it.
“The vaccine rollout and the restrictions need to run side by side.”
Dr Hosie, who is from the School of Life Sciences and Education at the university, also spoke about the vac
cine rollout and the fact that people’s second doses of the vaccine are being pushed back. The current advice is that people should have their second dose 12 weeks after their first for both the Pfizer and Oxford/ Astrazeneca vaccines. He said: “We don’t know if extending the time between doses will stop transmission, but we do know that the vaccine will prevent serious illnesses. The gap between the doses should not go on any longer than 12 weeks though.”
It comes as a new strain of Covid19 has been found in Brazil, which
when combined with the one that was found before Christmas, is some form for concern, and Dr Hoise is calling for restrictions on people coming in from Brazil.
Moving forward Dr Hosie feels the best thing that people can do is to follow the Government guidelines and to only leave the house if absolutely necessary.
A Government spokesperson has said: “We took steps to significantly reduce the period of Christmas relaxations and introduced tougher restrictions as soon as we were aware of the new variant.
“Our approach has always been guided by scientific and medical advice, which was clear that the new variant was causing transmission rates to rise rapidly across the country and risked overwhelming the
NHS. As the Prime Minister has said, we are seeing some early signs of progress, but it is too early for us to interpret what this means.
“We continue to monitor the data and keep restrictions under review.”
A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Social Care added: “The Christmas Bubble approach was reduced from five days down to just one and people in Tier 4 areas were not allowed to form Christmas bubbles due to the rapid escalation in cases caused by the new strain of the virus.”
“We strongly recommended people think carefully about the risks of forming a Christmas bubble and advised that the safest way to spend Christmas was with their own household or support bubble and to stay local.”
The reason the new British variant is here and so widespread is that we wasted summer.
Dr Hosie