Eradicating virus is ‘near impossible’, says expert

ELIMINATING Covid-19 in Scotland will be close to impossible, a health expert has warned.

Dr Christine Tait-Burkard said the UK is in a very different position from countries such as New Zealand because you cannot get there without lengthy air or sea travel.

She warned we will have to learn to live with the virus because it is here to stay.

A panel convened by Holyrood’s Covid-19 committee has called for an elimination strategy to be put in place, which would mean restrictions to slowly get the number of virus cases to zero, although the group accepts there would need to be an agreement across the UK.

Dr Tait-Burkard, of the department of infection and immunity at Edinburgh University’s Roslin Institute, was asked whether elimination is a feasible strategy. ‘It is a very difficult strategy to pursue and in my opinion it’s near impossible,’ she told BBC Radio Scotland’s Good Morning Scotland show.

‘It’s a bit different from Australia and New Zealand where these strategies are indeed quite feasible because the only ports are by air or by boat. With the UK those links are very close and people can travel very easily.

‘On the other hand we are on a good way to having vaccinated a good proportion of the population and are making headway in increasing that, so potentially we just have to start to live with the virus, carefully weighing out all the negatives. But the reality of the virus being so widespread across the globe means this virus is here to stay.’

Asked if eliminating the virus would mean being isolated for a prolonged period of time, she said: ‘Indeed, and the same measures as we have seen in, for instance, Melbourne very recently, where we see that as soon as any cases occur if we’re near that zero number we have very stringent lockdowns to eliminate and control spreading.’