Lockdown? People will riot, warns top doctor

MINISTERS risk sparking riots if they try to impose another lockdown, according to a leading doctor.

Professor Roger Kirby, president of the Royal Society of Medicine, said the public would not tolerate being deprived of their liberty on such a scale again.

However, he conceded that some additional restrictions may be needed if hospitalisations and deaths rise significantly due to the current surge, warning: ‘We are not out of the pandemic yet and must not risk becoming complacent.’

In an interview to mark two years since the first lockdown began on March 23, 2020, Prof Kirby said he thought the UK had acquitted itself well during the crisis.

But he added: ‘Locking down people again, I don’t think people would tolerate it again. There would be riots like there were in Belgium if they tried to do that.’

Doctors are concerned about a new wave triggered by social mixing and the rise of a more transmissible variant of Omicron called BA.2.

Case rates among the elderly are at the highest level recorded during the pandemic, with one in 29 people over 70 in England infected.

Hospitalisation rates are also rising, with about 1,900 Covid admissions per day across the UK – 50 per cent higher than a month ago – although roughly half are incidental where a patient has been admitted for another condition.

To blunt any spike, health bosses will start rolling out the spring booster vaccination campaign this week. It will offer five million people, including all over-75s and those over 12 whose immune systems are weakened, the chance to receive a fourth dose. The first 600,000 invitations will go out in the coming days.

Addressing the Tory Spring conference in Blackpool yesterday, Boris Johnson urged people to take up the offer.

The Royal Society of Medicine will hold its 100th free webinar about Covid on March 31.