Despite mounting pressure the UK has received to reintroduce COVID-19 restrictions, the government remains firm in its belief that cases will drop without the need to intervene.
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Cases to decline without Plan B?
Doctor John Edmunds, a member of Sage and the sub-group SPI-M, explained that numbers are sure to decline sometime in the autumn but that they would most likely go back up in the spring. Plan B measures such as mandatory face masks, working from home and implementing vaccine passports have been advocated for by several health experts.
However, Health Secretary Sajid Javid, is confident that being vaccinated and taking daily precautions would be enough to ward off the virus. Professor Edmunds backs up Javid's claim by saying:
When we were doing the work about two weeks ago, the Health Secretary had made it very clear that the government was not planning to introduce Plan B in the near future.Our model was projecting that cases would start to decline some time in the autumn.
Before adding:
However, the model also suggests that cases may start to climb again in the spring, due to a combination of waning immunity and increased contacts.
Taking matters into our own hands
Amidst early modelling, others are not so convinced that a 'normal Christmas' awaits Brits. Peter Openshaw, a member of the New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group, said that current figures in the UK are completely unacceptable especially when compared to other parts of Europe.
As a result, he has been encouraging people to take matters into their own hands and practice safety measures without needing the government to impose them onto the public. This, according to him, is the only way to halt the spread of the virus and secure some form of normalcy to the holiday season we were once accustomed to.
