England was put on notice for a New Year lockdown last night amid warnings the mutant Covid strain has spread to the entire country with experts warning of a ‘human disaster,’ unless draconian measures are enforced across the country.
Chief Scientific Adviser Sir Patrick Vallance said it was likely that measures would ‘need to be increased’ in areas outside London and the South East, which are in the new lockdown-style Tier Four.
Professor Robert West, who sits on Sage’s behaviour science panel, said the Government’s current methods were unlikely to contain the spread of Covid-19.
He told The Guardian the country needed to move to ‘stricter but more rational social distancing rules,’ and build a test, travel, isolate and support programme similar to ones seen in East Asia.
Professor West warned: ‘It sounds expensive but the alternative could well be a catastrophic collapse in confidence in the country’s ability to control the virus and the economic, human and social disaster that would follow.’
