THIRD BRITISH SCIENTIST WARNS OVER RUSH TO LIFT LOCKDOWN [in the UK]

in-cyprus 30 May 2020 -ByBouli Hadjioannou

A third member of a scientific advisory body to the British government has warned that it is too soon to lift the COVID-19 lockdown because the test and trace system is not yet fully operational.

Professor Peter Horby, chairman of the New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group (NERVTAG) and a member of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE), said Britain could not afford to lose control of the virus.

“We really can’t go back to a situation where we’ve got the numbers of cases and deaths we’ve had in the past,” he told BBC Radio, adding that a test, trace and isolate system needed to be in place. “As we know, it’s not yet fully operational so that is where the risk lies,” he said.

Earlier,  Jeremy Farrar, the director of the Wellcome Trust and a member of Britain’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE), said he agreed with his colleague John Edmunds that “COVID-19 is spreading too fast to lift lockdown in England.”

“TTI (test, trace, isolate) has to be in place, fully working, capable dealing any surge immediately, locally responsive, rapid results & infection rates have to be lower. And trusted,” he said on Twitter.

John Edmunds, from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and a member of SAGE, said on Friday that “we are taking some risk here” with an “untested” test and trace system, describing it as a political decision.

“The government here in Westminster clearly made a decision that this is the sort of level of incidence that they’re willing to tolerate, the level of incidence here in the UK is significantly higher than similar countries around Europe,” he told the BBC.

“But we’ve obviously decided that we can tolerate that level of incidence, or the government has.”

More than 48,000 people have died with COVID-19 in the United Kingdom, making it one of the worst hit countries in the world. According to a survey by the Office of National Statistics, there are an estimated 54,000 new COVID-19 infections per week in England.

(Reuters)