The UK's chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance has issued a dire warning for the future as we learn to live with Covid.
Speaking at a top-level briefing, the leading expert confirmed the virus is "evolving rapidly" and we might need to "ramp things up again."
Sir Patrick was speaking to the Science and Technology Committee on Wednesday morning following a steep rise in Covid cases, reports the Express.
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His warning came as Nicola Sturgeon prepared to address Scotland on Wednesday afternoon amid soaring cases north of the border.
The First Minister addressed the issue of continued wearing of face masks in her address to the Scottish Parliament.
The legal requirement to wear a face covering in Scotland will be terminated next month, Nicola Sturgeon announced.
The First Minister pushed back the date for the cancellation of the mask mandate for a second time in the wake of over 9,000 new coronavirus cases across the country on Wednesday.
However the law will be converted to guidance from Monday, April 18 regardless of the situation in Scotland as part of a phased elimination of the strictest measures.
Initially, coverings will not have to be worn during marriage ceremonies, civil partnership registrations, funeral services, commemorative events or in places of worship from April 4, before all public places become maskless two weeks later.
Quizzed on the Government's "Living With Covid" plan, Sir Patrick was asked how important advice from SAGE was in the proposals.
The expert confirmed that SAGE “clearly” played a big part, before adding his own remarks on the current situation.
He said: “This virus has not gone away. It’s not going to go away. It’s going to be a circulating human virus for as long as we can see forward.
“And it hasn’t stopped evolving. It’s been quite an unstable period, so the virus is changing very rapidly, and it’s got quite a lot of space to evolve into.
“It’s not a foregone conclusion that evolution to increase growth and transmission — which is what the virus does, wants to do — necessarily is associated with reduced severity.”
Sir Vallance also noted that three things were essential to adopting a living-with-Covid approach: being able to monitor how it evolves; to protect the vulnerable both physically and through vaccines and antivirals; and having the capacity to be “able operationally to ramp things up again if you need to — [this] is crucially important.”
He added: “That in a sense, is also a lesson from the very beginning of the pandemic where the underfunding of Public Health England for many years had caused a diminution in capacity.”
However, the scientist added: “I think the numbers of infections are beginning to turn so we may be quite close to, or at the peak, and it may start coming down shortly.
“But I expect to see further hospitalisations because of the lag time and further deaths with this. So, that is the consequence of the high levels of infection rates.
“We should also be aware that there may well be long term problems with COVID infection — long COVID is still being studied. It's not a sort of a completely stable situation and it's not a risk-free situation to run very high levels of infection.”
According to the Office for National Statistics, coronavirus cases have climbed by a million in the last week in the UK.
Test results have also shown that about one in every 16 people had the disease last week – with the BA.2 Omicron variant dominating cases.
Infections were up in England and Wales, and Scotland reached a new high. But in Northern Ireland, there was a decrease.
Yesterday, the number of new Covid cases recorded across the UK stood at 81,280 — a little lower than the seven-day-average figure of 115,470.
During the Science and Technology Committee meeting, it was noted that Monday this week saw more than 90,000 patients presently hospitalised with an infection of SARS-CoV-2.
Furthermore, it was observed, the Government's metric of hospital patients has increased every day since March 5 this year.
As the UK faces a spell of cold and unsettled weather this week, experts fear that coronavirus case numbers could soar even further as plunging temperatures drive more people to meet up indoors where viral transmission is easier.
The Met Office yesterday issued a “Yellow Warning” for ice and snow across northern Scotland, with expectations of a to a couple of inches of snow in areas of higher ground.
This comes as the high-pressure system behind last week’s dry and mild weather moves out to the south, making way for the introduction of colder Arctic air from the north.
And this cold front is expected to move southwards over the next couple of days — bringing with it a “wintry mix” of rain, sleet and snow across the country, with temperatures only returning to near-average over the weekend and early next week.
