An expert has urged people to wear masks on public transport as a new Covid-19 variant is spreading across the country.
The Arcturus strain of the disease is infecting one in 40 people across the UK and it is already present in Yorkshire. Some have urged ministers to provide more vaccines to protect against the disease.
Now, Professor Griffin from the University of Leeds told the Daily Mail that people should wear high quality or N-95 masks when on public transport or in "poorly ventilated indoor spaces".
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He said: "This may seem like a throwback to last year, but the reality is the virus continues to do harm and those least able to cope continue to suffer."
Professor Griffin added: "In the absence of population-scale mitigations... the focus remains upon individual risk which is, for many, now much lower. However, the situation remains dynamic with waning immunity and high rates of viral evolution.
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"If Government won’t act to enable everyone to "live" with Covid, vulnerable people will continue to require precautions and, ideally, others will act with an appropriate level of altruism."
A few days ago, the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) said there were 135 confirmed cases of the Arcturus variant in the country. Dr Connor Bamford, from the Wellcome-Wolfson Institute for Experimental Medicine at Queen's University Belfast, provided some details on the symptoms of the new variant.
He said cold-like symptoms were the most common indicators, but that it could cause severe lung infections in vulnerable people. There is also a high risk of long Covid and some people have noticed conjunctivitis in kids.
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