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Updated July 16th, 2021 at 18:59 IST

England's COVID crisis could return within short span of time: UK's Chief Medical Officer

The coronavirus crisis in England might resurface unexpectedly rapidly, and the country is still not out of the woods, according to Chief Medical Officer

Reported by: Rohit Ranjan
UK
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The COVID crisis in England might resurface unexpectedly and rapidly even as the country is still making attempts to get out of the woods, Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty said speaking ahead of the easing of the curbs. Most pandemic restrictions in England will be lifted on July 19, according to the government, which claims that a rapid rollout of COVID vaccines has largely broken the link between infections and serious illness or death.

According to Whitty, the doubling time for hospitalizations is now approximately three weeks, and the low number of individuals in hospitals with COVID could climb to dangerous proportions in the coming months. However, Whitty believed that the country shouldn't underestimate the possibility of getting into further problems within a short span of time.

Two-third of the adult population in UK vaccinated

Whitty pointed that they England was not completely out of the COVID mess and that they certainly had far better results of the vaccine programme, medications, and a host of other factors. Despite having one of the worst mortality tolls in the world, two-thirds of the adult population in the United Kingdom have been completely vaccinated. 

England will advance to Step 4 to the end of legal lockdown limitations on Monday. This means that the last remaining closed enterprises, such as nightclubs, can now reopen. UK PM Boris Johnson acknowledged that lifting the limitations would result in a surge of cases and fatalities, but claimed that keeping the economy shut down would cause greater harm.

However, with over 48,000 cases reported on Thursday, the self-isolation rule for those exposed to positive cases might stymie the economy. Over 520,000 contact tracing warnings were received using the app in the week leading up to July 7, according to Karan Bilimoria, head of the Confederation of British Industry (CBI).

'Economy being ruined due to lockdown' 

Bilimora stated that they will have a situation where, on the one hand, they will be opening up the economy and, on the other hand, they will be closing it down. In the hotel industry, 20% of employees are isolating, in the health care system, up to 25% of employees are absent, and buses and trains are running late. The economy is being ruined as a result of this.

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Published July 16th, 2021 at 18:59 IST

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