Boris Johnson warns of threat of coronavirus to younger people

Another 1,610 virus deaths were reported yesterday in the worst 24 hours of the outbreak, meaning that 91,470 people have died within 28 days of a positive test. As pressure on the NHS grew, the Prime Minister declared to his senior ministers that the situation remained “very serious” – and he warned that the UK would pay the price for dropping its guard now.

One member of his Sage advisers’ group sounded the alarm that health services might be overwhelmed very quickly if restrictions were eased too soon, as calls increased for a relaxing of the rules.

Prof John Edmunds, an expert in infectious diseases, said: “We’ve got about a third of our hospital beds used up by Covid patients, which means they can’t be used to treat people for other illnesses.

“If we relax again too quickly then even though the deaths may not be as high, we would still put the NHS under severe pressure pretty quickly.” There have now been 108,000 deaths involving Covid-19 in the UK, according to data from official statistics agencies yesterday.

This total includes deaths where the virus has been mentioned on the death certificate, plus additional data on deaths that have occurred in recent days.

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The Government said there had been a further 33,355 lab-confirmed Covid cases by yesterday morning, taking the total in the pandemic to 3,466,849.

Whitehall scientific advisers have warned ministers that there is a risk some people will be less strict in obeying lockdown once they have been vaccinated as inoculations increase.

Mr Johnson, raised the need to stick to the rules during an online Cabinet meeting.

His spokesman said: “We’re beginning to see a decline in infection rate. The situation remains very serious and it remains as important as ever for people to follow the guidance to continue to suppress the spread of the virus.

“The Prime Minister set out that the successful delivery of the Government’s vaccination plan was the key to help reduce the pressure on the NHS and reopen our economy and society.”

Prof Edmunds, of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said even if the Government target of offering the vaccine to the top four priority groups by mid-February was hit, most will have had only one dose and some may refuse it.

“Many of them will have some protection but they won’t have full protection. That’s worry number one.

“Worry number two of course is that the next groups down – the over-60s and so on – they won’t have been vaccinated by then.

“Although they’re much less likely to die if they get Covid some of them will still get very seriously ill and go to hospital.

“If we just relax things too much then we’ll put pressure on the health service again, very, very rapidly.” The top epidemiologist said it was important to remember the new variant of the virus spread rapidly even in the November lockdown.

He said: “Most of us haven’t been infected and most of us will not have been vaccinated [by mid-February], so it will come back pretty quick.

“If we relax too early then it just comes back very quickly, and in order to bring cases down you have to hit the brakes harder. It’s better to get the cases down low for all sorts of reasons.”

Asked about calls from lockdown-sceptic Tory MPs to ease the lockdown on March 8, Prof Edmunds said it seemed “very optimistic. Putting an arbitrary date in doesn’t make sense. You have to respond to the epidemic.”

Prof Edmunds said the Government might ease some restrictions “in the not too distant future, but they can’t lift very many. It isn’t at all easy and anybody who pretends that it is not being truthful. The faster we can extend vaccination to as many people as possible, the better.”

Prof Edmunds spoke out after Tory backbench MPs urged the PM to set an exit from lockdown.

Steve Baker, deputy chairman of the Covid Recovery Group of MPs, called for a March 8 deadline to relax lockdown: “We locked down the country and shut down schools on the basis of a forecast, so why not open it on the basis of one? It is not sustainable to leave the public and British businesses languishing.”

A YouGov poll indicates that 29 percent of people will be less strict about obeying the rules once they have been vaccinated.

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