Social distancing should remain in place indefinitely until a coronavirus vaccine is available, an expert has said.
Prof. Neil Ferguson, from Imperial College London, said as restrictions are eased, more testing will be needed to isolate individual cases and trace their contacts to keep future outbreaks under control.
Ferguson, who is advising ministers, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that “significant” social distancing will most likely be needed until there is a vaccine.
“We will have to maintain some form of social distancing, a significant level of social distancing, probably indefinitely until we have a vaccine available,” he said.
He said without social distancing, estimates show there is “relatively little leeway”.
“If we relax measures too much then we’ll see a resurgence of transmission,” he said.
“What we really need is the ability to put something in their place. If we want to open schools, let people get back to work, then we need to keep transmission down in another manner.
“And I should say, it’s not going to be going back to normal.”
His comments come as the government was expected to extend the coronavirus lockdown for another three weeks.
Ministers were set to meet on Thursday morning to agree to prolong the social distancing controls announced on March 23, amid signs the outbreak in the UK is beginning to peak.
The number of people who have died in hospital after testing positive for COVID-19 has now reached almost 13,000 and concerns are rising over the growing number of deaths in care homes.
On Thursday morning, health secretary Matt Hancock warned that things will not go back to how they were, at least in the short term.
. Yahoo News.
