Britain “still in Omicron danger zone” despite good news on gravity, warns Professor Andrew Hayward

ritain is not yet outside the “danger zone” of the Omicron despite studies showing that the variant has a more moderate impact on many people, a scientist has warned.

Professor Andrew Hayward, member of the Advisory Group on New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats (Nervtag), welcomed the to research as “undeniable good news”.

However, he told BBC Radio 4’s Today program: “We are certainly not out of the danger zone.

“Maybe we can go from a hurricane to a very severe storm.”

Professor Hayward, University College London, added: ‘If you have the severity cut in half but against the backdrop of the number of Omicron cases doubling every two or three days, it doesn’t save you a lot of money. overtime … maybe less than a week in terms of releasing the pressure on the NHS.

“The NHS is already under heavy demand and I think it will get worse. “

Ministers are reviewing the data as it arrives to see if the surge continues at an exponential rate, with cases doubling in some areas in less than two days, or showing signs of slowing down.

However, they are not expected to announce new restrictions until Christmas.

Professor Hayward also pointed out that it was not yet clear what the reduction in the severity of Omicron’s impact in the elderly would be, as the studies had mainly focused on younger people with the disease.

The infectious disease expert also believes that if new Covid measures were implemented in England they would not be “the kind of extended periods of restrictions we were talking about before.”

He said: “I think the speed at which it goes up probably means it’s relatively fast, fast down”.

However, he also warned that if more restrictions were needed to keep a cover on the Omicron wave “the longer we wait with this, the harder it becomes and the less we can influence the size of this peak.”

Professor Hayward said that in previous waves of Covid-19, transmission started with young adults and then “progressed through age groups,” and so it was “unrealistic” to think that there might be to have a “huge spike” among young adults without reaching older and more vulnerable adults, as he warned people to avoid major holidays during the holiday season.

Events such as “mass parties” that could take place on New Year’s Eve “would give an extra boost” to the Omicron variant.