England’s Chief Medical Officer Professor Chris Whitty is predicting that we are unlikely to see a return to local lockdowns after national restrictions are lifted with Covid eventually being treated similarly to the flu.
Talking on a Royal Society of Medicine webinar yesterday Professor Whitty said ‘It is not flu, it is a completely different disease, but the point I am making is, here is a seasonal, very dangerous disease that kills thousands of people every year and society has chosen a particular way around it.’
In a bad year, the flu is estimated to kill around 20,000 to 25,000 people.
When addressing the possibility of local lockdowns returning to regions around the country Professor Whitty said said he cannot see a return to the system of local lockdowns and he expects that science will find a way to deal with new Covid strains that remain a threat to the country.
‘I don’t think though this should be seen as an indefinite posture, I think this is a matter of probably the next year or two whilst we understand how to do this and find a way of responding rapidly to variants.’ He added: ‘So I think technology will find a way through this in the long run, but we’ve got a period of risk between now and then.’
‘So I think technology will find a way through this in the long run, but we’ve got a period of risk between now and then’ he added.
