A professor of medicine from the University of East Anglia believes schools in England could be allowed to reopen sooner than the governments current target of March 8th as “Covid-19 case numbers have dropped far more rapidly” than he was expecting.
He also believes the rate of the fall in Covid-19 cases could also see household mixing allowed in March and pubs and restaurants start to reopen in April.
Prof Hunter holds an MB ChB and MD from the University of Manchester and an MBA from Open University and became the the first professor of health protection in the UK in 2001 when he was appointed to the Norwich Medical School.
He is a fellow of the Royal Society of Biology, of the Royal College of Pathologists, and of the Faculty of Public Health.
Speaking on BBC Radio 4 he said: I think things will start to relax by the end of this month.”
“I think there could well be a case for opening schools sooner.
“Particularly think schools for children under 11 years of age, where the evidence that they contribute to the spread of the epidemic in the wider population is a lot lower.
He was then asked when he felt it would be possible to meet family and friends?
“Personally I believe we should be able to start doing that again probably not long after, if I had to bet on a time, I would say some time in March certainly.”
On being allowed back into pubs and restaurants, he added: “I think that will be probably around the same time, maybe April. But again, it just depends what happens with the epidemic between now and then.”
“If we’d had this conversation at the beginning of this month, I would not have been so optimistic.”
Do you share his optimism?
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