
After the United Kingdom (UK) announced its preparations to eliminate almost all restrictions virtually from July 19 i.e. Monday, a former health secretary of the nation has alerted that the government might end up imposing a lockdown all over again if COVID-19 cases continue to rise.
As told to the BBC Radio 4 Today program by Chairman of the Commons Health and Social Care Committee, Jeremy Hunt, coronavirus-related hospitalizations are doubling every two weeks and around 10,000 patients of COVID-19 might get admitted to hospitals by August-end, twice the number in 2020.
Hunt added, “The warning light on the NHS dashboard is not flashing amber, it is flashing red.” He has called the situation “very serious.”
“If they are still going up as the schools are coming back I think we are going to have to reconsider some very difficult decisions. How we behave over the next few weeks will have a material difference”, he continued.
As per his prediction, the country is “almost certainly” going to witness a “record daily peak” by the month of September 2021.
At an emergency summit held on Friday, global scientists and physicians have condemned the UK’s plan to lift COVID-19 curbs while the country has been experiencing a surge in COVID-19 cases mainly due to the Delta variant.
More than 1,200 have signed a letter to the Lancet medical journal where UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s decisions were described as dangerous, unethical, and premature.