Lockdown measures in England need to be stricter to achieve the same impact as the March shutdown, scientists advising the government have said.
Prof Robert West said the current rules were “still allowing a lot of activity which is spreading the virus”. Prof Susan Michie also said the spread of the new more infectious variant meant the restrictions were “too lax”.
The government said it had adapted its approach and taken “swift action” to try and stop the spread of the virus.
The warnings come after ministers launched a new campaign. Meanwhile, Buckingham Palace has said the Queen, 94, and the Duke of Edinburgh, 99, on Saturday.
Under the national lockdown, people in England must stay at home and can only go out for essential reasons. Similar measures are in place across much of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
Prof West, a participant in the Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group on Behaviors (SPI-B), which advises the government’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage), said the new variant of Covid is around 50% more infectious compared to the virus that infected people last March.
“That means that if we were to achieve the same result as we got in March we would have to have a stricter lockdown, and it’s not stricter,” he said
The professor of health psychology at University College London, also told the BBC more children were going to school, compared to the first lockdown and he said schools were “a very important seed of community infection”.
More people are in schools, after the Department for Education has widened the categories of vulnerable and key worker pupils allowed to attend.
