Professor Chris Whitty warned tonight that there were no guarantees that the NHS will cope this winter without Britain having roll back some lockdown restrictions
There are no guarantees the NHS will cope this winter without Britain having roll back some lockdown restrictions, Professor Chris Whitty warned tonight.
The Chief Medical Officer said hospitals could be in for a 'very difficult' period over the colder months as they grapple with spikes in Covid and flu admissions, as well as the normal winter pressures.
He made the comments at a Downing Street press conference tonight, where Boris Johnson confirmed that most social distancing rules will no longer be mandatory from July 19.
There are some concerns about the unlocking later this month because cases of the Indian variant are doubling every fortnight – with 27,000 new infections every day and hospital rates already rising.
Professor Whitty said: 'The winter is inevitably going to be tricky and the NHS is likely to have both Covid and some resurgence of other respiratory viruses that were suppressed by the degree of lockdown last time round.
'So I think we should be realistic and this coming winter may be very difficult for the NHS.'
Asked directly if Covid restrictions could go into reverse, Mr Johnson said he would 'have to take whatever steps we need to do to protect the public'.
It came despite the PM previously promising the roadmap out of lockdown would be 'irreversible'.
Professor Whitty tonight admitted that SAGE was still split over whether the final stage of the roadmap should go ahead because the epidemic is still growing.
But he warned that delaying the reopening any further could push the the third wave into the winter and cause an even larger peak.
He made the comments at a Downing Street press conference tonight, where Boris Johnson confirmed that most social distancing rules will no longer be mandatory from July 19
Mr Johnson pushed the button on a 'big bang' Freedom Day unlocking tonight with social distancing rules, mask laws and the work from home order set to go
The CMO acknowledged there was a 'mixed' view among scientists on the timing of lifting restrictions, and that he had 'quite a strong view' that doing so in summer has advantages over autumn.
He said: 'The view is more mixed about exactly what the right timing is from a technical point of view, even before you get into issues that the Prime Minister has to deal with more widely.
'And these really come from the fact that at a certain point, you move to the situation where instead of actually averting hospitalisations and deaths, you move over to just delaying them.
'So you're not actually changing the number of people who will go to hospital or die, you may change when they happen.
