UK needs an immediate 10 day lockdown and must ‘close inside services for pubs and restaurants with immediate effect’

Independent Sage have said that the UK needs an immediate 10 day lockdown to slow the spread of the new Micron variant.

The group of scientists are calling on the government to close inside services for pubs and restaurants with immediate effect.

The scientists said the government telling Brits to be alert, is not urgent enough. They said in a statement, “The situation is so urgent we must take emergency action now and that means it is imperative to reduce contacts.

“Advice is no longer enough since it does not convey the urgency of the situation.”

In an emergency statement issued on Wednesday the scientists warned, “Christmas is 10 days away – that’s 5 doublings at its current growth rate, making the situation potentially 32 times worse by then.

“Even if Omicron has a lower case-to-hospitalisation rate compared to Delta, SAGE SPI-M modelling suggests we could still see levels of hospitalisations as high as in previous waves due to the sheer increase in cases.

“High infection burden will also cause enormous disruption in society as many key workers fall ill at a time when the NHS will  face unprecedented demand – indeed, current evidence points to NHS primary and secondary care in extreme distress.

“Even if growth slows, the situation would still be much worse than now. Every day we wait adds more cases and more eventual burden on the NHS and, sadly, more deaths.”

They added, “The opportunity for early action has been lost and the time for further delay is over. The situation is so urgent we must take emergency action now and that means it is imperative to reduce contacts.

“Advice is no longer enough since it does not convey the urgency of the situation.

“Accordingly we now call for an immediate circuit break to then enable limited mixing from the 25 to 28 December.”

But the government are taking a different approach, as Boris Johnson said at a Downing Street press conference on Wednesday eveining, “We’re not cancelling events, we’re not closing hospitality, we’re not cancelling people’s parties or their ability to mix.

“What we are saying is think carefully before you go.”

But Professor Chris Whitty, England’s Chief Medical Officer urged the public to cut back on socialising this Christmas and then warned that “records will be broken a lot over the next few weeks.”

The World Health Organization (WHO) special envoy on Covid has warned that what the UK is seeing with Omicron “today is just the beginning of an extraordinary acceleration.”

Dr David Nabarro warned that he has “never been more concerned” by the pandemic than he is now and that Omicron present an “emergency situation” for the NHS and health services across the world.