Another lockdown could be needed this winter if hospitals start to be overwhelmed by Covid cases, top medic warns

ANOTHER lockdown could be needed in the winter if hospitals start to be overwhelmed by Covid cases, England’s top medic warns.

Unlike last year, Brits now have vaccines that will help us live with the virus – but further lockdowns may be on the cards if hospitals get overcrowded later in the year.

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As the Delta variant grips the country, Public Health England’s Dr Hopkins said that Brits may have to face winter lockdowns.

Dr Susan Hopkins told BBC’s The Andrew Marr Show: “We may have to do further lockdowns this winter, I can’t predict the future, it depends on whether hospitals start to become overwhelmed.”

The top PHE medic added: “We are definitely seeing some signals in some areas of cases slowing down, Bolton for example has definitely reversed, Blackburn and Darwen has stabilised.

“But there are other parts of the country, particularly in some parts of the north-east, some parts of London that are still rising quite fast.

“So I think this is not all doing the same thing all over the country, and we’re seeing rises and falls as people go out and get tested and I think we are seeing the impact of vaccination and that is good news.

“The extra time to vaccinate more people, get two doses of vaccination in as many people as possible will hopefully mean that what we’re seeing with this wave won’t look the same as the previous waves that we’ve seen in this country.”

NOT ANOTHER ONE!

This comes after data shows cases across the UK are rising again at an alarming rate.

According to Professor Adam Finn, who advises the Government on the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation, the UK is now in the grips of a third wave.

He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “It’s going up, perhaps we can be a little bit optimistic it’s not going up any faster, but nevertheless it’s going up, so this third wave is definitely under way.”

Meanwhile, double-vaccinated Brits won’t have to isolate after foreign trips, the PHE medic also hinted.

Dr Susan Hopkins said there may be “alternatives to isolation” for holidaymakers who have received both of their Covid jabs.

And yesterday, Britain recorded over 10,000 coronavirus cases for the third day in a row.

And the Covid death toll has increased by 14 in the last 24 hours – bringing the grim total to 127,970.

The data shows that 10,321 people have tested positive for the deadly virus today, with the total number of Brits infected since the pandemic begun standing at 4,620,968.

And this is the third day in a row that cases of Covid have surpassed 10,000 – a tragic rate milestone to reach.

The last time daily infections were so high was February 23, when Britain was in the midst of total lockdown.

Deaths also rose by 14 today – higher than Friday’s 11.