COVID-19: Lockdown initiative must be maintained in UK - expert comment
17 April 2020
Dr Simon Clarke, Associate Professor in Cellular Microbiology at the University of Reading, said:
"The news of a UK-wide, three-week extension to the lockdown is entirely unsurprising. As the numbers in the epidemic starts to plateau, it’s essential that the country maintains the initiative of flattening the curve, to prevent the NHS from becoming overwhelmed, then to force number of new cases into a downward trajectory.
"Taking the foot off the brake too early will only give the virus an opportunity to begin to spread again, at pace. Decisions taken by other countries will help inform policy makers in deciding how to lift control measures, but we will also need to see testing conducted much more intensively than it is now, to gain a more accurate picture of how the virus is moving within the population."