• Privacy policy
  • T&C’s
  • About Us
    • FAQ
    • Meet the Team
  • Contact us
  • Guest Content
TLE ONLINE SHOP!
  • TLE
  • News
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Sport
  • Opinion
  • Elevenses
  • Entertainment
    • All Entertainment
    • Film
    • Lifestyle
      • Horoscopes
    • Lottery Results
      • Lotto
      • Thunderball
      • Set For Life
      • EuroMillions
  • Food
    • All Food
    • Recipes
  • Property
  • Travel
  • Tech/Auto
  • JOBS
No Result
View All Result
The London Economic
SUPPORT THE LONDON ECONOMIC
NEWSLETTER
  • TLE
  • News
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Sport
  • Opinion
  • Elevenses
  • Entertainment
    • All Entertainment
    • Film
    • Lifestyle
      • Horoscopes
    • Lottery Results
      • Lotto
      • Thunderball
      • Set For Life
      • EuroMillions
  • Food
    • All Food
    • Recipes
  • Property
  • Travel
  • Tech/Auto
  • JOBS
No Result
View All Result
The London Economic
No Result
View All Result
Home News

Christmas free-for-all could double infection rates, SAGE warns

“The prevalence could easily double during a few days of the festive season," scientists said.

Henry Goodwin by Henry Goodwin
2020-11-28 09:52
in News
FacebookTwitterLinkedinEmailWhatsapp

Coronavirus infections could double over Christmas, top scientists advising the government have cautioned.

The stark warning comes in the latest dump of files from the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE), and were presented to ministers before a decision as taken to relax Covid-19 restrictions over the festive period.

“Notes on Festive Period”, written by the Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group on Modelling (SPI-m), reveals “any relaxation over the festive period will result in increased transmission and increased prevalence, potentially by a large amount”.

High risk

“SARS-Cov-19 has demonstrated high secondary attack rates in households (with estimates of up to 50 per cent in one household becoming infected from one infected member),” the report adds.

“The prevalence could easily double during a few days of the festive season, with further multiplicative increases as new infections go back to their ‘routine’ networks.”

SAGE has since said that the R number for the UK as a whole – and England specifically – was now 0.9-1.0 for the first time since August, showing some of the effect of the latest national lockdown in England.

R was revealed to be between 0.7 and 0.9 in the north-west, where stricter restrictions have been in place for longer, but as high as 1.2 in the south-east.

It could take weeks, however, for those changes to be reflected in the death toll, which lags behind infection rates. A further 521 in the UK were reported to have died from Covid-19 on Friday.

New lockdown needed?

And now SAGE has revealed that forming Christmas “bubbles” is incredibly risky.

RelatedPosts

Unite secures 28% pay rise for hundreds of Luton airport workers

Woman dies from hypothermia after telling her doctor she ‘couldn’t afford heating’

Serving Met Police officer pleads guilty to child sexual offences

BBC chairman set to be grilled by MPs amid questions over Boris Johnson loan

“If all households were to form a bubble with one other household, the number of out-of-bubble contacts would have to reduce to the levels seen in April 2020 (<1 external contact per person) in order to prevent exponential growth,” one document notes.

Professor Liam Smeeth, professor of clinical epidemiology at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, said: “A period of tiered measures in December is warranted now in order to help allow some social mixing at Christmas that is so important to many. 

“I suspect a further circuit breaker in January or possibly February may well be needed because Christmas will place such upward pressure on transmission rates.”

Related: Reaction as Tier 2 boozers forbidden from lingering after substantial meals

Since you are here

Since you are here, we wanted to ask for your help.

Journalism in Britain is under threat. The government is becoming increasingly authoritarian and our media is run by a handful of billionaires, most of whom reside overseas and all of them have strong political allegiances and financial motivations.

Our mission is to hold the powerful to account. It is vital that free media is allowed to exist to expose hypocrisy, corruption, wrongdoing and abuse of power. But we can't do it without you.

If you can afford to contribute a small donation to the site it will help us to continue our work in the best interests of the public. We only ask you to donate what you can afford, with an option to cancel your subscription at any point.

To donate or subscribe to The London Economic, click here.

The TLE shop is also now open, with all profits going to supporting our work.

The shop can be found here.

You can also SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER .

Subscribe to our Newsletter

View our  Privacy Policy and Terms & Conditions

Trending on TLE

  • All
  • trending
Abdollah

‘Rescue us’: Afghan teacher begs UK to help him escape Taliban

CHOMSKY: “If Corbyn had been elected, Britain would be pursuing a much more sane course”

What If We Got Rid Of Prisons?

More from TLE

Reaction as Brits get barred from fast lanes at European airports and Eurostar terminals

Downing Street tells House of Lords: Don’t vote down our Brexit Bill

EuroMillions Results for Friday 15 October 2021 Tonight’s winning numbers

Royal Shakespeare Company cuts ties with oil giant BP

Is your phone making you fat?

Snake travelled all the way from Australia to Scotland after hiding in a woman’s luggage

Brexit extension needed to avoid plunging NHS into chaos, health leaders say

Lucky Numbers and Horoscopes for today 16 July 2022

How To Make: Pied à Terre’s Strawberry Millefeuille

Nicola Sturgeon says she has made it “crystal clear” that Margaret Ferrier should resign

JOBS

FIND MORE JOBS

About Us

TheLondonEconomic.com – Open, accessible and accountable news, sport, culture and lifestyle.

Read more

Contact

Editorial enquiries, please contact: [email protected]

Commercial enquiries, please contact: [email protected]

Address

The London Economic Newspaper Limited t/a TLE
Company number 09221879
International House,
24 Holborn Viaduct,
London EC1A 2BN,
United Kingdom

SUPPORT

We do not charge or put articles behind a paywall. If you can, please show your appreciation for our free content by donating whatever you think is fair to help keep TLE growing and support real, independent, investigative journalism.

DONATE & SUPPORT

© 2019 thelondoneconomic.com - TLE, International House, 24 Holborn Viaduct, London EC1A 2BN. All Rights Reserved.




No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Sport
  • Entertainment
  • Lifestyle
  • Food
  • Travel
  • JOBS
  • More…
    • Elevenses
    • Opinion
    • Property
    • Tech & Auto
  • About Us
    • Meet the Team
    • Privacy policy
  • Contact us

© 2019 thelondoneconomic.com - TLE, International House, 24 Holborn Viaduct, London EC1A 2BN. All Rights Reserved.