Covid: WHO warn against lifting all restrictions at once

A special envoy on Covid-19 from the WHO gave the warning on Tuesday.

He warned that physical distancing, mask wearing and other restraints may need to continue to some degree into the future.

Although he recognised the idea could make "people very angry".

READ MORE:

• One area of Gwent has one of the highest Covid case rates in the country
• Wales sees 2,352 new Covid cases in a week, including 212 in Gwent
• 1,000 pupils at this school are isolating due to a Covid-19 cluster

Discussing concerns over a new variant emerging that evades vaccines, Dr David Nabarro told Radio 4’s PM programme: “We do have to be prepared for the inevitability that viruses will continue to be a problem for us.

“We’re going to have to really seriously contemplate continuing to practice some degree of physical distancing, some degree of mask wearing, some degree of hygiene, some degree of protecting those who are most at risk, as long as there are these nasty viruses around, whether or not we’re vaccinated.

“It makes people very angry because they want to be able to stop being careful but it’s my advice, and it’s just based on studying these things over the years, is that it is not a cool thing just to ditch our preventative measures on a particular date because we hope that’s going to be associated with less risks – the risks are going to stay.”