Britain will be hit with “big outbreaks” of coronavirus within weeks if people continue to flout social distancing rules as happened in Soho at the weekend , a top health expert warned today.
Dr David Nabarro, a World Health Organisation Covid-19 special envoy for Europe, also stressed to young people that while they may not get the disease severely, they could end up killing other people by passing on the virus.
He understood that “everybody has got to have fun” and that “people have really been frustrated with not being able to get out and about”.
But he told Sky News: “So, OK, perhaps for the time being people are taking it lightly.
“But if we do, as I suspect we might, then some big outbreaks (are) coming up in the next few weeks.
“That will pretty quickly remind us that we are going to have to be more careful.”
Amid reports that some young people believe that their generation can get herd immunity, he added: “The one thing I would say to everybody, whatever their age, is that don’t treat it lightly.
“You might get mild infection but you could easily give it to somebody else who then goes and dies. It’s so dangerous.”
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Dr Nabarro, a director at the Institute of Global Health Innovation at Imperial College London, said his “absolute request” was for people to “stay on guard and take it seriously”.
He added: “It would concern me hugely if I felt that there was a whole generation of people who were just not doing so.”
Health Secretary Matt Hancock is also warning of the risk of more outbreaks after local lockdown measures were ordered for Leicester after a spike in Covid cases there.
He also stressed that he has “quite significant concerns” about employment practices at clothing factories in Leicester amid reports one paid its staff less than the minimum wage and that social distancing measures were not being implemented.
Other communities of particular concern over the risk of new outbreaks include the North West, Bradford, Barnsley and Rochdale.
The number of new cases in London is far lower but has been rising in some boroughs in recent weeks including Hounslow, Westminster, Hammersmith and Fulham, Brent, Ealing, and Kensington and Chelsea, according to Public Health England data.