England ‘must be put into Tier 4 immediately’ as mutant COVID strain continues to spread, scientists warn

Scientists have warned all of the UK must be put on the harshest level of restrictions immediately to stop the spread of the mutant coronavirus strain.

Top scientists are warning that the whole of England “must be put into Tier 4 immediately” to stop the spread of the mutant coronavirus strain gripping the country.

Independent Sage, who provide independent advice to the UK government, have said thousands more people will now be infected in the new year.

One of the group’s members, Dr Zubaida Haque, questioned why the government haven’t placed the whole country in the harshest tier of restrictions to save lives.

Britain's health secretary Matt Hancock delivered a speech about further restrictions to be put in place. Picture: Kirsty Wigglesworth / WPA Pool / Getty Images

‘CRISIS SITUATION’

The sage scientist tweeted today: “Given that we surpassed 70,000 #COVID-19 deaths in UK on Christmas Day, and there are now more patients with coronavirus in hospital than at any point in the pandemic, why hasn’t the government implemented #tier4 restrictions everywhere in the UK? @IndependentSage are very worried.

“Given the crisis situation we’re in with the highest number of daily deaths with #COVID-19 in 2nd wave, with 1000s more likely to be infected because of relaxation of rules in tier 1-3 on Christmas Day AND failed govt’s test & trace system, we need #tier4 everywhere now to save lives.”

England is in a ‘crisis situation’ with the pandemic. Picture: Tolga Akmen / AFP

Meanwhile millions more people woke up to harsher coronavirus restrictions as new tier changes came into force.

The number of those in the strict restrictions increased by six million to 24 million people – 43 per cent of the population – in a bid to stop the spread of the mutant COVID.

It comes after the government said a further 570 died within 28 days of testing positive for the virus as of Christmas Day, while there were a further 32,725 lab-confirmed cases of coronavirus in the UK.

A further 570 people died within 28 days of testing positive for the virus as of Christmas Day, while there were a further 32,725 lab-confirmed cases of coronavirus in the UK. Picture: Justin Tallis / AFP

And other scientists have warned the new strain found in Kent could be more likely to affect children.

Researchers at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine said there is “some evidence that the increase may be particularly marked in children.”

The new strain of the virus is said to be more infectious. Picture: AFP Photo / University of Oxford / John Cairns

They found that the new strain of the virus is 56 per cent more infectious – and that even with another national lockdown, it would be difficult to get the R rate down.

Their study also found that infections were “unlikely” to go down unless schools and universities closed.

The virus variant will lead to a wave of coronavirus cases and deaths that will peak in spring 2021 for London, the South East and east of England, according to scientists.

And they said that cases and deaths will peak in summer 2021 for the rest of the country.

However, researchers don’t believe the new strain is more deadly or will be more severe in either adults or children.

This article originally appeared on The Sun and was reproduced here with permission