Good Morning Britain's resident GP Dr Hilary Jones has warned that Covid restrictions could return across the UK as hospitalisations increase. The relaxation of restrictions and the spread of a new variant of Covid has seen infections in the UK increase 48% week on week.
Experts in Australia say the new variant, BA.2, is among the most infectious diseases ever seen - six times more transmissable than original Covid. More than 12,000 people in England are currently in hospital with Covid and in the most recent week more than 700 people died with the virus.
Dr Hilary was asked whether we will be seeing the return of 'lockdown' restrictions. He said on GMB on Wednesday: "I think we will, unfortunately. We are seeing more admissions. Even though this variant is less likely to cause more serious disease and infection, the sheer numbers of people are double when final restrictions were eased two weeks ago.
Susanna Reid and Richard Madeley were interviewing Dr Hilary, as the latter asked: "Are we still talking about the South African variant?" as Susanna told him: "No."
The new variant is a subtype of Omicron and has been dubbed Stealth Covid - it can infect people who are triple vaccinated.
Dr Hilary said: "If the cases are mild we can tolerate it but the sheer number will translate to more serious illnesses and death." He added: "History shows us the virus will become less lethal as time goes on. Usually, with pandemics, the mutations tend to make the virus less virulent. It is not in the virus' interests to kill us. It wants us to spread it around because otherwise it dies with the human host."
Dr Hilary said: "We can't rest on our laurels and say it fades away and becomes weaker and weaker."
