Covid 'has many more lives to claim', warns health chief
Covid has "many more lives to claim" and we cannot start to relax until 70 to 80 per cent of the population has had the double vaccination, a health boss has warned.
It comes as coronavirus case rates have begun to rise, mainly among schoolchildren and young adults, Sandwell Council's director of public health Dr Lisa McNally said.
As of yesterday, six people can meet outside in the latest relaxation of the Government's rules.
But Dr McNally said residents should be aware the virus has got "many more lives to claim" as she encouraged people to continue following the rules.
She said: "Sandwell has gone down from a case rate of over 1,000 in January to less than a tenth of that now, to about 85 per 100,000 in the population.
"The reason for that fall has been community action.
"However now we're starting across the country to see a rise in cases and looking at the early data we will be no exception, we're going to rise from now.
"The reason for that is most notably the schools are back. In the last three days we've got 171 cases, a good third of these are school-aged children.
"That in part is due to all the testing in secondary schools but we are also seeing a significant rise in primary schools and we are seeing a surge in young adults, those in their late 20s and early 30s."
Dr McNally added: "People are fatigued, they're so tired of restrictions. This virus has got many more lives to claim, including in Sandwell.
"The Kent variant is now very prevalent in Sandwell and not only does it spread faster than the variant in 2020 but it has a higher fatality rate.
"My message is a massive well done to the people in Sandwell, we have to recognise how well the community has responded but we have to finish the job and get through the next few months until the vaccine rates are high enough.
"We've only between 50 to 60 per cent of the UK, we need 70 to 80 per cent to have had two vaccines before we can start to see the real benefits in herd immunity and to feel protected as a community."
