Covid: Virus could be back next winter and in years to come, Chris Whitty warns

‘We shouldn’t kid ourselves that this just disappears with spring,' warns chief medical officer

Coronavirus restrictions may have to be imposed again next winter even if the current outbreak is driven down by the third national lockdown and a wave of immunisations, England’s chief medical officer Chris Whitty has said.

Prof Whitty said people should not “kid ourselves” that the deadly virus will just “go away” as a result of the mass vaccination programme currently getting under way.

Instead, the disease was likely to behave like influenza and reappear at wintertime, possibly requiring public health measures to keep it under control.

Speaking alongside Boris Johnson at a 10 Downing Street press conference, Prof Whitty said he was hopeful that the current vaccination rollout would deal with “the great majority, possibly all, of the heavy lifting” by protecting those most at risk of serious illness or death.

But asked how soon coronavirus restrictions would be a thing of the past,  he warned: “We shouldn’t kid ourselves that this just disappears with spring.

“Hopefully we’ll have spring, summer and autumn, possibly winter as well, with almost nothing in place, once the full vaccination programme is through, but we just need to be aware of the fact this is not a problem that just disappears.”

Prof Whitty said the risk level was now “extraordinarily high” but can be expected to gradually decrease over time in response to interventions, with measures being “lifted by degrees possibly at different rates in different parts of the country”.

And he added: “We’ll then get over time to a point where people say this level of risk is something society is prepared to tolerate and lift right down to almost no restrictions at all.

“We might have to bring in a few in next winter for example, that’s possible, because winter will benefit the virus.”

Prof Whitty explained: “This coronavirus is not going to go away, just as flu doesn’t go away, just as many other viruses don’t go away.

“The time that benefits them most is always winter, that’s one of the reasons we’re having problems now, along with the new variant.”