The COVID Diaries – 48 15th May
The controversy continues over government plans to reopen primary schools for some year groups on 1st June. The British Medical Association is now supporting teaching unions opposing the reopening for children in reception, year 1 and year 6 in two weeks’ time.
The doctors’ union says that the number of coronavirus infections remains too high to allow schools to run safely. The latest official estimate places the national R value – the rate at which people are passing on infections to others – at between 0.7 and 1. An R value above 1 means the epidemic will start to grow exponentially again, which would result in a new surge of cases.
Meanwhile the World Health Organisation has warned that Europe could face a deadly second wave of infections this winter, warning countries beginning to ease their lockdown restrictions that now is “time for preparation, not celebration”.