Covid Scotland: Professor Devi Sridhar says winter 2021 lockdown 'unthinkable' and says people should stop talking about coronavirus like seasonal flu

Professor Devi Sridhar is the Chair of Global Public Health at Edinburgh University Medical School and took to twitter to ask people to stop talking about the coronavirus like it’s the seasonal flu.

She wrote: “Another lockdown in winter would be unthinkable.

“We must get things in order now instead of accepting rises in hospitalizations and then lockdown as inevitable.

“The harms of lockdown are huge and we now have vaccines, testing, and isolation measures to avoid blanket restrictions.

“And the first step is to stop talking about COVID like it’s seasonal flu.

“It’s not.

Professor Devi Sridhar says winter 2021 lockdown 'unthinkable' and says people should stop talking about coronavirus like seasonal flu. Picture: John Devlin

“Flu doesn’t cause the hospitalisation numbers we have seen with COVID.

"Or number of deaths.”

The Scottish Government has said that there will be a delay before the country will be allowed to take the next step out of lockdown restrictions.

The latest data showed that on Sunday, 1,205 new positive cases reported.

Covid Scotland: Professor Devi Sridhar says winter 2021 lockdown 'unthinkable' and says people should stop talking about coronavirus like seasonal flu

There were no reported deaths although the register offices are generally closed at the weekend and therefore this number may be inaccurate.

3,630,589 people have received the first dose of the Covid vaccination and 2,571,637 have received their second dose.

Travel restrictions have been put in place for people in Scotland, prohibiting them from visiting Manchester and Salford unless for essential purposes.

The First Minister has said that she is ‘optimistic’ that the restrictions can be eased in July.

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