Dr Hilary claims second national lockdown is 'only a matter of time'

29 October 2020, 10:30

Dr Hilary says 'only a matter of time' until national lockdown

The GMB doctor has claimed we must go into national lockdown as '85k could die'.

Dr Hilary has claimed that the country must go into national lockdown to save thousands of lives, after a stark warning that the second wave could be more deadly than the first.

Speaking on Good Morning Britain today (29 October), host Charlotte Hawkins said: "It's not good news, stark warnings from scientists that up to 100,000 people a day are catching it.

Read more: All the areas facing Tier 3 coronavirus restrictions this week - and those which could be next

"This worst case scenario, up to 85,000 could die in the second wave, it could be more deadly than the first."

Ben Shepherd then asked Dr Hilary: "Do you think it's only a matter of time before we go into another full national lockdown?"

Dr Hilary then replied: "I am afraid I do, because we are not adequately and quickly enough controlling the number of cases, they are still rising.

"We put some areas into Tier 3, and the situation would be worse if we hadn't done that.

"Other areas, we have still got fairly lax regulations we allowed six people from different households to get together, that was never going to be a sensible way forward.

"Unless we stop different households getting together, the R rate is going to increase and the situation is going to get worse.

"We have to be more draconian, and I'm sure people understand that in order to get a control of the virus, this is what has to happen."

Read more: Full list of 13 areas with soaring coronavirus rates that aren't yet in tier 3

When Charlotte Tobin read out a report that suggested Prime Minister Boris Johnson was planning to test 10,000 people every week for the virus using a 30-minute saliva kit, Hilary responded: "If it was logistically possible it would make a massive difference.

"But this government has been guilty of overpromising throughout the year."It would be great to have that many tests, but we haven't got them yet, who is going to be administering them?

"We are talking about millions of tests on a regular basis, we don't have the staff or the wherewithall.

"To overpromise it as if it's already there is a mistake.

"We haven't got test and trace up to speed, there is a lot of inefficiency there, it needs to be improved.

"And once we have done that, if we go into a national lockdown fairly soon, and we are strict about that, we can come out of the other side hopefully with better test and trace and a better handle on this.

"But we still need people to self-isolate once they've been traced, and currently only 11% of people are doing that."

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