Professor Van-Tam told Sky News he is concerned regarding whether people will follow lockdown rules during the Christmas period. England’s Deputy Chief Medical Officer added there will be a sad irony for vulnerable people that catch coronavirus due to flouting rules so close to being eligible for the vaccine.
Professor Van-Tam said: “I am certainly concerned that people should not tear the pants out of it.
“They should follow whatever rules are announced in due course by the Government.
“We are on the cusp potentially of being able to start some delivery of vaccines in the foreseeable future.
“It will scale up slowly, but it will begin with the most vulnerable in our society.
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“There is going to be a very sad irony if some people catch COVID-19 through not following the rules that would have been eligible for a vaccine in January or February.
“That would be a very sad irony indeed.”
Earlier today the Prime Minister announced that the national lockdown will not be renewed after December 2.
Boris Johnson also stated that the UK will revert back to the tier-system used prior to the national lockdown.
“But without sensible precautions, we would risk the virus escalating into a winter or new year surge.”
He added: “We are not going to replace national measures with a free for all, we are going to go back instead to a regional tiered approach, applying the toughest measures where Covid is most prevalent.
“While the previous local restrictions do cut the R number, they were not quite enough to reduce it below one.
“So the scientific advice is as we come out our tiers need to be made tougher.”
