U.K.’s Final Easing Step Could Lead to Covid Surge, Advisers Say

The final step in the U.K.’s plan to reduce Covid-19 restrictions could lead to a surge in infections and deaths that would rival the country’s first wave, government advisers said in a report.

Step 4 of the U.K.’s road map for easing pandemic restrictions, in which most limits on social contact would be removed, might lead to a situation at least as severe as the country’s post-holiday surge in January, researchers from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine said in advice to the government that they cautioned was preliminary. Step 4 is seen coming no earlier than June 21.