dr deepti gurdasani is an epidemiologist and she joins detail.epidemiologist and she joins me from cambridge. how would you categorise the severity of the pandemic?” think the uk is in crisis. our health service is already overwhelmed. we are talking about mortuaries being full, hospitalisations are 60% over the april peak and we have yet to see a real response to the restrictions. so we are in a much worse position than in march and it is really worrying that there isn't any focus from the government in terms of reducing transmission. i know we are in lockdown and schools have moved to re m ote in lockdown and schools have moved to remote learning, but there are so many aspects that need attention that are not being given attention. the idea seems to be that vaccination is a silver bullet which will protect everyone, but that is not going to happen. it's going to ta ke not going to happen. it's going to take time to roll out and it's only going to protect the people who are being vaccinated. meanwhile, we will continue to see many hospitalisatio

deepti gurdasani is an epidemiologist at queen mary university, london.was mentioning the speed at which the uk has reached the second 50,000 in this total. how do we explain the quicker speeding up of the death toll? i we explain the quicker speeding up of the death toll?— of the death toll? i think it was entirely expected _ of the death toll? i think it was entirely expected in _ of the death toll? i think it was entirely expected in many - of the death toll? i think it was j entirely expected in many ways of the death toll? i think it was - entirely expected in many ways and we warned about this in the summer, we warned about this in the summer, we had a very dramatic he easing of lockdown and schools opening without mitigating measures and all those things contributed to a search in cases. —— surge in cases. the new variant hasn't help because it is more transmissible and that has meant many more cases and deaths and it's harder to get on top of even with restrictions. i think it is a consequence of multiple failures of government over many months of

we can look at this now with dr deepti gurdasani, clinical epidemiologist at queen mary university hospitalng. a coule of good morning to you. good morning. a courale of figures. _ good morning to you. good morning. a couple of figures, the _ good morning to you. good morning. a couple of figures, the daily _ couple of figures, the daily infections fell by 22% over the past seven days. 6 million people in the uk have now been vaccinated. 97,000 people have died in the uk from covid. how do you assess where we are now? i covid. how do you assess where we are now? ., . covid. how do you assess where we are now? ~ . ., , are now? i think we are in a very precarious _ are now? i think we are in a very precarious position. _ are now? i think we are in a very precarious position. we - are now? i think we are in a very precarious position. we still - are now? i think we are in a very| precarious position. we still have are now? i think we are in a very i precarious position. we still have a very high prevalence of infection. we are still seeing over 1000 deaths every day and our hospitals are stil

deepti gurdasani, thank you very much for speaking to us this morning. england £200 for lockdown breaches, so how will this be enforced? john apter is chair of the police federation of england and wales — hejoins us now. you will have heard the case of the two women in derbyshire. do you think it was appropriate to issue a fine? i spoke to the local chair of that branch last night, and i think officers are under immense pressure to do the right thing. lets not forget, the law is the law, but also you have the guidance, which is not legally enforceable. this is about travelling to a place to exercise copy and maybe the officers generally —— genuinely did what they thought was right but then media attention and legitimate complaints from the ladies involved means a review is necessary. with such an ever—changing landscape politically and legally, there will be things that won't always go great, but it is my colleagues on the front line who are the ones in the limelight, and it feels a lonely place when you are doing the best you can to save lives and prote

let‘s talk more about this with epidemiologist dr deepti gurdasani. 0n on that point about nurseries,at really needs to be looked at in terms of policy. schools are now closed. how big an impact will that have? is that going to be making a really big difference to be making a really big difference to the progress of what is happening? i think it will definitely make a difference. we have seen, for example, during the la st have seen, for example, during the last lockdown cases in primary and secondary school children were still rising and reached a huge high. for example, in secondary schools, one in 33 children were infected, and one in 50 younger children. moving school to remote learning will certainly help to bring the r number down. we also need to remember that we had a long previously cases continued to rise in the area where the variant was dominant. given the new variant that is more transmissible, just a lockdown without school closures has not been sufficient in bringing down the r number. we need to add on this intervention if we heart you have any hope of reversing this p

here to discuss that is dr deepti gurdasani who is a clinical epidemiologist. contain the key mutation associated with transmission. they had not been sequenced yet so we do not know what their virus as and its limitations are concerning so we have to wait till the data is available which should be in the next two or so. we know viruses mutate, in this case with covid—19, are we seeing more mutations than what one would normally expect? latte mutations than what one would normally expect?— mutations than what one would normally expect? we are certainly seeinu normally expect? we are certainly seeing many _ normally expect? we are certainly seeing many different _ normally expect? we are certainly seeing many different variants - seeing many different variants emerging in different parts of the world that have the same mutations in common, associated with increased transmissibility or possible escape from immunity to an extent. that suggests these are adaptations of the virus that are favourable. the mutations have occurred at a greater rate than we expected and