One of Scotland’s top medics has said “suppression does not have to mean lockdown” as she shared reasons to be optimistic about Covid-19 progress.
Speaking on Sky’s Sophy Ridge on Sunday, the Chair of Global Public Health at Edinburgh University confirmed there was a 'glimmer of optimism’ thanks to rapid testing and "better and better solutions as time goes on."
She said: “We looked at countries across the world, and one of the things that came out clearly is that suppression does not have to mean lockdown.
“In fact, the three things that countries did to try and bring their numbers down while protecting their economy and protecting society and schools were testing, tracing, isolating - so a very active and robust public health infrastructure.
READ MORE: Prof Devi Sridhar shares ‘unpleasant truths’ amidst lockdown fears
"The second was strict border restrictions on movement, so you don’t have people going and coming and actually reseeding the infection.
"And the third was having good voluntary compliance with guidance.
"That messaging would be avoid crowded, places, if you’re inside use a face covering and get outside as much as posisble because the virus transmits less outside."
The health expert added that she thought it was a "mistake" to think that lockdown was the only answer - as they bring major consequences for the economy and for society as a whole.
Rather, Professor Sridhar praised the scientific progress that has been made since the beginning of the pandemic.
She said: "I think perhaps one of the mistakes has been to think that the only way to suppress this virus is through lockdowns, which have major economic consequences as well as for general societal relations.
"I think the reasons to be optimistic are there, first on the medical side […] we do have better therapies and better treatments.
READ MORE: World Health Organisation reveals new rapid antigen test - but what is it?
"If we think back six to nine months ago, this was a new virus, we didn’t even have a sequencing for what it was exactly and now we’re having rapid testing.
"The World Health Organisation has approved a test kit from South Korea. 140 million are going to be distributed in low and middle income countries.
"This is an antigen test that gives results within 15 minutes and it seems to be as accurate as our PCR testing, so on testing we’re also doing well, and a number of vaccine candidates which are advancing through phase three.
"We’ve never had science progress this quickly, so I think that’s something that is really positive and that people can say, the time that we’ve bought has been worthwhile because we’re getting better and better solutions as time goes on."
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