Chances of UK being plunged into Covid lockdown revealed as new strain runs riot

The chances of the United Kingdom being plunged back into lockdown have been revealed as the new strain of Coronavirus runs riot throughout the country.

The new worrying Covid strain dubbed Pirola is ripping through the UK, and is fast becoming the dominant strain in the England, with positive cases doubling almost every few days in recent weeks.

It has been confirmed that it has more than 30 different mutations, making it difficult for experts to analyse it properly – but it is worrying enough that the World Health Organisation has placed it on its watch list.

READ MORE: New Covid strain rips through UK as worried boffins admit 'we know nothing about it'

And as the country heads into Autumn, it is thought that there will be a huge surge of cases from he BA.2.86 strain as was seen when the Coronavirus Pandemic was at its most dangerous in 2020 and 2021.

However, a leading expert has quashed rumours of the country being plunged back into lockdown – and told the population not to “lose any sleep” over it.

Dr Simon Clarke, a microbiologist from Reading University, told the Daily Mail: “The chances of any sort of lockdown or tiered restrictions are vanishingly small.

“That would only be considered if there were an outbreak of a particularly novel, nasty form of flu or a variant of Covid that can overwhelm the immunity currently found in the population.

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“While neither is impossible, they're not worth people losing sleep over.

“People need to be sensible when going about their business over winter – if you're feeling under the weather, what feels like a heavy cold to you might be very serious to someone else.”

Last month, several science and medical experts in the UK urged the country's leadership to bring back mask wearing mandates in certain settings, but this has so far fallen on deaf ears.

The Daily Star has contacted Downing Street for a comment.

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