Covid: Keeping you updated 9

As I write this (June 1), the UK begins a new phase of lockdown (akin to the amber phase first announced on April 18), with some easing of restrictions. In England, this includes the reopening of many primary schools, car showrooms and outdoor markets. How this affects eye care practice is open to interpretation and depends on the nature of any individual practice, but an excellent overview has been produced by the College of Optometrists (figure 1).¹

Figure 1: To download the complete table, see reference 1

This move has been met with some concern from the science lobby. The Association of Directors of Public Health (ADPH) claim that the new rules were ‘not supported by the science’, and images of crowded beaches over the weekend confirmed that the public is no longer keeping to social distancing. Indeed, the foreign secretary described the easing as ‘a delicate and dangerous moment’ while Professor Devi Sridhar, a member of the Scottish government’s Covid-19 advisory group where a more conservative approach (no irony intended) has been adopted, said she feared ‘a rise in coronavirus numbers in England was inevitable.’ She went on, ‘it is incredibly worrying, because the numbers are not low enough to have a testing and tracing system take over.’