A SCIENTIST advising the Government on coronavirus has called for tighter lockdown restrictions, describing the current rules as “the problem” amid rising infections and deaths. Professor Susan Michie, director of the Centre for Behaviour Change at UCL, said an “overwhelming” number of people were sticking to lockdown rules as she questioned how Government messaging was being targeted at the public. It comes after the Government launched a new advert that asks people to “look in the eyes” of frontline medical workers and Covid-19 patients and tells them to stay at home. “The advert, the Government messages and Priti Patel talking about fines is all on the basis that the main problem is that people aren’t adhering to the rules that exist,” Prof Michie told Times Radio.
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Downing Street has said there are “no plans” to go ahead with a proposal to pay £500 to everyone who tests positive for coronavirus in order to increase the number of people abiding by quarantine rules.
Ministers have considered a proposal to extend payments to anyone who tests positive for Covid-19 in England amid concerns of low compliance for self-isolation, but No 10 played down the possibility, insisting the “vast majority continue to abide by the rules”.
Scientific advisers welcomed the suggestion of more financial support but Treasury sources were adamant the plan will not go ahead, with one telling the PA news agency bluntly: “Won’t happen.”