Prof Paul Hunter: falling Covid case numbers expected

  • Watch the full interview with UEA Professor Paul Hunter


Professor Paul Hunter says he's not surprised that Covid cases nationally are falling as it has coincided with the end of the Euro 2020 championship.

He said a similar fall happened in Scotland after its national team was knocked out of the tournament.

Prof Hunter said if there was to be any impact from the so called "freedom day" last Monday when restrictions were lifted, it would be seen towards the end of this week.

However, he wasn't convinced there would any increase in transmission.

"My personal view is that I don't think we will see numbers increasing at the end of this week but it is difficult to be absolutely certain."



"We're close to the endemic equilibrium of this disease, where the virus doesn't continue to surge in the same way that we saw last winter," he continued.

In the last two weeks, the region had hosted two large scale test events but Prof Hunter didn't think these would cause much of a spike in case numbers.

"We won't know till about two weeks after the event, but in the grand scheme of things across the whole country, single events like that aren't going to have a big impact on the overall numbers although we've seen in the past that they have had a short term effect don't seem to have short term effect in the areas where they are held," he said.