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At the moment there’s no confirmation of when social distancing restrictions might be lifted in the UK. However it’s been suggested by some experts that we can expect certain measures to be in place for a while yet, even after lockdown is lifted. Professor Neil Ferguson, who leads the team modelling the outbreak, said earlier this month that while lockdown could be lifted in a controlled way, a ‘level of social distancing’ would have to be maintained until a vaccine is found. Speaking on Radio 4’s Today programme about easing restrictions Mr Ferguson said: ‘I think that will very much depend on quite how quickly case numbers go down, and that does require us to get on top of things like transmission rates in hospitals and care homes.

However another team of experts have suggested the opposite, saying that social distancing in the long-term would cause more problems than it might solve. Robert Dingwall, of the New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group (NERVTAG), said over the weekend: ‘We cannot sustain social distancing measures without causing serious damage to society, to the economy and to the physical and mental health of the population. ‘I think it will be much harder to get compliance with some of the measures that really do not have an evidence base. I mean the two-metre rule was conjured up out of nowhere.’ He added: ‘There is a certain amount of scientific evidence for a one-metre distance which comes out of indoor studies in clinical and experimental settings. ‘There’s never been a scientific basis for two metres, it’s kind of a rule of thumb.. But it’s not like there is a whole kind of rigorous scientific literature that it is founded upon.’

How long will a vaccine take to find?

Human trials on a potential vaccine from researchers at the University of Oxford got underway in the UK this week. Although those involved in the trial are hopeful the vaccine could be ready by September if it proves a success, others are less optimistic – with Dominic Raab saying a vaccine is unlikely to be available this year.

Source: Metro

The team at Cavendish Conference Venues understands how important the social distancing is to our clients and we’d like to offer our full support to those who have conference rooms and other event spaces booked with us later in the year. With our incredible floor plan software we can arrange precise layouts of our conference rooms, meeting rooms and training rooms while keeping social distancing in mind. If you’d like us to prepare a detailed floor plan for your event, just give us a buzz and we’d be delighted to help.