HOW much difference does one metre make?

That is the question on many of our minds following the announcement from Prime Minister Boris Johnson over changes to social distancing rules.

To allow the hospitality sector to return to relative normality, the Government is set to drop the previously strict two-metre rule to one metre-plus.

Scientific advisers to the government say evidence tells us being one metre apart carries between two and ten times the risk of maintaining two metres distance.

Dr Mike Gogarty, Essex County Council’s public health director, has been involved in the county’s response to the coronavirus outbreak from the start.

“Social distancing is still hugely important,” he said.

“It is also important that when you are keeping your distance from others, you maintain that two metres currently in place where you can.

“When Test and Trace comes in, if you have been near someone who is infected, when the NHS come to contact you, you won’t have to self isolate for 14 days if you’ve stuck to that two-metre distance.

“If you haven’t, then there is a strong chance you would have to isolate for 14 days.

“Certainly between one metre and two metres is safer than being right in someone’s face, but clearly two metres is safer than one.

“The Prime Minister had to reduce the rule for the hospitality sector to re-open and to help the people most suffering from the economic impact of the crisis, because the worst hit in terms of jobs and income are those working in that industry.”

Gazette:

  • Queues outside Fenwick when lockdown began to be lifted 

As part of a move to keep Colchester town centre safe as shoppers and customers return, cars have been banned from the High Street.

Dr Gogarty said the move is driven by the coronavirus, and has a simple motive of allowing more space for people to socially distance.

“I think this will enable people to socially distance to a much better extent than if cars were up and down the High Street the whole time,” he said.

“That’s why the system is being put in place, it gives people more space to keep their distance.

“I think lifting the two-metre rule it will lead to more cases, and that is just how it is.

“But I think in shops people will be able to keep to one metre, and most people aren’t in shops for a long time as they will go in, get what they need and leave.

“There has always been a balance between the needs of the economy and societal health needs.

“At the moment there is less coronavirus around than there was a while ago, on that balance then that two-metre rule can be reduced in some areas.”

Dr Gogarty can’t see a clear path away from social distancing measures until a vaccine is ready.

But he is clear the people of Essex have already taken great strides in reducing the severity of the outbreak.

“The public in Essex have been absolutely brilliant and the proof is in the reduction in numbers we have seen.

“The success of this is down to the observing of social distancing, which by and large we have seen.”

He added: “It is the biggest challenge of my career.

“For me, it started off with containment, chasing people down who might have had it, and then trying to get people to practise social distancing without the Government quite saying it yet.

“Then the Government said it and from then it was then about shielding the vulnerable and those in care homes. It has been a constant level of activity and reaction.”