Source: BBC News
Summary
- The UK could be facing 50,000 new Covid-19 cases a day by mid-October, if the current infection rate is not halted
- Prof Chris Whitty, England’s chief medical officer, and Sir Patrick Vallance, the UK’s chief scientific adviser issued the warning
- Numbers are increasing among all age groups with the epidemic doubling roughly every seven days, they said at a briefing
- There have been 31 million confirmed Covid-19 cases worldwide, with more than 960,000 deaths
Chief medical officer Prof Chris Whitty earlier spoke about how there were “significant rates of transmission” of coronavirus in parts of the UK – as he said: “This is not someone else’s problem, this is all of our problem.”
Here’s the map that he showed alongside his comments, showing the presence of the virus.
“What we’ve seen is a progression where, after the remarkable efforts which got the rates right down across the country, first we saw very small outbreaks, maybe associated with a workplace or another environment, then we’ve seen more localised outbreaks which have got larger over time, particularity in the cities.
“And now what we’re seeing is a rate of increase across the great majority of the country.
“It is going at different rates but it is now increasing.”
Sir Patrick Vallance said that there was good progress being made on vaccines.
He said the UK was in a “good position” and that it was possible that a vaccine could be available by the end of the year in small amounts for certain groups.
“In the meantime we have got to get in control of this,” he said.
Whitty on households mixing: If we don’t change course we’ll be in difficult problem
Prof Whitty says the mortality rate will be slightly reduced this autumn and winter because treatment is better now – but there will still be many deaths.
He also talks about the decisions that ministers will have to take – balancing the impact on the economy with the danger of the virus.
“If we do too little, this virus will go out of control,” he said.
But if we go too far the other way we can cause damage to the economy, he says, which will have its own long-term health effects.
Prof Whitty says it is important to have these two sides in mind when taking decisions.
He talks about four things that can be done to combat the virus:
- Reduce your individual risk by washing your hands
- Self-isolate if you have symptoms
- Break unnecessary links between households because that is the way the virus is transmitted. “We have to try and do this in the least damaging way,” says Prof Whitty – but he acknowledges there are some “significant downsides”
- The science – such as diagnostics and vaccines
On the third point – which suggests limiting contact between households – Prof Whitty warns that if we do not change course we are going to find ourselves in a very difficult problem.
Source: BBC News