UK: Get serious about virus

England to face 50,000 cases a day if public doesn’t step up efforts

England is on track for about 50,000 Covid-19 cases a day by mid-October and a surging death toll unless the public gets serious about preventive action, top UK advisers warned.

Infection rates in England replicated the fierce resurgence of Covid-19 in France and Spain, roughly doubling each week, the government’s chief medical officer Chris Whitty told a media briefing yesterday.

“We are seeing a rate of increase across the great majority of the country,” he said, urging the public to respect stricter guidelines on social distancing,” he said.

“This is not someone else’s problem. It’s all of our problem.”

The briefing previewed an expected announcement by prime minister Boris Johnson this week detailing government action to flatten the exponential coronavirus curve heading in to winter, when regular respiratory diseases typically spike.

Johnson last week said Britain was already seeing a second wave of Covid-19, and the government introduced new restrictions for millions of people across northwest, northern and central England.

People in England who refuse to self-isolate could face fines of up to £10,000 (RM 53,022) under tough new rules announced on Saturday.

Johnson said that from Sept 28, people will be legally obliged to self-isolate if they test positive or are told to by the National Health Service (NHS) tracing programme.

Whitty said it was essential for the public to play its part in preventing the NHS from being overwhelmed in the colder months.

“We are in a bad sense literally turning a corner, although only relatively recently.

“At this point the seasons are against us,” he said at the briefing, alongside the government’s chief scientific adviser, Patrick Vallance.

Vallance said currently, the daily count of cases would reach about 50,000 on Oct 13, and a month later exceed 200 deaths every day.

Almost 42,000 people who have tested positive for Covid-19 have died in Britain, the worst death toll from the pandemic in Europe.

After a summer lull, cases have been rising rapidly to more than 3,000 daily.

Whitty said “science in due course will ride to our rescue” with a successful vaccine, but over the next six months, “if we don’t change course, the virus will take off”.