Professor warns of big rise in number of deaths

The UK can expect tens of thousands of deaths from the second wave of coronavirus in what is a “bleak” situation, a UK Gove rnmen t scientist has said.

Pro fessor John Edmunds, a member of the government ’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage), told MPs that immediate action was needed – and not just regionally – to stem the rising tide of Covid-19 cases.

Asked for his view on current government measures and what the trajectory looked like in terms of the number of cases , deaths and pressure on the NHS, he said “quite gloomy”.

He added: “We’re already in Liverpool... elective operations are already being cancelled, so we’re already at the stage where that ’s under strain.

“Elsewhere in the North West in particular but also in the North and Yorkshire, it’s not very far behind.

“And... even if we stopped things now, c a s e s a n d hospitalisations would continue to go up.

“I think if you look at where we are, there’s no way we come out of this wave now without counting our deaths in the tens of thousands.”

Asked about when the peak of the second wave might be, he said there would be peaks in the Nor th We s t probably in the next four to six weeks unless additional measures were brought in.

“Then the rest of the country are weeks behind,” he told the Science and Technology and Health and Social Care committees.

“We ’ ll see peaks around Christmas, in the new year of very severe numbers of cases throughout the UK.”

He said the UK as a whole probably would not reach the peak seen in March and April but some parts such as Liverpool were already there.