Lockdown strategy scientist has symptoms

THE scientist whose modelling prompted the coronavirus lockdown is self-isolating with symptoms of the illness amid concerns that he may have infected senior members of the Government.

Downing Street was last night forced to announce that Boris Johnson was symptom-free after Prof Neil Ferguson, who attended Monday’s press conference, came down with a cough and fever.

The Imperial College London epidemiologist had been sitting next to Matt Hancock, the Health Secretary, as the radical social-distancing measures were announced.

He has also attended meetings with the Prime Minister, the Chief Medical

Officer and Chief Scientific Adviser in recent days.

A small number of Downing Street staff are reportedly self-isolating after displaying symptoms, but none has been in close proximity to the Prime Minister.

The news comes as official figures revealed Westminster to be the second-worst hit area of the country, with more confirmed cases than the whole of Birmingham.

Prof Ferguson, who led the team that concluded that the Government’s original strategy could lead to 260,000 deaths, yesterday described central London as a “hotspot” for the disease.

He developed a high fever on Tuesday, but said the risk that he had infected others was slight.

He added: “I have to say, central London is a kind of hotspot in the UK at the moment.

“There are almost certainly thousands of cases in central London, so it’s not surprising.”

The new approach predicts a death toll of about 20,000, which Sir Patrick Vallance, the Chief Scientific Adviser, told MPS would be a “good outcome”.

This would require everyone to reduce social contact by 75 per cent.

As of Tuesday, official tallies of confirmed cases by local authority areas put Westminster joint-second in the UK alongside Southwark, each with 58 cases, with Hampshire leading with 69.