UK infection rates ‘frighteningly high’

LONDON: An estimated 1.1 million people in private households in England had Covid19 between December 27 and January 2, according to new figures scientists describe as ‘‘frighteningly high’’.

The figure is the equivalent of about 2.06% of the population, or one in 50 people, the Office for National Statistics said yesterday.

It came as the number of daily confirmed cases of coronavirus in the United Kingdom topped 60,000 for the first time.

The Government said there had been a further 60,916 labconfirmed cases of coronavirus in the UK as of 9am local time yesterday.

The ONS figures represent a rise from 800,900 people, or one in 70, estimated to have Covid19 in the period December 17 to 23.

The figures do not include people staying in hospitals, care homes or other institutional settings.

Dr Michael Head, senior research fellow in global health at the University of Southampton, described the latest figures as ‘‘frighteningly high’’, adding that for comparison, ONS data from June showed infection numbers were about one in 4000.

‘‘If we also highlight the huge numbers of confirmed daily cases, the fact that there’s more people in hospital now with Covid19 than at any state of the pandemic, and that almost any graph you look at is on a steep upward trajectory, then the UK is clearly not in a good place right now,’’ he said.

The head of the World Health Organisation says he is ‘‘disappointed’’ that Chinese officials have not finalised permissions for the arrival of a team of experts into China to examine the origins of Covid19.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, in a rare critique of China, said members of the international scientific team began departing from their home countries over the last 24 hours as part of an arrangement between the WHO and the Chinese Government.

‘‘Today, we learned that Chinese officials have not yet finalised the necessary permissions for the team’s arrival in China,’’ he told a news conference in Geneva.

‘‘I’m very disappointed with this news given that two members had already begun their journeys and others were not able to travel at the last minute but had been in contact with senior Chinese officials,’’ he said.

Meanwhile, Chinese authorities have shut sections of highways through Hebei province surrounding Beijing and closed a bus terminal in provincial capital Shijiazhuang, in efforts to stave off another coronavirus wave.

The province accounted for 20 of 23 new locally transmitted Covid19 cases reported in China yesterday. — BPA/AAP