The UK’s chief scientific adviser, Patrick Vallance has said that social distancing has seen a dramatic reduction in social contact and “that is predicted to have a significant effect” on the number of infections”
Speaking at the latest Government press briefing he added that the pandemic will deepen over the next two to three weeks.He then expects cases to begin to stagnate before we experience a decrease. At the moment, he added, data does not suggest that we are experiencing an acceleration of cases.
“The absolute priority is getting the number of severe cases needing hospitalisation below the level of intensive care capacity, so it is “premature” to be talking about how long the lockdown continues.” he added
There are nine thousand people currently hospitalised with the virus in the UK.Half of those are in the Greater London area.
The number of people who have died in England after contracting coronavirus now stands at 1,284 – a rise of 159 from yesterday – NHS England has said.
The patients were aged between 32 and 98 years old and all but four, aged between 56 and 87 years old, had underlying health conditions.
A total of 134,946 people have been tested for the virus, with 22,141 positive cases in the UK.
Eleven people died in Greater Manchester taking the total to 78.
Dominic Raab, the foreign secretary,announced a partnership between the government and airlines to repatriate Britons stranded abroad.
Tens of thousands of people will be flown home by airlines including British Airways, Virgin Atlantic and Titan Airways on chartered planes. Raab urged those stranded not to wait but to switch carriers as necessary at no extra cost.
