Coronavirus: Britain yet to reach peak, so movement curbs will remain
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LONDON • Britain has yet to reach the Covid-19 peak which would allow for an easing of tight restrictions of movement, Health Secretary Matt Hancock said yesterday.
The death toll in British hospitals has hit 9,875, with 917 more deaths reported yesterday. The Department of Health also said 78,991 had tested positive for the virus as of 0800 GMT yesterday.
Among those who have been infected is Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who is recovering in hospital after three nights in intensive care.
His office yesterday said he was improving and making "very good progress" although his recovery was still at an early stage.
Britain imposed a lockdown three weeks ago in a bid to curb the spread of the virus and the government has come under increasing pressure to detail how long the strict measures on movements would last, with people forced to stay at home and many businesses unable to operate.
Ministers have said Britain needed to pass the peak of the outbreak before changes could be made, and Mr Hancock said although the number of hospital admissions had started to flatten out, there was not enough evidence yet to have confidence they were past the worst. "Our judgment is we're not there yet. We haven't seen a flattening enough to be able to say that we've reached the peak," he told BBC Radio.
Some scientists have suggested the peak might still be some weeks off, but Mr Hancock said "nobody knows" when it would be.
"There's all sorts of suggestions. Their job is to make their best estimate and advise us and we have a whole load of different pieces of advice from different scientists," he added.
The death rate is also expected to increase over the next few days, health officials have cautioned, but they say they are hopeful that the lockdown will mean that the overall number of deaths will be below 20,000.
REUTERS
