The Government’s chief scientific adviser, Sir Patrick Vallance has said the coronavirus pandemic will deepen over the next two to three weeks.
Speaking during the daily Downing Street coronavirus briefing, tonight (Monday), Sir Vallance surmised that the number of people admitted to hospital with the virus would continue to increase over the next few weeks.
He then expects cases will stagnate before the UK experiences a possible decrease, and that at the moment the data does not suggest ‘an acceleration of cases.’
He said: “we’re tracking roughly along the same path as France in terms of deaths of patients who have contracted the virus.”
However, he said the ‘dramatic reduction’ in social contact since lockdown measures could have ‘a significant effect’ on the number of Covid-19 cases in the country but it was ‘premature’ to predict a date when the government would ease measures to tackle the virus.
Professor Yvonne Doyle, medical director at Public Health England, also noted an evaluation of home testing kits to determine whether a person had contracted COVID-19 was under way.
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