LONDON, Sept 21, 2020 (BSS/AFP) – England is on track for about 50,000
coronavirus cases a day by mid-October and a surging death toll unless the
public gets serious about preventive action, top UK advisors warned on
Monday.
Rates of infection in England are replicating the strong resurgence of
Covid-19 seen in France and Spain, roughly doubling every seven days, the
government’s chief medical officer Chris Whitty told a media briefing.
“We are seeing a rate of increase across the great majority of the
country,” he said, urging the public to respect stricter guidelines on social
distancing.
“This is not someone else’s problem. It’s all of our problem.”
The briefing previewed an expected announcement by Prime Minister Boris
Johnson this week detailing government action to flatten the exponential
coronavirus curve heading in to winter, when regular respiratory diseases
typically spike.
Johnson last week said Britain was already seeing a second wave of Covid-
19, and the government introduced new restrictions for millions of people
across northwest, northern and central England.
People in England who refuse to self-isolate to stop the spread of
coronavirus could face fines of up to o10,000 ($13,000, 11,000 euros) under
tough new regulations announced Saturday.
Johnson said that from September 28, people will be legally obliged to
self-isolate if they test positive or are told to by the National Health
Service (NHS) tracing programme.
Whitty said it was essential for the public to play its part in preventing
the NHS being overwhelmed in the colder months.
“We are in a bad sense literally turning a corner, although only relatively
recently. At this point the seasons are against us,” he said at the briefing,
alongside the government’s chief scientific adviser, Patrick Vallance.
Vallance said that on current trends, the daily count of cases will reach
about 50,000 on October 13, and a month later exceed 200 deaths every day.
Almost 42,000 people who have tested positive for Covid-19 have died in
Britain, the worst death toll from the pandemic in Europe.
After a summer lull, cases have been rising rapidly to more than 3,000
daily.
Whitty said “science in due course will ride to our rescue” with a
successful vaccine but over the next six months, “if we don’t change course,
the virus will take off”.