The UK’s Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty told a press briefing on Wednesday that the government may get the green light for starting to plan an exit from the lockdown within ten days as the coronavirus daily death toll in the country stayed below 800 for the fourth day in a row.
“Our view is that it's probably reaching the peak overall and that's what the flattening shows”, he said, adding at the same time that the death toll “may well go up” in the coming days.
"We do all think that this has flattened out [but] sadly we do think that high numbers of deaths will continue for a short while on from where we are at the moment”, Whitty stressed.
He added that at the moment, the UK is “not yet at the point where we can say confidently and safely this is now past the peak and we can start thinking very much about the next phases”.
“The more understanding we have of where that is, which will happen over the next ten days, the more easy it is to judge how we can go into the next phase in a way that is properly evidence-based”, Whitty noted.
He was echoed by Dame Angela McLean, Britain’s deputy chief scientific adviser, who told reporters that she sees “a flattened curve” as the number of cases of people testing positive for the COVID-19 has not soared in the UK for the past two weeks.
“What I see here is evidence that everybody's efforts to stay home and not have as much contact with other people is having the impact we hoped it would have and bring this epidemic to a much better trajectory where this is currently flat and no longer rising”, she pointed out .
Health Secretary Matt Hancock, for his part, warned that the government “cannot let go of the hard work that's been done so far” and that it “will not lift these measures until it is safe to do so”, in an apparent nod to the cabinet’s willingness to extend the lockdown for at least three weeks.
The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in the UK currently stands at under 93,877, with 12,107 fatalities, according to the World Health Organisation’s latest estimates.
