‘UK not out of the woods yet, hospital numbers are scary’

Passengers on a bus in central London on July 14. Pic/AFP

The UK is "not out of the woods yet" with the coronavirus pandemic and the number of people hospitalised with the deadly virus could reach "quite scary numbers" if the trend is sustained, England's Chief Medical Officer has warned.

Professor Chris Whitty also said that people should approach the end of most restrictions from Monday with caution.

Whitty said that the number of people in hospital with Covid-19 is doubling around every three weeks and could hit "quite scary numbers" if that trend is sustained. He urged the public to take things ‘incredibly slowly', as the so-called July 19 ‘Freedom Day' from legal lockdown restrictions approaches.

"I don't think we should underestimate the fact that we could get into trouble again surprisingly fast," he told a webinar hosted by the Science Museum on Thursday.

"We are not by any means out of the woods yet on this, we are in much better shape due to the vaccine programme, and drugs and a variety of other things. But this has got a long way to run in the UK, and it's got even further to run globally," he said.

He expected most people will carry on taking precautions such as face masks in enclosed spaces even if they are no longer a legal requirement in England from next week.

Professor Whitty predicted that in the medium term, coronavirus could mutate into a "vaccine escape variant" that could take the UK "some of the way backwards" into the worst days of the pandemic. "The further out in time we go, the more tools we have at our disposal from science, the less likely that is but you can never take that possibility completely off the table," he said. "But you know, science has done a phenomenal job so far and it will continue to do so," he added.

‘I lost 10 family members to Covid'

US Surgeon General Dr Vivek Murthy has revealed that he lost 10 family members, in the US and India, to the pandemic, making a strong case for Americans to get vaccinated. Launching a campaign against misinformation, he urged people to raise the bar to share health information by checking sources before sharing it to ensure it is backed by credible scientific sources. "On a personal note, it's painful for me to know that nearly every death we see now from Covid-19 could have been prevented," he said. "I say that as someone who has lost 10 family members to Covid-19 and who wishes each and every day that they had had the opportunity to get vaccinated."

20,14,44
No. of new cases reported globally in the past 24 hours

18,83,32,972
Total no. of cases worldwide

40,63,453
Total no. of deaths worldwide

Source: WHO/Johns Hopkins

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