LONDON — The U.K. government is gradually moving into the second, “delay,” phase of its plan to tackle the coronavirus, rather than seeking to simply “contain” the disease, Englands chief medical officer said.
Speaking to the House of Commons health and social care committee, Chris Whitty said “containment looks pretty optimistic” and it is “highly likely” that there is some level of community transmission of the virus in the U.K. now. The U.K. hit 90 confirmed cases of COVID-19 Thursday.
The delay phase aims to push back the peak of the epidemic as much as possible, to allow time for the development of treatments and vaccines. At the beginning of this phase, the government would continue to focus on finding early cases, isolating them, following their chains of transmission, and isolating those where necessary. But eventually, measures would have to be put in place that involve “changes to society,” Whitty said.
“Im expecting the number only to go up, and there are now several … cases where we cannot see where this has come from in terms of a clear transmission, either because someone has come directly from overseas or because theyve had a close contact with someone who has recently returned from overseas,” he said.
However, he added that there is a “reasonably high degree of confidence” that 1 percent is at the “upper limit” of the mortality rate for coronavirus.
The National Health Service could face “huge pressure” over a period of about three to nine weeks at the peak of the epidemic, Whitty said, adding that it could sRead More – Source
LONDON — The U.K. government is gradually moving into the second, “delay,” phase of its plan to tackle the coronavirus, rather than seeking to simply “contain” the disease, Englands chief medical officer said.
Speaking to the House of Commons health and social care committee, Chris Whitty said “containment looks pretty optimistic” and it is “highly likely” that there is some level of community transmission of the virus in the U.K. now. The U.K. hit 90 confirmed cases of COVID-19 Thursday.
The delay phase aims to push back the peak of the epidemic as much as possible, to allow time for the development of treatments and vaccines. At the beginning of this phase, the government would continue to focus on finding early cases, isolating them, following their chains of transmission, and isolating those where necessary. But eventually, measures would have to be put in place that involve “changes to society,” Whitty said.
“Im expecting the number only to go up, and there are now several … cases where we cannot see where this has come from in terms of a clear transmission, either because someone has come directly from overseas or because theyve had a close contact with someone who has recently returned from overseas,” he said.
However, he added that there is a “reasonably high degree of confidence” that 1 percent is at the “upper limit” of the mortality rate for coronavirus.
The National Health Service could face “huge pressure” over a period of about three to nine weeks at the peak of the epidemic, Whitty said, adding that it could sRead More – Source
