ONE IN 50 PEOPLE IN ENGLAND HAS CORONAVIRUS, SAYS CHRIS WHITTY

Tue 05 January 2021:

About one in 50 people across England now has coronavirus, England’s chief medical officer Chris Whitty said Tuesday, calling the figure “really very high.”

In a press conference with prime minister Boris Johnson and the government’s chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance earlier today, the chief medical officer for England, Professor Chris Whitty, warned that some restrictions may return next winter to control the virus.

The Covid-19 case rate across the United Kingdom increased by 70% in the two weeks to Dec. 30, Whitty said.

Government data showed the rate rose from 287 cases per 100,000 people on Dec. 16 to 487 per 100,000 people on Dec. 30. The comparison is of the seven-day rolling average.

The number of people currently hospitalized with Covid-19 across the UK is as high as it has ever been, Whitty added.

The number is daily deaths is currently below the peak in April 2020, but Whitty said that pattern might not hold given the number of people sick with coronavirus at the moment.

“We will unfortunately see, inevitably, a spike in the number of people who die of this disease,” Whitty said.

England entered its third national lockdown after the prime minister shut schools and imposed the toughest restrictions in March in an attempt to stem surging coronavirus infections.

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