Boris Johnson has addressed the nation to give an update on the Covid-19 on the day that the United Kingdom has surpassed the grim milestone of 100,000 deaths within 28-days of a positive test.
Speaking at 5pm, Boris Johnson was joined by Professor Chris Whitty, who said that cases are starting to fall as a result of the lockdown measures currently in place across England and much of the rest of the UK.
Despite the falling numbers of cases, Professor Whitty stated that it would likely be two weeks before we saw the number of deaths fall;
“We have to be realistic and I think the rate of the number of people dying a day will come down relatively slowly over the next two weeks. We will be having additional deaths to add to that total the PM talked about.”
Chief Executive of the NHS, Sir Simon Stevens also joined the press conference, thanking the public for their support, adding that this coming Sunday would be a year to the day that the first Covid-19 cases were treated in the UK;
“It’s a year in which 250,000 severely ill patients have been treated in hospital. In the healthcare service this is not a year we will want to remember, but is a year we will never forget.”
The press conference gave some positive news about the state of the NHS, suggesting that patient numbers are beginning to plateau, with hopes that the pressure on staff will begin to be eased in the coming weeks, although the pressure will still remain high, perhaps for many months longer.
According to Professor Whitty, there are around 35,000 people currently being treated for Covid-19 in UK hospitals, with some areas not seeing the same levelling out in patient numbers.
He suggested the situation in the South East is currently better than in other parts of the country.
Professor Whitty further warned that whilst cases are falling, they are falling slowly, and that it should not result in a significant easing of restrictions at this time.
