UK could see 50,000 new cases per day, chief medical officer warns
The United Kingdom could see about 50,000 new COVID-19 cases a day by mid-October if the current rate of infection is not curbed, the government's chief scientific adviser warned Monday.
"At the moment we think the epidemic is doubling roughly every seven days," Sir Patrick Vallance said in a televised address from London. "If, and that’s quite a big if, but if that continues unabated and this grows doubling every seven days... if that continued, you would end up with something like 50,000 cases in the middle of October per day."
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That rate of infection would be expected to lead to 200-plus deaths per day by mid-November, according to Vallance, who noted that there are already measures in place to prevent the country from hitting those grim milestones.
"That requires speed, it requires action, he said, "and it requires enough in order to be able to bring that down."
Vallance said the increase in COVID-19 infections has been among "every age group" and that the number of people in the country showing antibodies for the disease remains low, meaning the "vast majority of the population remain susceptible."
"As the disease spreads, as it spreads across age groups, we expect to see increasing hospitalizations," he added. "And unfortunately, those increasing hospitalizations will lead to increasing deaths."