There is no reassurance that the number of COVID-19 deaths in the country won’t spike according to England’s Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty. He made the comments at what was the 100th COVID-19 briefing since the pandemic hit the U.K., with the country experiencing a second wave of the virus.
Whitty said: “The doubling time at the moment is slower than it was in March when it was three or four days. One of the problems we had in the first wave was we initially underestimated how fast the doubling was occurring at that stage and it’s very important we don’t do that for a second time.
“Once exponential growth starts… things go very quickly. We are going up from a base, the tail of the first wave, in terms of deaths still occurring and these deaths on top so it’s not a straight like-for-like comparison. This small number of deaths now should not reassure us that we won’t be – in relatively short order – in quite difficult places, certainly in regions where we’re seeing significant growth at the moment, where pressure on the NHS could happen sooner rather than later if we can’t get on top of it really quite fast.”
The Downing Street briefing was held by Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who was also joined by his Chief Scientific Adviser Sir Patrick Vallance. The prime minister also said he would not refuse to rule out the implementation of new restrictions if the number of COVID-19 cases continues to rise.
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He said: “I have to be clear that if the evidence requires it, we will not hesitate to take further measures that would, I’m afraid, be more costly than the ones we have put into effect now. But if we put in the work together now, then we give ourselves the best possible chance of avoiding that outcome and avoiding further measures.”
It comes after Johnson confirmed that a second wave of the virus was taking place across the country, with the U.K. recording 7,143 lab confirmed cases of COVID-19 on Tuesday, the highest daily number since the pandemic began. A further 7,108 people have tested positive for COVID-19 in the last 24 hours, along with an additional 71 deaths reported today, which is based on people having tested positive for COVID-19 and died within 28 days of that result, according to the Department of Health.
Meanwhile, the government has faced criticism from MPs within the ruling Conservative Party for failing to give Parliament a greater say over the use of emergency powers to curb people’s freedoms. The government has imposed lockdowns on areas with an outbreak of cases, preventing people from other households from mixing and in England banned gatherings of more than six people, with the police able to issues fines for those who fail to comply.
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New measures for England which came into force on Monday also included a ban on mass singing in pubs as well as £1,000 ($1292) fines for falsely reporting that someone must quarantine. More than 50 Conservative MPs have backed an amendment calling for Parliament to be given a greater say.
