The United Kingdom is now at the deadliest stage of the coronavirus pandemic, with numbers now higher than at last year’s peak, England’s Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty said Monday.
“We need to be very clear that we are now at the worst stage of this disease in the UK, in the future we will have the vaccine, but the numbers are currently higher than they were at maximum – – good speed, ”Whitty told the BBC.
He said he expects the next few weeks to be the “most dangerous time,” before the vaccines being rolled out across the country can take effect. Currently, there are more than 30,000 people in the hospital and that number is still rising, Whitty said.
We are now in a situation where about 1 in 50 people in the UK as a whole and in London it is around 1 in 30, [in] parts of London it’s around 1 in 20, so there’s a high chance that if you meet someone useless, they’ll have Covid. “
Whitty ‘s warning comes as seven major vaccination centers open in England, as efforts continue to significantly raise the numbers receiving the picture. Older people over the age of 80 and health and social care staff living near the sites are being offered the opportunity to arrange meetings.
The UK aims to provide around 15 million of the most vulnerable members of society by mid-February, according to vaccines minister Nadhim Zahawi.
“This is really a race against time,” he told BBC Radio 4.
“As soon as we open more vaccination centers next week and the week after and of course the community got involved … no one should be more than a ten mile radius of a site.”
UK Health Minister Matt Hancock told the BBC on Sunday that adults in the UK would be vaccinated in the autumn. Hancock will hold a press conference later Monday to announce the delivery plan.