50,000 Covid cases a day in UK if trends continue, warn Witty and Vallance

Britain could be facing 50,000 new Covid cases a day in a few weeks time if the current rate of infection continues says Sir Patrick Vallance.

Britain could be facing 50,000 new Covid cases a day in a few weeks time if the current rate of infection continues says Sir Patrick Vallance, the Government’s chief scientific advisor.

50,000 daily Covid cases in UK

Sir Patrick Vallance also made the statement that the UK could see more than 200 deaths every day by mid-November if action is not taken to reduce the spread of Covid.

The infection rate is currently doubling every week and he insisted that this was not just a result of more testing being carried out across the country. He added that “in every age group we’ve seen an increase” in positive results. Vallance said the “vast majority of the population remain susceptible” to contracting Covid seeing as the number of Brits with antibodies was still very low and that “speed” and “action” were essential in handling the virus.

Chief Medical Officer, Professor Whitty, told Brits to take the situation “collectively, very seriously”. There is the possibility of social restrictions being re-introduced as Witty said that “unnecessary links between households” should be broken. It is also likely that people will be asked to work from home again soon as the office was included under the bracket of “unnecessary links”.

The pair cited France and Spain as countries that bear similarities to the UK in terms of an initial increase of cases in young people and then spreading the virus to other age groups. They expect the pandemic to last another six months at the very least. An ONS study found that approximately 70,000 people have Covid at the moment. 3 million people in England are expected to have already had Covid.

It wasn’t all doom and gloom though as they addressed the possibility of some people in the most vulnerable categories being able to get a vaccine before the end of the year. That said, they did say there would only be “small amounts” of any potential vaccine by then. Their press conference comes at a time when another national lockdown has not been ruled out, a prospect which leaves many in the country unnerved and concerned about how long Covid will continue to impact our lives.