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The number of diagnosed new Covid-19 cases is still too high to allow the blockage to be alleviated soon, top scientists warned, as the death toll from viruses in UK hospitals topped 20,000 on Saturday.
Home secretary Priti Patel described the figure as a “terrible milestone” and a “profoundly tragic and moving moment.” She said she showed a need for the British public to “stay strong” and stay home for the foreseeable future.
A further 813 deaths were reported in hospitals, bringing the UK total to 20,319. This figure does not include Covid-19 deaths in nursing homes, hospices, and the community.
As ministers were pressured to ease the blockade of the business community and conservative MPs worried about the plight of small businesses in their own constituencies, scientists said the drop in new reported coronavirus cases Daily it was disappointingly slow.
Professor John Edmunds, a member of the government’s Covid-19 group of government experts, said that if the blockade were to be lowered now, the new improved contact testing and tracking system being implemented would be affected.
“The strategy behind the plans to lift the blockade is based on the idea [that] then you could control the epidemic by testing people for infections before tracing their contacts, “Edmunds said.
“However, if we lift the closure now, the test and track system would be overwhelmed. We will have to lower the case numbers much more than they are now before we can think about lifting the current regulations. ”
Professor Keith Neal of the University of Nottingham agreed that the number of patients who were transferred to the hospital with Covid-19 was still too high. “This daily figure peaked on April 5 with 5,903 cases. This Saturday it stood at 3,583, “he added. This latest figure was boosted by an additional 1,330 additional cases of infected healthcare and healthcare workers, bringing the overall total for Saturday to 4,913.
“Therefore, it has taken three weeks for the number of patients hospitalized with Covid-19 to decrease from a daily total of 5,903 to 3,641.”
Professor Paul Hunter of the University of East Anglia added: “There is no doubt that this rate of decline is disappointing. It is certainly too high to consider lifting the blocking restrictions today. We need to reduce the numbers to a few hundred new cases per day before we can do that. Such a decrease could take months. “
Without a firm indication from the government as to when social distancing rules could be relaxed, Prime Minister Boris Johnson will return to Downing Street on Monday after convalescing at Checkers, having become seriously ill with Covid-19 earlier this month.
The prime minister faces an acute dilemma over the shutdown as members of his cabinet and his party’s parliamentarians argue over whether it should be easier to save the economy from collapse, the prevailing view in the Treasury, or whether It should tell the public to double down on restrictions to reduce the death toll. Matt Hancock, the health secretary, is pushing for the more cautious approach.
Former Chancellor Philip Hammond said Saturday that it was time for the government to announce plans for an exit strategy, while Graham Brady, chairman of the 1922 Tory Committee, said parliamentarians wanted to see a desperate business strategy. He said: “All members of parliament should be receiving representations from large and small companies that need more help, or some sense of when they can start planning at least a partial release of these measures.”
But Patel insisted that the government’s five tests to ease the blockade must be fully met. “It is clearly not now,” he said.
Amid signs that public confidence in the government’s handling of the crisis is declining in a new Opinium survey for the Observer, ministers face an uphill battle to reach their goal of evaluating 100,000 people per day for Covid-19 in late April.
At 9 a.m., a total of 640,792 tests had been performed, with 28,760 performed on Friday.
Downing Street said the prime minister had said he was “eager to go” after doctors gave him the green light, which had been closely monitoring his progress since he was released from St Thomas hospital two weeks ago. Sources said Johnson’s return “marked a strong squeeze from the prime minister,” who held a series of calls and teleconference meetings with key ministers last week.
But on Saturday, Labor leader Keir Starmer increased pressure on the prime minister, writing to Johnson with a warning that the United Kingdom risked “falling behind the rest of the world” by refusing to discuss an exit strategy for the shutdown.
Starmer wrote: “The UK government is behind the curve on this. I’m afraid we are falling behind the rest of the world. Merely acting as if this discussion was not happening is not credible … The British public has made great sacrifices to make the closure work. They deserve to be part of an adult conversation about what comes next. If we want to bring people with us and secure their consent, this is necessary now. ”
Meanwhile, the Department of Health and Social Assistance announced that mobile test units, operated by the armed forces, would travel throughout the United Kingdom to increase access to coronavirus testing.
On Saturday, the website offering tests to key workers was overwhelmed for the second day before 10 a.m., and people in southern England reported that the only tests available were in Scotland.
DHSC said the new units would respond to areas of greatest demand, traveling to assess frontline and most vulnerable workers at sites that include nursing homes, police stations and prisons.
