The UK is now at the dead end of the coronavirus pandemic, with numbers now higher than during last year’s peak, England’s medical director Chris Whitty said on Monday.
“We have to make it very clear that we are now at the worst point of the epidemic for the UK, in the future we will have the vaccine, but the numbers at the moment are higher than at the previous peak – – by some distance,” Whitty told the BBC.
He said he expects the next few weeks to be the “most dangerous period”, before vaccines being launched across the country can have an impact. There are currently more than 30,000 people hospitalized and that number is still increasing, added Whitty.
We are now in a situation where, in the UK as a whole, about 1 in 50 people are infected and in London about 1 in 30, [in] London’s share is about 1 in 20, so there’s a very high chance that if you find someone unnecessarily, that person will have Covid. “
Whitty’s warning comes at a time when seven mass vaccination centers are opened in England, while efforts continue to massively increase the number of people who received the vaccine. People over 80 and health and social workers who live near the sites are having the opportunity to make appointments.
The UK plans to vaccinate about 15 million of its most vulnerable members of society by mid-February, according to vaccine 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 next week and, of course, community pharmacies … no one should be within sixteen of a location.”
UK Health Minister Matt Hancock told the BBC on Sunday that all adults in the UK would be vaccinated by autumn. Hancock will give a press conference on Monday to announce the delivery plan.