Britain is now at the deadliest point of the coronavirus pandemic, with the number now higher than last year, England Medical Director Chris Whitty said on Monday.
“We need to be very clear that now is the worst time of this epidemic for the UK, in the future we will have the vaccine, but the numbers at this time are higher than they were at the previous peak – – by some distance,” he said. Whitty for the BBC.
He said the next few weeks were expected to be “the most dangerous time” before vaccines, which are launched across the country, had an impact. There are currently more than 30,000 people in the hospital and that number is still growing, Whitty added.
We are now in a situation where in the UK as a whole, about 1 in 50 people is infected, and in London it is around 1 in 30, [in] In some parts of London it’s around 1 in 20, so there’s a very good chance that if you meet someone useless, they’ll have Covid. “
Whitty’s warning comes as seven mass vaccination centers are opened in England as efforts continue to massively increase the number of people hit. People over the age of 80 and health and social care workers who live close to the sites are given the chance to book appointments.
The UK aims to vaccinate about 15 million of the 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.
“Once we open more vaccination centers next week and next week and, of course, community pharmacies … no one should be more than a ten-mile radius from a site.”
British Health Minister Matt Hancock told the BBC on Sunday that all adults in the UK would be inoculated by autumn. Hancock will hold a press conference Monday to announce the delivery plan.