Neither Professor Chris Whitty or Sir Patrick Vallance were asked to approve Number 10’s Government’s confusing ‘stay alert’ message, it was claimed today. The ‘stay alert, control the virus, save lives’ slogan was unveiled on Sunday, replacing the ‘stay at home’ message that was in place since lockdown on March 23. But the top experts … Read more
At least 4.2million people in the UK have been infected with the killer coronavirus, according to one of the best estimates of the disease’s death rate. And London, which has been at the heart of Britain’s epidemic, is home to at least 935,000 people who have had the disease already. The estimate is based on numbers … Read more
The Government is carrying out thousands of random coronavirus tests to track how fast the virus is spreading and work out its reproduction rate. Prime Minister Boris Johnson today confirmed that the reproduction rate of the coronavirus in Britain is below one, meaning the virus is running out of road. The PM said the lockdown … Read more
Disruptive social distancing measures will have to remain in place for the rest of this year, the country’s Chief Medical Officer has warned. Professor Chris Whitty said the measures cannot be lifted until either a vaccine for Covid-19 or ‘highly effective’ drugs to treat the virus become available. He told the daily Downing Street press … Read more
Ministers could be given the green light to start planning an exit from the lockdown within ten days, the Chief Medical Officer suggested last night. Chris Whitty said Government experts hoped to have enough evidence about the transmission of the coronavirus by that point to ‘judge how we can go into the next phase’. The … Read more
Julie Ding (right) fears she will not be able to be at her dying mother’s bedside after she was banned from visiting her nursing home. Pictured as a child with mother Roberta and late sister Susan The boss of Britain’s largest care home operator today suggested two thirds of all homes across Britain have recorded … Read more
The scale of the coronavirus catastrophe unfolding in Britain’s care homes was dramatically laid bare last night. The Chief Medical Officer revealed that almost 100 more homes had reported outbreaks in the past 24 hours. He said more than 13 per cent had now been hit nationally by the deadly disease, the equivalent of a … Read more
Coronavirus outbreaks have been recorded in 92 care homes in the last 24 hours alone, the government revealed today as authorities were accused of ‘airbrushing out’ the deaths of hundreds of elderly victims. Chief Medical Officer Professor Chris Whitty said that almost one in seven (13.5 per cent) of the UK’s 11,300 care homes has … Read more
A furious row broke out among Government scientists tonight over whether they raised the alarm early enough over just how deadly coronavirus could be. A devastating Reuters investigation published today suggested that the scientific committees that advised Boris Johnson didn’t study, until mid-March, the option of a stringent lockdown. However, the chief scientific adviser Sir … Read more
Britain should have acted more quickly and followed the example of Germany to introduce mass coronavirus testing, England’s Chief Medical Officer admitted today. Professor Chris Whitty spoke as figures released today show that Berlin has managed to keep its death toll below that of the UK despite having around double the confirmed cases. Today was … Read more