SAGE expert warns of 100 Covid-19 deaths a day within four weeks
The daily death toll in the UK caused by Covid-19 will rise to around 100 per day within four weeks, according to a member of the government’s scientific advisory board, SAGE.
Professor Graham Medley said little can be done to prevent the daily deaths rising from the current 34 per day to 100 due to the number of cases being registered every day.
However, he said “we need to make sure transmission comes down now” to prevent that figure increasing further.
“The treatments [for Covid-19] have improved, the way the virus is transmitting is going to be different, but nonetheless it is a dangerous virus and inevitably it will lead to some deaths,” Medley told BBC Radio 4 this morning.
He said even if the death rate of those infected falls from 1.0 per cent to 0.8 per cent, “it still means that we are going to see deaths increase”.
His estimate of 100 deaths a day in the UK in three to four weeks time is based on the growing number of positive cases.
There were 6,874 confirmed cases on Friday, with the figure doubling around every 10 days.
“In order to stop that process increasing again, then we need to make sure that that transmission comes down now, because that doubling time will carry on. The things that we do now will not stop 100 people dying a day, but they will stop that progressing much higher.”