‘Early signs’ that coronavirus might be slowing in UK, top scientist says

A top scientist has said that the coronavirus outbreak looks like it’s slowing in the UK.

Professor Neil Ferguson, of Imperial College London, has been advising the government over the virus, and had a positive update for us all.

Professor Ferguson says the slowing of coronavirus’ spread is the result of the government’s social distancing measures.

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He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “In the UK we can see some early signs of slowing in some indicators – less so deaths because deaths are lagged by a long time from when measures come in force.

“But if we look at the numbers of new hospital admissions, that does appear to be slowing down a bit now.

“It has not yet plateaued, so still the numbers can be increasing each day but the rate of that increase has slowed.”

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Professor Ferguson said that different parts of the country are at different stages of the outbreak, with up to 5% of the population in London likely to have already been infected.

He added: “It is quite clear across the country, the epidemic is in different stages in different parts of the country.

“In central London it could be as many as 3% to 5% of the population has been infected – maybe more in individual hot spots. In the country as a whole in the UK, maybe 2% or 3%.”

Just because it might be slowing down, it doesn’t mean anyone should stop taking the social distancing/isolation guidelines seriously – the only way we’ll get through this is by following these measures. Please continue to stay safe everyone.