Prime Minister of UK Boris Johnson said on Sunday that the number of deaths and cases are climbing in the country, and added that “We cannot disguise or sugar-coat the threat” of coronavirus. The situation in the UK is, according to him, like Italy’s was two or three weeks ago.
Latest figures show that 233 people have died and 5,018 cases were confirmed positive, as concern grew over people in many parts of the UK going out to enjoy Sunday’s sunny weather instead of socially distancing themselves.
Johnson said in a Mother’s Day message that the ‘single best present’ people could give their mothers is to stay away and spare them the risk of catching a ‘very dangerous disease’, adding that statistics show that mothers are much more likely to die of coronavirus.
He said: “We cannot disguise or sugar-coat the threat. The numbers are very stark, and they are accelerating. We are only a matter of weeks – two or three – behind Italy. The Italians have a superb health care system”.
“And yet their doctors and nurses have been completely overwhelmed by the demand. The Italian death toll is already in the thousands and climbing. Unless we act together, unless we make the heroic and collective national effort to slow the spread – then it is all too likely that our own NHS will be similarly overwhelmed”.
The Johnson government has closed public places such as pubs, restaurants and theatres, and announced a historic multi-billion-pound package to shore up the economy hit by the crisis, including paying 80 per cent of wages of private sector employees who have or will be laid off.
London and others towns are in lockdown, with local authorities moving homeless people on the streets into hotel rooms requisitioned on an emergency basis. Thousands of military personnel are on stand-by as the health service strains to deal with the virus challenge.
