Recovering from coronavirus after moving out of the intensive care unit, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Sunday he owed his life to doctors, as a senior government advisor admitted the UK could have the worst death rate in Europe.
With Saturday figures putting the death toll at 9,875, the weekend is set to see the figure cross 10,000. The government’s medical advisors believe that if the eventual figure is below 20,000, “it will have done well”.
In his first statement after emerging from ICU, Johnson thanked doctors in the St Thomas’ Hospital: “I can’t thank them enough. I owe them my life.” The UK parliament is due to reopen virtually on April 21.
Jeremy Farrar, director of the Wellcome Trust and member of the government’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies said on Sunday that the UK is likely to see the worst death rate in Europe.
He told BBC: “The numbers in the UK have continued to go up. I do hope we’re coming close to the number of new infections reducing … and the number of deaths plateauing and starting to come down”.
“And yes, the UK is likely to be certainly one of the worst, if not the worst affected country in Europe”.
Farrar added that a second or third wave of the virus “was probably inevitable” and treatment and a vaccine was “our only true exit strategy”. A vaccine could be available by autumn but it would take longer to ramp up manufacturing to the scale required to vaccinate many millions.
“I would hope we would get (that) done in 12 months but that is in itself an unprecedented ambition,” he said.
As medical professionals continued to complain of lack of personal protection equipment while treating patients, new details of those contracting and dying from the virus include pharmacist Pooja Sharma, who worked at the Eastbourne General Hospital in east Sussex.
