Professor Neil Ferguson, from Imperial College London, said the UK could be seeing an “uptick” in Covid-19 cases but it is in “quite a different situation” from other European nations, where curbs on freedoms are being considered.
Asked on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme what direction he believes the country is heading in terms of coronavirus, the member of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) said: “That’s a very difficult question to answer right now.
“We’ve had two or three weeks of declining cases and admission to hospitals – that may be petering out, it is too early to say. There is a hint of an uptick in the last few days.
“But we are in quite a different situation from those European countries you are talking about (the Netherlands, Germany).
“We’ve had very high case numbers – between 30,000 and 50,000 a day – really for the last four months, since the beginning of July.
“That has obviously had some downsides. It has also paradoxically had an upside of boosting the immunity of the population compared with countries like Germany, the Netherlands and France, which have had much lower case numbers and are only now seeing an uptick.”
