UK medical adviser warns of critical point in nation’s pandemic fight

Chris Whitty, chief medical adviser for the U.K. government, warned this week that the nation is reaching a critical point in its fight against the coronavirus pandemic as the nation sees an uptick in cases heading into the colder months.

“We have in a very bad sense, literally turned a corner,” Whitty said on Monday at a press conference, during which he also warned the outbreak in the nation was headed in the “wrong direction” amid rising cases.

He also urged people in the nation to take the problem “very seriously” as the fall and winter months loom, which he noted will “very likely” benefit COVID-19 as they do viruses like the flu.

“So, we should see this as a six-month problem that we have to deal with collectively. … A lot of people have said maybe this is a milder virus than it was in April. I’m afraid, although that would be great if that were true, we see no evidence that is the case,” he said.

Whitty said the nation has seen cases mostly rise in young adults, who he noted “are least likely to end up in hospital.”

He stressed, however, that although the disease, for many people, “remains a mild infection,” that has not been the case for those who are older that are more susceptible to serious infection. 

“As you move up the ages, if you move into people who are more vulnerable, then the mortality rates if people get this rise to quite significant rates. And what we’ve seen in other countries and are now clearly seeing here is that they’re not staying just in the younger age groups,” he continued.

“They’re moving up the age bands and the mortality rates will be similar to — slightly lower than they were previously — but they will be similar to what we saw previously,” he continued.

Whitty’s comments come two days after the U.K. on Saturday recorded its highest number of daily cases of the disease since May.

Amid the rising cases, government officials are said to be looking at re-implementing tougher restrictions to curb the spread of the disease.

Residents in the U.K. who don’t self-quarantine after testing positive for the novel coronavirus could also face fines as steep as $13,000 under a new order set to take effect later this month.