The priority is now on delaying the spread of coronavirus – not containing it

England’s top doctor has said efforts to battle coronavirus have now entered the next phase to reduce the speed at which the disease is spreading – rather than contain it.

Professor Chris Whitty is appearing before the Health and Social Care Committee today where he is being grilled about how well Britain is prepared for the outbreak as the number of infected jumped to 90.

He told MPs that the country is moving into the ‘delay phase’ of the government’s battle plan, which sets out action that would be considered as: ‘Distancing strategies – such as school closures, encouraging greater home working, reducing the number of large-scale gatherings – to slow the spread of the disease throughout the population’.



Prof Whitty told MPs it is now ‘highly likely’ there is ‘community transmission’ of coronavirus in the country. He said: ‘I’m expecting the number only to go up, and there are now several – not large numbers – but several cases where we cannot see where this has come from in terms of a clear transmission, either because someone has come directly from overseas or because they’ve had a close contact with someone who has recently returned from overseas.


There are now 90 confirmed cases of coronavirus in the UK (Picture: Metro.co.uk)

Workers, some wearing protective face masks, cross London Bridge during rush hour today (Picture: Reuters)

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He added: ‘That I think makes it highly likely therefore that there is some level of community transmission of this virus in the UK now.

‘I think we should work on the assumption it is here, on very low levels, at this point in time – but that I think should be the working assumption on which we go forward from this point onwards.’

On the spread of the virus, Prof Whitty said there would be ‘some risk of transmission’ from touching hand rails and hard surfaces for up to 72 hours.

He added: ‘Just touching it will not give you the virus: it is if you touch it and then touch your face, having not washed your hands between them.

‘So, if you go on to the Tube and touch the rail, that’s fine, but just be aware of what you do with your hands – don’t touch your face, wash your hands, and then you can do what you like.’

Prof Whitty warned that a vaccine is likely to take at least a year to develop.

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Women walk past a sign providing guidance information about coronavirus at one of the entrances to University College Hospital in London as the number of UK cases rose (Picture: Getty)

Under the government’s coronavirus battle plan, the ‘delay phase’ could potentially see schools being closed and more people working from home (Picture: Getty)

He said: ‘The UK is playing a major part in the global action to create a vaccine.

‘Although I’m confident there will be multiple vaccine candidates around the world entering clinical trials in the next few months, this is a virus that has a very low mortality.’

He added: ‘I think that a year would be lucky to get this. We will not have a vaccine for the first wave – if we get a first wave. We need to be realistic.’

Asked by former health secretary Jeremy Hunt why the Department of Health was no longer providing daily information on the location of new cases in the UK, Prof Whitty said: ‘We had a bit of a communications fumble on this.’



He told the committee: ‘We are intending to provide geographical information – in fact, in the medium term we will provide a lot more information with maps and other things, with a proper dashboard as we gradually move into a phase where there are many more cases.

‘What we are, though, intending to do is have some delay – about 24 hours – to be absolutely sure we’ve got the details right.’

Prof Whitty told MPs it is now ‘highly likely’ there is ‘community transmission’ of coronavirus in the country (Picture: PA)

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Three new cases were announced in Scotland today following the biggest day-on-day increase yesterday.

Overall, current figures show 80 in England, six in Scotland, one in Wales and three in Northern Ireland.

Globally there are now more than 93,000 cases, with 3,000 deaths.

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