LONDON (Reuters) - It will take a week or two before Britain’s social distancing measures start to translate into lower hospitalization rates but there has been a bit of a plateauing in London in recent days, NHS England Medical Director Stephen Powis said.

“There is reason to be hopeful that some of the changes we are observing in infections and perhaps in hospitalizations is now reflecting the benefit of the social distancing,” he told a news conference.

“It will be a week or two before the measures that are put in place translate into lower hospitalization rates. But ... in London in the last few days there has been a bit of a plateauing in terms of numbers.”