The coronavirus outbreak in the UK appears to be "slowing", a leading scientist and government adviser has said.

Professor Neil Ferguson, of Imperial College London, said there were "early signs" social distancing measures had started reducing the spread of COVID-19.

"In the UK we can see some early signs of slowing in some indicators - less so deaths because deaths are lagged by a long time from when measures come in force," he told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme.

"But if we look at the numbers of new hospital admissions, that does appear to be slowing down a bit now.

"It has not yet plateaued, so still the numbers can be increasing each day but the rate of that increase has slowed."


Professor Ferguson said the rate of infections varied in different parts of the country.

"It is quite clear across the country, the epidemic is in different stages in different parts of the country," he said.

"In central London it could be as many as 3% to 5% of the population has been infected - maybe more in individual hot spots. In the country as a whole in the UK, maybe 2% or 3%."

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He added that he hoped antibody tests would be available in "days rather than weeks".

It came after the officials announced on Sunday that 1,228 patients in the UK who tested positive for coronavirus had died.

A total of 19,522 people have been found to have the disease out of 127,737 tested across the country.