LAST CHANCE
Covid announcement today: What did Chris Whitty and Patrick Vallance say?
PROFESSOR Chris Whitty and Sir Patrick Vallance have addressed the nation today (September 21).
The experts gave an update on the rise of the spread of coronavirus and how the UK can stay safe in the pandemic.
⚠️ Read our coronavirus live blog for the latest news & updates
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How can I watch the Covid announcement live?
You can watch our live stream of the conference from Downing Street at the top of this article.
It will also be aired on BBC and streamed on the
In addition, our live coronavirus blog provides updates and reports on what is said during the briefing.
What time did the Covid announcement start?
Prof Whitty, Chief Medical Officer, and Dr Vallance, Chief Scientific Adviser, issued a Doomsday warning that the nation is in the grip of a second wave today, Monday 21 September, at 11am.
In an unprecedented move, they addressed the nation without a minister alongside them.
They just made the announcement without taking questions from journalists.
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What have Chris Whitty and Patrick Vallance said?
Dr Vallance started the briefing by sharing recent statistics on the increase in cases of the virus.
He said: "What we are seeing is an increase over August and into September. The top line is amongst 18 to 29 year olds.
"But what you can see is an increase in all age groups. The lowest increase has been in children.
"Could that increase be due to increased testing? The answer is no.
"In the ONS study it's estimated that roughly 70,000 people in the UK have Covid infection and about 6,000 people per day are getting the infection.
"So we are in a situation where numbers are clearly increasing among all age groups"
The Government's Chief Scientific Adviser has said the pandemic is doubling every seven days.
He warned the UK must “act fast” to avoid disastrous consequences from “exponential growth”.
He predicted if things continue at this pace, by October we could see 50,000 cases per day.
Chris Whitty said the virus is not slowing and that we must "collectively take this very seriously".
There was a “simple message” that “as the disease spreads, as it spreads across age groups, we expect to see increasing hospitalisations and unfortunately, those increasing hospitalisations will lead to increasing deaths”.
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Prof Whitty said: "The problem with an epidemic like this, if I as an individual increase my risk, I increase the risk to everyone around me and everyone who is a contact to theirs.
"There are broadly four things we can do to get on top of this. The first in which is reducing our individualness and this is around the things we all know about - hands, space, face."
He urged people to use masks on pubic transport.
"The second group of things is ways to isolate the bug, so people have symptoms they must self isolate.
"This means they are taking on behalf of society a big step forward to keep the virus out of circulation - this is critical part of the response.
"The third one and arguably the most difficult is we have to break unnecessary links between households.
"This means reducing social contacts, whether that be at work and in social environments.
"The final thing is the science, investing in drugs, vaccines, diagnostics."
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They pair were not be joined by Boris Johnson or any members of the cabinet and did not take questions from journalists.
Read More on The Sun
A Downing Street source said: “Infection rates are going up, we are in the grip of a second Covid wave and we’re now in the last-chance saloon.
“The Chief Scientific Adviser and Chief Medical Officer will set out the latest data and the stark reality we’re now facing.”
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