The British Death Toll Would Have Been Half Lower At Previous Lockdown
The death toll from the UK’s coronavirus could have been half as low if the lockdown had been introduced a week earlier.
That says scientist and former member of the government corona advisory team Neil Ferguson.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced the lockdown on March 23, leaving people only allowed out for groceries and emergencies.
The death toll in the country is officially at 40,883, but in the UK only deaths in hospitals and care homes are currently being counted.
Ferguson thinks the British government introduced the right measures, but it was too late.
“The epidemic doubled every three to four days before the lockdown was implemented. If that had happened a week earlier, the death toll would have been half that.”
The epidemiologist is one of the researchers who created an essential model on which the British approach is based.
At the beginning of the epidemic in March, Ferguson estimated that about 20,000 people in the UK would die from the virus. He left the advisory group in May after it was revealed that he had broken the lockdown rules.
