UK's coronavirus outbreak is 'starting to slow' but deaths will keep rising, says government expert Neil Ferguson

The UK's coronavirus outbreak looks to be slowing down because of the Government's unprecedented decision to put Britain in lockdown, one of Number 10's leading experts said today. 

Professor Neil Ferguson claims to have detected 'early signs' that the spread of the life-threatening infection was being curbed by the draconian measure, with the rate of increase in hospital admissions easing.

But Professor Ferguson - one of the authors of a bleak Imperial College London report that convinced Downing Street to ramp up its efforts to stop the crisis after warning that 250,000 Brits could die under a controversial plan to build-up 'herd immunity' - warned deaths are still likely to rise sharply as they lag two or three weeks behind the new infections. 

He also suggested that up to three per cent of the UK - around two million people - might already have been infected, and said the figure could be as high as five per cent in London.
 

The slight glimmer of optimism emerged after Boris Johnson delivered a rallying cry for Britain to work together, thanking everyone who was contributing in a video from his quarantine bunker in Downing Street. 

But deputy chief medical officer Jenny Harries has warned that Britons should not expect a return to 'normal life' for six months, and possibly longer.

A Nobel Prize-winning scientist from Stanford University today also claimed that the coronavirus outbreaks in New York City and Italy were burning out.

Professor Michael Levitt, who accurately predicted the demise of China's crisis after analysing the raw data, added Spain's outbreak also looks to be slowing - but added there 'aren't enough numbers' to say the same for the UK.

On another rollercoaster day in the coronavirus crisis:

• The Prime Minister contradicted Tory predecessor Margaret Thatcher by saying there 'is such a thing as society' as he hailed 20,000 retired medics returning to the NHS;
• F1 teams produced a breathing device that could stop coronavirus patients having to go into intensive care, and should be in hospitals within days; 
• Health minister Helen Whately admitted that while the government now has the 'capacity' to carry out 10,000 coronavirus tests a day it might not have done so yet; 
• Ministers finally order 17.5 million antibody testing kits so they can check a quarter of the population in bid to get key staff back to work;
• Police armed with new powers to enforce the lockdown are continuing to shame suspected wrongdoers – including the MP son of former Labour Party leader Neil Kinnock;
• Economists have warned the crisis could cause UK GDP to plunge by 15 per cent and unemployment to double as the FTSE 100 fell more than 2 per cent;
• EasyJet grounded its entire fleet of 330-plus planes as coronavirus continued to wound Britain's airlines - just ten days after the airline paid a £174million dividend to shareholders including to its founder Stelios;.

MailOnline