GBP: 937 die while nation considers expanding confinement period

In a week that many say is "peak week" in the battle against the new virus, the UK has recorded its worst day. It was reported that 937 deaths were recorded, with the nation being in the final week of the initial 3-week containment put in place by Boris Johnson (Prime Minister). Counting Wednesday's figures, the United Kingdom unfortunately now counts almost 7099 deaths. This means that the current death rate there is well over 10%. This represents 9% of the total number of virus deaths worldwide.

The news comes as Johnson remains in intensive care with his own battle against the virus. According to Rishid Sunek, who was at the podium at the UK's daily briefing on the pandemic, Boris is "reading in bed and feeling better". Boris, whose confinement is due to end shortly after the Easter weekend, must now watch the cabinet decide on the next steps.

Domic Rab, the first secretary who is now effectively in charge, has not yet made any final decisions on whether to relax the quarantine. Parliament has since declared that the review of containment will take place as originally suggested, 3 weeks after the initial implementation. As it was implemented on March 24, the review is scheduled to take place on April 15.

However, although Downing Street has not yet made a decision, Wales has. In a statement by the Welsh Minister for Housing and Local Government, Julia James, "It has been almost three weeks since we asked people to stay at home, work at home whenever they can and stop making unnecessary journeys. These measures will remain in place next week".

She went on to say, "We will use the scientific evidence to determine when it is time to make the necessary changes. Right now is not the right time".

Virus stats

Whereas the decision of the UK cabinet should also be based on scientific figures: where exactly is the British currency?

Worldwide, there are currently more than 1,367,197 reported cases of corona. The UK has 61,622. So far, about 279,500 people have been tested for the virus. This means that if the nation prematurely relaxes the containment restrictions, the chances of a potential new outbreak remain.

The big problem will be testing, the government has recently started testing around 9500 people a day across the UK. However, this figure may simply be too low to test a significant proportion of the population before the true virus figures are available. That is why the UK hopes to be able to test around 95,000 people a day. However, these figures are not expected to be reached until the end of the month, which could mean that an extension of the quarantine period by 3 more weeks may well be in the cards.