The Department of Health announced 30 more cases of coronavirus, bringing the confirmed total in the UK to 115.
The Department of Health said of the new cases in England there are fears that community transmission may now be taking hold, by person to person.
Professor Whitty warned MPs in Westminster patients needing oxygen will stretch the NHS, during the peak of an epidemic he said some “things may be considerably less well done.”
Prof Whitty was giving evidence to the Health and Social Care Committee, he said, the NHS is “incredibly good at flexing” in meeting demands placed on it, but acknowledged that, at a peak, “things may be considerably less well done than we would hope for a short but definable period of time.
“The bit of the system which will come under pressure first will be those conditions that require people to have oxygen and particularly to have critical care beds, and that bit, I think, will come under pressure at quite an early stage if we have a high-end-of-the-range epidemic for this.
“Wider general services will be much less affected. And children’s services – because children seem to be relatively spared from this disease – I think will be relatively much less affected.”
King’s College Hospital are testing other patients to ensure the virus has not spread further.
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