‘Turn the tide’ on coronavirus in 12 weeks – was Boris Johnson right?
What the numbers say about Covid-19 in the UK since March 19.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced at the Downing Street press conference on March 19 that “we can turn the tide” on coronavirus “within the next 12 weeks”.
Those 12 weeks are up on June 11 – so do the latest statistics suggest the tide has been turned?
– Deaths per day involving Covid-19
On the date Boris Johnson made his speech, March 19, there were a total of 77 deaths involving Covid-19 in the UK.
This figure is based on the number of registered deaths where Covid-19 was mentioned on the death certificate, and is published by the UK’s statistical agencies.
The daily total rose steadily through the rest of March and early April, peaking with 1,441 deaths occurring on April 8.
Since then the number of deaths per day has been on a broadly downwards trend, dropping below 1,000 on April 24 and 500 on May 10.
The latest available figure, based on registered deaths across the UK, is for May 29, when 211 deaths occurred.
In terms of the volume of deaths taking place each day in the UK, a tide has been turned – though we are yet to return to the levels of mid-March.
