UK coronavirus outbreak set to peak around Easter and last SIX MONTHS with millions to become infected

BRITAIN'S deadly coronavirus outbreak could peak around Easter and last for six months - with millions set to be infected.

The killer disease is now rapidly spreading across the UK and passing from person-to-person at an alarming rate.

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It is currently accelerating at its fastest level yet - with 206 Brits infected and an 88-year-old man yesterday becoming the second coronavirus death in the UK.

But experts now say the outbreak could peak around Easter as millions are expected to be struck down with the deadly bug.

Microbiologist Peter Piot told : ";I’m often asked whether the threat is being overhyped. The answer, to me, is no.

"This is the real thing.

"I  think we will go to the peak of the epidemic somewhere around Easter."

Even once it reaches its peak, coronavirus chaos could last for another six months - infecting millions of people as the UK is ravaged by the disease.

Dr Piot added: "If it goes down in April or May it could come back again in November.”

His comments come as Sir Patrick Vallance, Chief Scientific Adviser to the Government, warned Britain was at the start of an outbreak.

The number of infected patients across the UK more than doubled between Tuesday and Thursday, with the figure rising from 51 to 116.

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It comes as:

• A grandad, 88, became the second person to die in the UK from coronavirus
• Boris Johnson was forced to deny the Government is 'covering up' the locations of new cases
• British Airways confirmed two baggage handlers at Heathrow Airport have tested positive for the virus
• A child at Alder Hey Children's Hospital in Liverpool tested became at least the third child to be infected
• An ex-Government health official sparked fury by claiming coronavirus is 'a useful way of clearing bed-blockers'
• The total of people infected across the globe soars past 100,000

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He said: "We have cases across Europe, across the world, this is a global epidemic and we would expect to see more cases in the UK.

"We've got a reasonable worst-case scenario... that involves 80 per cent of the population and we think the mortality rate is one per cent or lower. I expect it to be less than that.

"It takes about 12 weeks to reach the peak then maybe about 12 weeks to go away again.

"You expect about 90 per cent of cases in the nine weeks in the middle of that and 50 per cent of cases in the three weeks of the middle of that."

KILLER VIRUS

The UK was first gripped by the disease, which originated in ground zero Wuhan, on January 29 when it was confirmed two members of the same family had tested positive in York.

Since then, coronavirus has exploded around the country with two people aged over 70 dying from the disease in Berkshire and Milton Keynes this week.

The 88-year-old man who died yesterday had been admitted with pneumonia on March 3 and was described as "somebody older" who had "underlying health conditions".

It is understood the pensioner had visited several countries on the cruise and officials are now scrambling to contact others he had been in contact with.

They added that his relatives were made "to wear suits in order to visit him" and have now been told to self-isolate along with some members of medical staff.

The family were reportedly informed last night via phone call from the hospital that he tested positive and he died an hour later.

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They have now raised fears the hospital was too slow to spot the granddad had coronavirus and move him into isolation.

One told the Guardian: "Our concern is that the hospital were too slow to detect that our relative had symptoms similar to those of coronavirus and too slow to move him from a ward into isolation, and that that may have put a lot of people – fellow patients on the ward, staff who were looking after him and visitors who came to see him – at risk of contracting the virus from him.

“We think they should have put him into isolation right away, as soon as he arrived, given his symptoms. That was a failure by the hospital. He was coughing a lot and had quite severe symptoms.

“Despite that, he was put on a ward with lots of other sick patients for six or seven hours before he was moved into isolation. During that time a lot of relatives came to see him, both adults and children. Who knows if any of them have now got coronavirus and are maybe spreading it to older people who might get sick?"

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The first death came on Thursday when a 75-year-old woman died after testing positive for Covid-19.

Health chiefs said the woman had been suffering underlying health conditions and was 'in and out of hospital' before passing away at Royal Berkshire Hospital in Reading.

Britain is now bracing itself for more deaths as ministers draw up drastic "delay" measures - including potentially axing events and closing schools - to prevent the spread.

The government yesterday revealed a £46m emergency package to help find a coronavirus vaccine and develop a faster test for the virus.

Up until now most cases were in clusters around people who had travelled back to the UK from aboard.

But now - with the rate of cases rocketing - the outbreak from person to person in communities has taken hold.

CHILDREN INFECTED

Two British Airways baggage handlers working at Heathrow Airport are among the new positive tests, sparking fears over how many items of luggage they handled while carrying the virus.

A ward at Watford General Hospital was evacuated after a patient was confirmed to be infected with COVID-19.

Meanwhile, a child at Alder Hey Children's Hospital in Liverpool has tested positive for coronavirus.

The patient is one of at least three children in the UK to have become infected with the deadly bug.

Last week, a pupil at Churston Ferrers Grammar School in Torbay, Devon, was diagnosed after returning from holiday in northern Italy.

A pupil at Kingston Academy school in Surrey also tested positive after returning to the UK from a foreign trip.

Elderly patients are the most vulnerable to the virus, with mortality rates of around nine per cent - one in every 11 people - recorded so far in people aged over 80.

In children and adults aged under 30 the mortality rate plummets to fewer than one in every 500 cases.

Dr Richard Hatchett, who heads up the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, said the government needs to adopt an "aggressive" response to tackle the virus.

He said: "This is the most frightening disease I've ever encountered in my career, and that includes Ebola, it includes MERS and it includes SARS.

"I think the most concerning thing about this virus is the combination of infectiousness and the ability to cause severe disease or death."

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