UK was too slow and 40,000 may die: top epidemiologist

The UK was too slow to impose a nationwide lockdown and its coronavirus death toll could reach 40,000, a leading health expert has told the government.

Joe Davies report.

The UK government has been accused of being too slow to react to the virus pandemic, and warned that up to 40,000 people in the country could die.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson initially refrained from approving stringent controls that other European leaders imposed.

But he later imposed a lockdown when projections showed a quarter of a million people could die if much tougher measures weren't introduced.

Professor Anthony Costello - an expert in epidemiology at the UCL Institute for Global Health - told the UK's Health and Social Care Committee: "We have to face the reality.

We were too slow with a number of things.

We could see 40,000 deaths by the time it's over." Health Secretary Matt Hancock told the committee that mass community testing was part of the British strategy, though the government has yet to find an antibody test that's accurate enough to be used.

Hancock added that one worrying side effect of the lockdown has been a big drop in the number of people seeking medical help with suspected cancer cases.

So far, more than 14,500 people with COVID-19 have died in British hospitals.

But new official data indicates the true death toll could be much larger, with many who've died at home on in care homes yet to be accounted for.