UK may relax Coronavirus lockdown in the coming weeks, says top epidemiologist

The coronavirus outbreak has created a major stir around the world infecting over one million people globally

Britain may relax the social distancing rules in a matter of weeks provided if the spread of the deadly coronavirus or COVID-19 eases down and the testing steps up, a professor of mathematical biology at the Imperial College London stated on Saturday.

"I'm hopeful that in a few weeks' time we will be able to move to a regime which - will not be normal life, let me emphasize that - but will be somewhat more relaxed in terms of social-distancing and the economy but rely more on testing," Neil Ferguson he told BBC Radio.

Coronavirus crisis

Coronavirus
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The coronavirus outbreak has created a major stir around the world claiming the lives of nearly 59,000 people worldwide and infecting over a million. The virus which originated from the Chinese city of Wuhan of the Hubei province has spread to over 170 countries in the world.

The WHO has described the outbreak as a pandemic and the epicentre of the outbreak has probably shifted to the US where cases are rising every minute. At this moment there are no vaccines to combat the virus but researchers working on finding a vaccine.

(With agency inputs)

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