UK winter could see 85,000 deaths
As many as 85,000 people could die in the UK in a second wave of coronavirus this winter, a leaked scientific paper prepared for the government has suggested.
The paper by the prime minister’s Scientific Advisory Group on Emergencies (Sage), seen by BBC2’s Newsnight, said that some lockdown restrictions may have to be reintroduced and kept in place until March 2021, though it added that schools are likely to remain open.
The document stressed that it was setting out a worst-case scenario and not a prediction of what is likely to happen and said that there was “a wide range of uncertainty” about the actual outcome.
It was prepared to help the NHS and local authorities plan services such as mortuaries and burials to ensure they are not overwhelmed in the months ahead...