UK faces soaring COVID-19 death rate unless it moves fast, medics warn

Commuters walk across the London Bridge during the morning rush hour, amid an outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in London, Britain September 21, 2020. REUTERS/Hannah McKay

Britain will face an exponentially growing death rate from COVID-19 within weeks unless Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government moves urgently to halt a rapidly spreading second wave of the outbreak, the country’s senior medics said on Monday.

The United Kingdom already has the biggest official COVID-19 death toll in Europe - and the fifth largest in the world - while it is borrowing record amounts in an attempt to pump emergency money through the damaged economy.