WHO DIRECTOR-GENERAL WARNS GLOBE 'REMAINS SUSPECTIBLE WITH AN EASY RISK OF OUTBREAKS REIGNITING'

ATHERSTONE and the rest of the globe's 7.8 billion inhabitants were today handed the harshest of reality checks that coronavirus "will be with us for a long time".

The World Health Organisation said social distancing had played its part in slowing the spread of the pandemic which has claimed more than 180,000 lives in 2.6 million recorded cases but the virus remains "extremely dangerous".

WHO director-general Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus claimed current data is showing "most of the world's population remains susceptible", meaning outbreaks can easily "reignite."

While not mentioning us by name, but clearly including the UK, the global health supremo noted: "People in countries with stay-at-home orders are understandably frustrated with being confined to their homes for weeks on end.

"Understandably they want to get on with their lives.

"But the world will not and cannot go back to the way things were. There must be a new normal."

WHO officials are worried partisan politics and a lack of global solidarity are helping to fuel the coronavirus pandemic. It urges urging countries to work together as Covid-19 continues to spread across the planet.

In Europe, public health officials are also seeing "devastating" outbreaks inside long-term care facilities, WHO officials said.

"As long as the virus is here, there's always an opportunity for that to happen," said Dr Mike Ryan, executive director of WHO's health emergencies programme.

"It is very difficult to reduce that risk to zero. Each country is going to have to look at how we can minimise bringing the disease into such a setting."

England's chief medical officer backed up the WHO findings, admitting the UK is going to have to live with some form of disruptive social measures for at least the rest of the year.

Professor Chris Whitty told reporters at the daily Downing Street press briefing that some measures would need to stay in place until there was a vaccine or a drug which reduced the severity of Covid-19.

He did not spell out exactly the type of measures that would be needed but ministers are known to be looking at the need for some element of social distancing to be maintained.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock has also unveiled plans for contact tracing on a "large scale" as a way of keeping the virus under control once the current lockdown is eased.

Through increased widespread testing of the general population and isolating sick people and all their contacts, the hope is that localised outbreaks of coronavirus can be controlled.

Prof Whitty said: "In the long run, the exit from this is going to be one of two things, ideally.

"A vaccine, and there are a variety of ways they can be deployed... or highly effective drugs so that people stop dying of this disease even if they catch it, or which can prevent this disease in vulnerable people.

"Until we have those, and the probability of having those any time in the next calendar year are incredibly small and I think we should be realistic about that, we're going to have to rely on other social measures, which of course are very socially disruptive as everyone is finding at the moment.

"But until that point, that is what we will have to do but it will be the best combination that maximises the outlooks. But it's going to take a long time and I think we need to be aware of that."

Following on from the WHO warning, Professor Chris Whitty also spoke about the likelihood of a "high mortality rate" in care homes during the coronavirus crisis.

Prof Whitty said current figures, which suggest over 1,000 people have died in care homes after contracting Covid-19, were likely to be an "underestimate" because those living in them were in a vulnerable group.

It comes after the Government and Care Quality Commission said on Wednesday that deaths in England's care homes during a five-day period could be double the total figure already reported.

Prof Whitty said 826 deaths reported in England and Wales by the Office for National Statistics in the week ending April 10 were "an underestimate".

"The numbers that have been ascribed to Covid directly in ONS statistics are still relatively modest," Prof Whitty said.

In a statement with the CQC on Wednesday, the Government said it anticipated that deaths related to Covid-19 between April 11 and 15 in England's care homes could be double those reported in the week up to April 10.

The Department of Health also feared a "significant rise" in deaths not related to Covid-19 among residents.

Although official figures show there were 975 coronavirus deaths in care homes in England by April 10, one care boss says his group alone has suffered hundreds of deaths.

Jeremy Richardson, chief executive of Four Seasons Health Care, says 240 residents have died of confirmed or suspected Covid-19 across its 187 homes.

Suspected cases have been recorded in two-thirds of its residences, and 1,400 staff - representing around 11 per cent of the total workforce – were in isolation.

The UK coronavirus death toll has risen from 17,337 to 18,100 after 763 more deaths were recorded today.

The Department of Health confirmed that 133,495 have tested positive for the killer bug - up 4,451 from yesterday.

The Health Secretary told MPs he was confident the country had reached the peak of the virus.

He stressed, however, that continued social distancing was needed to bring the new number of cases down.

Midland towns, cities and counties saw larger increases than their regional neighbours over the last 214 hours.

While Kent retains the 'hot spot' for coronavirus in the upper tier local authority table with 2,597 people testing positive for the virus – Birmingham saw 49 new cases and remains in second spot with 2,361.

Warwickshire has 906 confirmed cases (22 up on yesterday), Coventry is on 539 (up three) – Atherstone's neighbouring county Staffordshire is now 10th in the table with 1,346 cases and Leicestershire is on 757.

By region, London now has 22,352 cases, East and West Midlands is 16,093 combined, the North West 15,209 and the South East 14,053

Identifying who has had coronavirus without symptoms is necessary to work out how to lift lockdown restrictions, an expert has said. Professor Jimmy Whitworth said the data would enable experts to know who had potentially developed an immunity to Covid-19. But he said the only way to really determine this was to test people to see if they had been asymptomatic. Asymptomatic means the person had the virus but displayed none of the symptoms. However, it does not mean they cannot spread Covid-19. And so far very little is known on what proportion of people are asymptomatic. The Government is carrying out hundreds of highly-accurate antibody tests – called serology tests – a day, at Porton Down, the military's science laboratory. Prof Whitworth said if the aim was to work out how much of the population had been infected, lab-based antibody tests would be enough – rather than home tests – because a slight delay does not matter. Meanwhile, a coronavirus vaccine that gives the world protection for 12 months or two years would be a "massive breakthrough", experts have said. Dr Jeremy Farrar, director of the research charity Wellcome Trust, said such a vaccine would buy the world "critical time". Dr Charlie Weller, head of vaccines at the charity, said the two stages of vaccine development involved knowing whether there was a candidate that had gone through the clinical trials an shown safety and efficacy. And then being able to scale up its manufacturing for global use. "Towards the end of this year we may, if everything goes to plan, we may know whether we have a vaccine candidate that can then move on to the next step," she said. Around the world, the number of people who have died with coronavirus in Italy, one of the countries hardest hit by the pandemic, has now passed 25,000. Italy's civil protection services on Wednesday reported a further 437 fatalities over the past 24 hours, increasing the overall tally to 25,085. In America the issue of personal protection equipment has brought widespread criticism. Nurses who have spent weeks on the front lines with inadequate personal protective equipment – some of whom have contracted Covid-19 – are filing lawsuits against hospitals and health departments. Members of the country's largest union of registered nurses are protesting outside the White House today, reading the names of colleagues who have died. The handling of the outbreak has attracted strong feelings. Most Americans do not expect restrictions to lift immediately, despite the White House's efforts, according to a new poll. A majority believe it could be June or even later before large gatherings will be safe. President Donald Trump's handling of the outbreak gets negative reviews from 54 per cent of Americans, while governors have an approval rating of 72 per cent.