UK expert: 20% of population could contract coronavirus

Britain's Deputy Chief Medical Officer on Tuesday said the UK would see a sharp rise in cases of COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus, as the virus continued to spread in the country.

"We expect an epidemic peak to come," Dr Jenny Harries said, adding the peak period could last 12 weeks but the shape of it could change depending on interventions.

She added that according to the Chief Medical Officer, they would expect that within 10 to 14 days people would start to self isolate.

Harries said precise figures of infection were difficult to predict and the UK was planning its advice on scientific modelling, but 20 percent of the population could be affected based on planning assumptions.

"In China which is a sort of real live example it has been just under 20 percent of the population appear to have been infected," Harries told ITN.

"We work to higher planning levels than that because we want to plan for the worst and do the best when the epidemic is here."

For most people, the new coronavirus causes only mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia.

The vast majority of people recover from the new virus.

According to the World  Health Organization, people with mild illness recover in about two weeks, while those with more severe illness may take three to six weeks to recover.

In mainland China, where the virus first exploded, more than 80,000 people have been diagnosed and more than 58,000 have so far recovered.