Britain will face "further waves" of Covid-19 and will probably have the highest death rate in Europe because the Government was "too slow" to act, a leading physician has warned.
Professor Anthony Costello, of University College London's Institute for Global Health, told a committee of MPs that the "harsh reality" is that "we were too slow with a number of things" and deaths could reach to 40,000.
His comments came as the Department of Health said a total of 14,576 patients have died in hospital after testing positive for coronavirus in the UK as of 5pm on Thursday, up by 847 from the day before.
Prof Costello said: "If we're going to suppress the chain of transmission of this virus in the next stage we all hope that the national