UK virus deaths could hit 20,000: expert

UK deaths from the coronavirus could rise to between 7000 and 20,000 under measures taken to slow the spread of the virus, says Neil Ferguson, a professor at Imperial College in London who has helped shape the government's response.

"We had an exponentially growing curve of infections which we interrupted at a certain time," the epidemiologist told the BBC's Andrew Marr program on Sunday.

"We don't have the ability right now to measure how many people have been infected, that will come with antibody tests, and so we are making statistical estimates of that and those are subject to a certain degree of uncertainty.

"We think it could be anywhere between about 7,000 or so up to a little over 20,000."