Matt Hancock says almost 10,000 people a day in the UK are contracting coronavirus

Matt Hancock has revealed that the number of people contracting coronavirus each day could be up to the 10,000 mark (Photo: Shutterstock)Matt Hancock has revealed that the number of people contracting coronavirus each day could be up to the 10,000 mark (Photo: Shutterstock)
Matt Hancock has revealed that the number of people contracting coronavirus each day could be up to the 10,000 mark (Photo: Shutterstock)

Matt Hancock has revealed that the number of people contracting coronavirus each day could be up to the 10,000 mark.

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The UK officially recorded 6,178 coronavirus infections on Wednesday 23 September, with the Health Secretary explaining there’s an estimated number of around 10,000 per day, urging people to download the recently launched NHS tracing app.

‘We estimate that it is under 10,000 people a day getting the disease’

Addressing the number of coronavirus infections a day, Mr Hancock told Sky News, "The massive testing capability we've got helps to find where the virus is so, if you think about it, yesterday we had a figure that there is over 6,000 people who have tested positive in the previous 24 hours.

"And that is comparable to the highest levels in the peak in terms of the number of people who were tested positive but back then we estimate through surveys that over 100,000 people a day were catching the disease, but we only found around 6,000 of them and they tested positive.

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"Now we estimate that it is under 10,000 people a day getting the disease - that's too high but it is still much lower than in the peak - and through the mass testing we have and the quarter-of-a-million capacity, we found yesterday over 6,000 of them.”

The Covid-19 app

The COVID-19 app is now available to download from the App Store or Google Play, in England and Wales.

“Protect your loved ones with the official NHS COVID-19 contact tracing app for England and Wales,” explains the NHS website.

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“It's the fastest way of knowing when you're at risk from coronavirus (COVID-19). The quicker you know, the quicker you can alert your loved ones, and your community.”

Scotland has its own NHS Scotland Protect Scotland app, which has been designed “to help us protect each other, reduce the spread of coronavirus and avoid further lockdowns.” The app can be downloaded from the App Store and Google Play.

Northern Ireland also has a StopCOVID NI contact tracing app, which can be downloaded on the App Store or on Google Play.