Coronavirus: ‘More than 1.7 million may have had disease’ in UK according to NHS assessments

GP practices told to open over Easter with estimates infections could hit a peak over bank holiday

More than 1.7 million people may have contracted Covid-19 so far, according to the NHS.

New figures from NHS 111 online show there were 1,496,651 web-based assessments which flagged potential coronavirus cases based on people’s symptoms between 18 March and 31 March.

A further 243,543 assessments via the NHS 111 and 999 phone lines also concluded people had possibly contracted the disease.

But the assessment numbers do not necessarily relate to individual people, the NHS said, as it is possible people have sought help more than once or through various channels.

The data, published by NHS Digital, comes after GP practices in England were told to open over the Easter Bank Holiday to help the NHS cope with coronavirus.

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It is thought infections from the virus could hit a peak over the period.

The British Medical Association told members “emergency changes to ... contract regulations are being made which are likely to lead to practices being required to be open on Good Friday and Easter Monday.”

The UK government is under pressure to address concerns over the lack of Covid-19 tests available either to frontline NHS workers or the public.

Chris Hopson, the chief executive of NHS Providers, which represents NHS trusts, said maximum testing capacity in the UK was currently “very constrained” at around 13,000 tests per day.

Meanwhile, in Germany, around 70,000 people are being tested for the virus each day.

The housing and communities secretary Robert Jenrick told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme he expects there to be 25,000 tests per day by the “middle of April”.

The promise of just 25,000 tests per day by mid-April comes in stark contrast to comments made by NHS medical director Professor Stephen Powis, who said last Wednesday there would be “hundreds of thousands of tests” per day within the next few weeks.

Asked on LBC radio if the kit was in place, Prof Powis said: “We are getting the kit... you heard me correctly, we need to get to hundreds of thousands of tests a day, and we will do that over the course of the next few weeks.”

Additional reporting by PA