Coronavirus: UK on track to have ‘highest death rate in Europe’ expert warns

The pandemic could be the beginning of the end of US leadership, with the UK on track to have the highest death toll in Europe, an expert has warned.

The UK could see the highest death toll in Europe, an expert has warned. Picture: AP Photo/Frank Augstein

A leading public health expert has said the UK is on track to have the highest death toll in Europe and the pandemic could mark the moment the world turns away from US leadership towards China.

University College London’s Institute for Global Health chief Professor Anthony Costello told the UK’s parliamentary health and social care committee the UK had undertaken a catalogue of errors that could see “40,000 deaths by the time it’s over”.

“The system errors [have] led us to have probably the highest death rate in Europe and we have to face the reality of that,” he said. “We were too slow with a number of things.”

MORE: Follow the latest coronavirus news

Prof Costello said even after 40,000 deaths the UK could still have only ten per cent of the population affected with COVID-19 and would need several more waves of the virus to achieve the stated goal of “herd immunity” which requires around 60 per cent to be infected and immune.

He also said the US decision to cut funding to the World Health Organisation “diminishes the status of America” and China’s decision to step up and supply PPE and testing kids to Africa could see it become a global authority in years to come.

“I think the long-term impact of that is that people may start to turn to the East rather than to the West for help,” he said.

President Donald Trump has failed to lead the world on the virus pandemic and cut off funding to the UN’s health body. Picture: AP Photo/Alex Brandon.

The comments come as countries grapple with how to lift lockdowns while keeping the virus suppressed, and statistics are beginning to show the true extent of the crisis.

In Britain, 14,576 people had died in UK hospitals as of Friday after testing positive for COVID-19. However that number is likely to be revised upwards as it does not include deaths in nursing homes and in the community which could number in their thousands.

A global tally by John Hopkins University shows more than 2.16 million have been confirmed as infected with the virus globally and more than 146,000 killed.

But many experts and public health authorities believe their figures may be severely under-reported given many people have not been tested or may be asymptomatic.

London will stay in lockdown for three more weeks. Picture: AP Photo/Frank Augstein.

In Spain, the government has ordered 17 regions to unify their methods for counting the dead that could see revisions of statistics that show 19,000 deaths from 182,000 infections.

“We are probably only seeing the tip of the iceberg, only a part of the cases that for sure are happening in Spain,” said Barcelona University epidemiologist Antoni Trilla, who heads the Spanish government’s expert panel on the pandemic.

Belgium’s death toll has also jumped when it began counting suspected COVID-19 cases in rest homes.

“Accounting for suspicious cases is necessary. Especially in difficult situations where it is complicated to confirm cases,” said Emmanuel Andre, a spokesman for Belgium’s crisis centre.

China has confirmed the death toll in Wuhan was 50 per cent higher than previously reported – adding 1300 deaths to the total.

The country where the outbreak began is facing serious questions about reporting and transparency, which UK acting PM Dominic Raab said must be examined in an “unflinching” manner once the crisis has passed.

Reliable testing statistics are yet to emerge from many parts of the world but new modelling from Imperial College London shows Africa could see 300,000 deaths in a best-case scenario.

- With wires