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As many as 10,000 people in the UK are probably already infected with coronavirus, and many people should expect to lose loved ones, the government has said as it announced measures less stringent than those taken by other countries, The Guardian reports. 

Britain moved from the “contain” phase of the crisis to the “delay” phase on Thursday, when the death toll for UK citizens was at 12, two of them having died overseas, and the official number of infected people reached 590.

However, speaking after Thursday’s emergency Cobra meeting, the government’s chief scientific officer, Sir Patrick Vallance, said the true total was likely to be between 5,000 and 10,000. He said 20 people were being treated for Covid-19 in intensive care units and that the UK was on a trajectory about four weeks behind that of Italy, which has had more than 1,000 deaths.

The prime minister, Boris Johnson, said: “We have all got to be clear, this is the worst public health crisis for a generation. Some people compare it to seasonal flu. Alas, that is not right. Due to the lack of immunity this disease is more dangerous.

“It is going to spread further and I must level with you, I must level with the British public: many more families are going to lose loved ones before their time.”

Johnson said schools would not close and neither did he join Scotland in banning gatherings of more than 500 people, though he warned that major events may be cancelled in future because of the burden they placed on public services during the outbreak.

He said the most dangerous period was “some weeks away” and the intention with delay was to increase the ability of the emergency services and society more widely to cope. When enthusiasm for measures started to flag, people were less vigilant, he told reporters.

He ended with an upbeat message, saying the country had faced challenges before and “will get through this”.