British Prime Minister Boris Johnson gave a televised address today in which he told the people of the United Kingdom that they are “past the peak” of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I can confirm today that for the first time we are past the peak of this disease. We are past the peak and we are on the downward slope. But the United Kingdom must not turn away from the safeguards that are needed to make sure it does not run slap into a second and even bigger mountain in a second COVID-19 outbreak.

We conducted 901 905 coronavirus tests. As a result, 171 253 individuals were discovered to be coronavirus positive. 26 711 had died from the disease, and 15 043 were currently in the hospital.

Today, the number of COVID hospital admissions is falling. The number of patients in ICU is falling. We’ve so far succeeded in the first and most important task we set ourselves as a nation: to avoid the tragedy that engulfed other parts of the world. Because at no stage has our NHS been overwhelmed. No patient went without a ventilator. No patient was deprived of intensive care. It’s thanks to that massive collective effort to shield the NHS that we avoided an uncontrollable and catastrophic epidemic, where the reasonable worst-case scenario was 500,000 deaths. And, so, I can confirm today that for the first time we are past the peak of this disease. We are past the peak and we are on the downward slope”, - Johnson said.