UK nears grim milestone as coronavirus death toll close to 20,000

UK approaches a milestone it had hoped never to reach, close to 20,000 people have died in hospital in the United Kingdom after testing positive for the new coronavirus, data showed.

As the death toll rose relentlessly, speculation mounted that Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who himself spent three nights in intensive care battling COVID-19 earlier this month, would soon get back to work after U.S. President Donald Trump said he “sounded incredible” on the phone.

Whenever Johnson does return, he will face the conundrum of how to come out of a lockdown that is destroying swathes of the economy, while avoiding a deadly second wave of infections.

“In general, we’ll have to take decisions based on the best available scientific and health advice and it’s not going to be a case of choosing between the economy and public health,” Johnson’s spokesman said during a daily briefing.