UK will have done well if fewer than 20,000 die, NHS medical director says

LONDON - The United Kingdom will have done well if it comes through the coronavirus crisis with fewer than 20,000 deaths, Stephen Powis, the national medical director of the National Health Service, said on Saturday.

Powis, speaking at a news conference in Downing Street, said that intensive care units were not yet full in London. He said the health service was preparing operating theatres and recovery areas to take critically ill patients.

(Reporting by Guy Faulconbridge and Paul Sandle)