Health Secretary: Everything we're telling you to do is to stop more people dying

20 March 2020, 09:32 | Updated: 7 June 2023, 08:56

The Health Secretary has urged the public to pay attention to the measures the government have put in place - because they are there to stop people dying.

Matt Hancock told LBC that without any action, it was predicted that coronavirus would kill half a million people.

He and his team are attempting to keep the numbers of deaths down to that of a bad flu season - around 10,000 - and he said that all the tough measures he's putting in place is to keep those numbers as low as possible.

When Nick Ferrari asked about the number of deaths the government want to keep under, he said: "We want to protect life.

"The goal here is to try to keep the outbreak to the equivalent of a bad flu.

"If we'd taken none of these measures, then the estimate is that half a million people would have died.

"That's what motivates me and the team every single day. That we're saving lives and protecting lives.

"The thing that everybody who is listening can take away from these figures: by following the medical advice, by staying at home wherever possible and by keeping yourself apart from others, you are helping to save lives.

"It's only by taking these measures that we can get that curve down and have as few deaths as possible - and then be able to lift the measures as soon as possible."