Neil Ferguson, a British epidemiologist and professor of mathematical biology, stated on Saturday that the UK could move to slightly reduced lockdown measures as work was underway to see how intensive testing and contract tracing could replace these measures.
"I'm hopeful that in a few weeks' time we will be able to move to a regime which - will not be a normal life, let me emphasize that - but will be somewhat more relaxed in terms of social-distancing and the economy but rely more on testing," Neil Ferguson said.
The day before, UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock unveiled the government’s newest approach to handling the coronavirus, which is focused primarily on scaling up mass testing.
The health secretary also announced that £13 billion ($16.1bn) of debt owed by NHS hospital trusts would be written off, and an extra £300 million ($371m) will be given to community pharmacies.
According to the data provided by the World Health Organisation, as of Friday, the number of coronavirus cases in the UK was at 33,722, with the death toll at 2,921. At the same time, the organisation says that 976,249 people were infected worldwide and 50,489 died as of Friday.