PM to return to work on Monday
Boris Johnson will return to work in Downing Street on Monday after recovering from the virus.
The Prime Minister has been recuperating at his official country residence at Chequers since being discharged from St Thomas' Hospital in London.
Professor Stephen Powis, the medical director of NHS England who had echoed Sir Patrick's original claim, insisted the social distancing measures the Government had put in place were having an effect.
However, he emphasised the difficulties in dealing with a new virus which had created a "once-in-a-century global health crisis".
"This was going to be a huge challenge not just for the UK, but for every country," he said.
"Even in countries that have got on top of this early on, we are unfortunately beginning to see new infections.
"So I think the first thing to emphasise is that this unfortunately is not going to be something we will begin to get over in the next few weeks.
"This is something we are going to have to continue working our way through over the months ahead - as I have said before this is not a sprint, this will be a marathon."
According to the latest official figures, a total of 20,319 patients had died in hospital after testing positive for Covid-19 in the UK as of 5pm on Friday - up by 813 from the previous day.
It meant the UK has become the fifth country to pass 20,000 coronavirus deaths, behind the US, Italy, Spain and France.
That figure does not include deaths in the wider community, such as in care homes, which means the true toll will be higher by several thousand at least.
Dr Paul Hunter, professor of medicine at the University of East Anglia, said the true figure could already be double that amount.
Published: by Radio NewsHub