A new coronavirus ad campaign in the UK is urging the British to “pretend you have it” and stay at home as COVID cases and deaths are on the rise in the country.
A record 68,053 infections and 1,325 deaths were recorded Friday, with the number of daily fatalities more than doubling in a week, surpassing the previous record of 1,224 deaths on April 21, according to a report in The Sun newspaper.
“COVID-19, especially the new variant, is spreading rapidly across the country,” Chris Whitty, the country’s chief medical officer, said in the TV spot. “Again, we all have to stay at home.”
The dire warnings come when a new, highly contagious variant of the coronavirus was discovered in the country last month.
Posters in the government’s grim campaign to curb infection rates show a nurse treating a coronavirus patient, along with the warning, “pretend you have it.”