COVID-19: Epidemic suppression is the only viable strategy at the current time

The UK Government’s decision to ramp up interventions to curtail the spread of coronavirus followed a warning from scientists at Imperial College London that a quarter of a million people could die in a “catastrophic epidemic”. The report by Imperial College’s COVID-19 Response Team – Impact of non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) to reduce COVID19 mortality and healthcare demand €“ looked at two different strategies. The first is mitigation, which focuses on slowing but not necessarily stopping epidemic spread €“ reducing peak healthcare demand while protecting those most at risk of severe disease from infection. The second is suppression, which aims to reverse