UK coronavirus cases not accelerating but too early to call a peak - chief science adviser

FILE PHOTO: Chief Scientific Adviser Sir Patrick Vallance attends a news conference on the ongoing situation with the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in London

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain is not seeing an acceleration in the number of cases of COVID-19 but it is too early to tell whether the coronavirus outbreak is peaking, the government's Chief Scientific Adviser Patrick Vallance said on Tuesday.

"There is a fairly steady increase in numbers. It's possible we are beginning to see the beginning of change, in terms of the curve flattening a little bit. We won't know that for sure for a week or so," Vallance said at a news conference.

"But what we're not seeing is an acceleration."

(Reporting by Costas Pitas, Paul Sandle and Elizabeth Howcroft, writing by Alistair Smout; editing by William James)