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Your vital coronavirus questions answered NewsColony What is the Government’s plan? Officials want to delay the peak of the outbreak. They can no longer contain the virus – it has arrived and is spreading through the population. In a worst- case scenario, 80 per cent of people will become infected.  By telling people to self-isolate for even the mildest symptoms, they hope to ‘flatten the curve’ of the crisis – or, as  Boris Johnson  put it, ‘squash the sombrero’.  This means delaying onward transmission and spreading out the number of patients who would overwhelm the  NHS if they all contracted the virus at once. They also hope that by delaying the peak to the summer months, they will spare hospitals from simultaneously dealing with coronavirus and winter diseases such as flu and norovirus. There is also a hope that, as the virus passes through the country, we will develop ‘herd immunity’. Officials want to delay the peak of the outbreak. They can ...