By Michael Baxter, Fresh Business ThinkingThe number of new cases of Covid-19 in the UK are “not accelerating out of control,” says Angela McLean, top government scientist, at today's government press briefing.The number of new cases of Covid-19 was 5,491 today (April 8th). That was the highest level in three days, but not the highest so far. On April 5th there were sadly 5,903 new cases — that we know about it.Although the numbers tell a story of terrible tragedy, they did at least seem to show that the exponential rate of new cases has slowed, or maybe has now ceased altogether. It is now 10 days since the number of new cases have doubled. Let us all hope that they will not double again. It was this data that prompted Angela McLean, chief scientific adviser at the Ministry of Defence, to say that the number of new cases of Covid-19 in the UK “are not accelerating out of control.”Despite this apparent slowdown in the number of new cases, the number of deaths today rose to a new all time high of 938. It seems that while neither the number of new cases nor deaths are still doubling every five days, the numbers are still alarmingly high.In fact, the UK saw the second highest number of deaths today across the world. The US has tragically seen more than 1,000 deaths a day in seven out of the last eight days. Also, in today’s press briefing, the chancellor, Rishi Sunak, announced a £750mn support package for charities.