COUGH? ‘STAY HOME’ ORDER
● Fifth briton dies as UK cases hit 319 ● Whole of Italy put on lockdown ● pensions plunge on ‘black Monday’
PEOPLE with a cough or cold were warned yesterday they will be told to stay at home within a fortnight.
And Prime Minister Boris Johnson has urged the country to “pull together” to defeat coronavirus as the fifth Briton died.
England’s chief medical officer Professor Chris Whitty said that those with a cold, flu or fever in the next 10 to 14 days would probably
be told to self-isolate for a week. Mr Johnson warned it would take a “national effort” to curb the contagion and called for the public to “behave responsibly”.
He said: “If we continue to look out for one another, to pull together in a united and national effort, I have no doubt that we can and will rise to that challenge.”
Mr Johnson is set to ramp up emergency measures after a fifth Briton died in Carshalton, south London, yesterday.
Supermarkets are understood to be looking at setting up ordering hotlines to help customers who do not use the internet.
Ministers have also relaxed rules to allow stores to receive stocks at night.
Virus fears sent financial markets into freefall again yesterday, after the worst trading day since the financial crisis.
About £140billion was wiped off UK share values, damaging pension funds, as the FTSE 100 index plunged 8.5 per cent on “a new Black Monday”.
Chancellor Rishi Sunak is expected to set out measures to deal with the impact in his first Budget tomorrow.
US authorities are planning a flight today to repatriate the 142 Britons stuck on coronavirus-hit cruise ship Grand Princess in California.
Some 46 new
UK cases were recorded in 24 hours yesterday, taking the total to at least 319.
In Downing Street, Mr Johnson and his advisers insisted the Government was doing everything possible to stop the disease spreading.
Its action plan has three stages – contain, delay and mitigate – and the country is expected to move to phase two.
Social distancing measures such as curbing public gatherings and wider advice to stay at home could be brought in.
There are no plans to restrict church services or pub closures, advisers said. The Government’s scientific advisory group for emergencies meets today and the Cobra committee tomorrow.
Prof Whitty said: “What we are moving now to is a phase when we will be having to ask members of the general public to do different things than they would normally.
“There is a risk if we go too early people will understandably get fatigued and it will be difficult to sustain this over time. So getting the timing right is absolutely critical.”
Mr Johnson, who chaired a Cobra meeting yesterday, said the Government did not want to impose measures that had “no or limited medical benefit”.
He said he was trying to delay Covid-19 to reduce the strain on the NHS, adding: “The more we can delay the peak of the spread to the summer, the better the NHS will be able to manage.”
Mr Johnson, who was told not to shake hands with dignitaries including the Queen, said it sent a “subliminal cue” about the importance of hygiene.
But experts warned of Italianstyle lockdowns as the UK virus epidemic was looking similar.
Italy has the highest number of confirmed cases outside of China at more than 9,000 and its death toll stands at 463. Prof Francois Balloux of the University College London (UCL) Genetics Institute, said the Covid-19 epidemic “cannot be contained any more”.
He said: “It is possible that a lockdown strategy similar to the one imposed in northern Italy may be adopted at some point in the future.”
COVID-19’s onward march is, make no doubt, a menacing prospect. Yesterday evening the British death toll rose to five and Cobra, the Government’s emergency planning department, advised a new phase in which “social distancing” will be deployed to help the country to “delay” the virus and ease pressure on the NHS.
Some already fear that we will follow Italy – the worst affected country outside China with 463 fatalities – into lockdown, with schools closed and communities in quarantine.
Already some UK companies are advising that workers stay at home, and it has been proposed that sporting events could happen behind closed doors. An extra 700 people have been employed to support enquiries to NHS 111, and in our supermarkets, panic stockpiling has seen shelves emptied.
But the Government’s plan should be trusted, as it is based on strong and tested contingency planning. A further Cobra meeting is due tomorrow and we owe it to ourselves to heed its words – and to do what we can to act responsibly.
Panic will help nobody. This scenario demands a measured response, so let’s listen to the people who know best.