Hospitals are being requested to hold out extra video-based consultations of suffe
Hospitals are being requested to hold out extra video-based consultations of sufferers to cut back the danger of spreading the coronavirus.
NHS England hopes the transfer will cut back the variety of folks in hospitals and decrease the potential for transmission.
In the meantime, the federal government is launching a serious public well being marketing campaign urging folks to recurrently wash their palms.
Officers consider up to a fifth of the workforce may be off sick throughout the peak of an epidemic within the UK.
The variety of folks identified with coronavirus in Scotland has risen to a few, bringing the whole variety of UK instances to 53.
What do I have to know concerning the coronavirus?
- HOW IS THE UK PLANNING FOR AN OUTBREAK: How prepared are we?
- WHAT ARE THE SYMPTOMS? A simple guide
- HOW TO SELF-ISOLATE: What you need to know
- WHERE ARE WE WITH A VACCINE? Progress so far
- A VISUAL GUIDE TO THE OUTBREAK: Virus maps and charts
England’s chief medical officer Prof Chris Whitty informed BBC Breakfast that as much as 80% of the inhabitants could possibly be contaminated with coronavirus, which causes Covid-19, “within the worst case situation”.
Requested whether or not Wuhan-style lockdown measures could possibly be imposed in cities and cities throughout the UK, Prof Whitty mentioned it could be “impossible”.
He mentioned it was “possible” however not particular the virus will grow to be an epidemic within the UK.
“A wave is nearly actually coming, however we do not know the scale,” he mentioned.
Hospital trusts and different well being organisations have been despatched a letter from NHS England outlining steps they need to take to organize for a doable surge within the variety of sufferers.
They’ve been requested to hold out extra video consultations from dwelling and to contemplate methods to extend the provision of hospital beds and sources.
The federal government’s “battle plan”, announced on Tuesday, set out proposals to carry again retired docs and nurses and to unlock beds by cancelling non-urgent operations.
The brand new recommendation for hospitals coincides with the launch of an expanded data marketing campaign selling frequent hand-washing, for no less than 20 seconds every time.
Authorities adverts throughout print, radio, on-line and billboards will urge folks to scrub their palms after they arrive at dwelling or work, after they blow their nostril, cough or sneeze, and earlier than consuming or dealing with meals.
Media playback is unsupported in your system
A hospital employee on the Cumberland Infirmary Carlisle in Cumbria has grow to be one of many newest folks within the UK to check constructive for Covid-19.
Colin Cox, director of public well being at Cumbria County Council, mentioned the member of workers had self-isolated after a visit to northern Italy, and “didn’t come into work and has not had any contact with sufferers”.
One other Carlisle resident has additionally examined constructive, Mr Cox mentioned.
In different developments throughout the UK:
- CCTV images have been released of 4 males needed over an allegedly racist assault on London’s Oxford Road. Jonathan Mok says he heard shouts of “coronavirus” earlier than he was focused
- Two GP practices in Torquay have closed till mid-March, after a pupil at a nearby grammar school tested positive for the virus
- Sony has closed its workplaces in London, Paris and Gdynia – in Poland – and informed workers to work at home. The corporate says the transfer is “out of an abundance of warning”
- The federal government has bowed to stress and changed its stance on insurance to cowl companies for coronavirus losses in England, after enterprise homeowners mentioned misplaced earnings from the virus risked not being coated beneath current guidelines
- Labour’s shadow well being secretary Jonathan Ashworth has known as on the federal government to offer emergency funding to assist the NHS by the outbreak, whereas social gathering chief Jeremy Corbyn warned the health service was already at 94% bed occupancy earlier than the virus hit
- London Ebook Honest, which was because of start on 10 March, has been cancelled hours after main publishers resembling HarperCollins pulled out over coronavirus fears
- The Trades Union Congress (TUC) has urged the government to provide support for workers who don’t qualify for statutory sick pay
Well being Secretary Matt Hancock mentioned washing palms recurrently was the “single most essential factor that a person can do”.
About 90,000 folks have been contaminated globally because the outbreak of coronavirus in Hubei province, China, in December, with instances in additional than 50 nations and greater than 3,000 deaths.
Final week, a British man who was contaminated on the Diamond Princess cruise ship quarantined in Japan grew to become the primary UK citizen to die from the virus.
…