Coronavirus update 19th March 2020

Latest briefing:

The Prime Minister has announced new measures to combat coronavirus, including closing schools until further notice to help slow the spread of the disease.

  • Previously the scientific advice was that we should keep schools open, but this has always been a balanced judgement and kept under constant review.
     
  • Now the advice has been updated and we will close schools for the vast majority of pupils from Friday until further notice. In order to allow health and other critical workers to continue working, their children, and those who are vulnerable, will continue to be able to attend school. 
     
  • Closing schools for the vast majority of pupils will help in our efforts to suppress the upward trend of the virus, as will continuing to look after the children of key workers who will be a critical part of our fightback against coronavirus.

Today, the Government will publish in full the Emergency Coronavirus Bill – which will protect life and the nation’s public health and ensure NHS and social care staff are supported to deal with significant extra pressure.

  • The measures in the Bill are temporary, proportionate to the threat, will only be used when strictly necessary and will be in place for as long as required to respond to the situation. The Bill will be introduced to Parliament today and scrutinised by MPs. 
     
  • Measures include allowing recently retired NHS staff and social workers to return to work without any negative repercussions to their pensions. Paperwork and administrative requirements will be reduced to help doctors discharge patients more quickly when appropriate, to free up hospital space.
     
  • Volunteers will have extra employment safeguards – benefiting more than 3 million people who already volunteer in health and care settings and bolstering the NHS’s capacity to respond to the virus.
     
  • Changes to councils’ duties under the Care Act will enable them to prioritise people with the greatest care needs and make the best use of the adult social care workforce. 
     
  • By planning for the worst and working for the best we will get through this, but this is a national effort and we must all work together ‒ from businesses prioritising the welfare of their employees, to people thoroughly washing their hands.

Comments

Anonymous said…
Not properly testing has helped Schools to spread it through Cumbria
6:55 pm
Paul Holdsworth said…
But businesses are NOT prioritising the welfare of their employees, or their customers. My own employer is still operating, bringing thousands of people into close proximity for an hour at a time, ignoring distancing advice. The imperative to make money is trumping everything. We need firm direction to shut down NOW, not weak pleas to do the right thing. It isn't working!

I have an older brother currently stuck in Italy (healthy, thankfully). Italy is no longer ventilating over 60s even though their health service is much better equipped than ours.

I'm over 60 and my employer is requiring me to work in close proximity with visitors from around the world.

I'm now starting to seriously shit myself.
7:51 am
Chris Whiteside said…
Bit of proportion here - I do not want to suggest that there is no room for improving our policy on testing but Britain is in the top six countries in the world for the effort we have made on testing.

Nationally testing is being extended and ramped up, with a projected 10,000 tests by the end of this week and up to 25,000 by the end of next week. moving towards tens of thousands per day.

I gather that as of 19th March there were 42 recorded cases of Covid-19 in Cumbria, which may mean that including those we don't yet know about there could well be four hundred.

Can't speak for every employer. Mine (Openreach, part of the BT group) has been very good about suspending all non-essential travel and meetings, strongly encouraging all employees who can work at home to do so and those who have contact with others and customers to protect themselves and the people they have dealings with.

Sadly there will inevitably be employers who don't do that, but we have to encourage them all to do the right thing.

I don't know who you work for Paul, so have no idea whether they ought to be operating but better that people act responsibly - as thousands of organisations and people have -and if necessary curtail or amend operations without waiting to be told to. Sadly there may be some organisations which have to be told to suspend oeprations.
1:09 pm
Paul Holdsworth said…
I'm a skipper for Windermere Lake Cruises. It SHOULDN'T be operating.

It seems today Johnson has finally made the right decision to order closures. Not absolutely certain that WLC will stop, but I'm hoping.

I'm also hoping they won't sack me for criticising them publicly like this.
6:27 pm
Paul Holdsworth said…
Perhaps you might delete that last post once you've read it?
7:48 pm
Paul Holdsworth said…
Scratch that. Leave it up. I've just listened to that Dr Jack call-in (Google it) and if they sack me for criticising them when they should be thoroughly ashamed of themselves, I'm not sure I want a job there anymore anyway.
7:36 am
Paul Holdsworth said…
Just heard this minute that they have finally stopped boat trips. Thank goodness,
8:27 am
Chris Whiteside said…
I agree that ceasing operations was the right decision. Hopefully the government support announced yesterday means they can do so without anyone losing their job.

If you change your mind and want the post deleted let me know and I will do so. Sadly there is a precedent for someone getting flack at work over comments on this blog though IIRC it was colleagues applying social pressure rather than bosses threatening disciplinary action.

Of course, it's never the really outrageous posts which incur anything like that because they're always the anonymous ones.
1:32 pm
Paul Holdsworth said…
An update. My employers have just committed to continuing to pay the full basic wage of its permanent staff until further notice. They may have been slow coming to the right decision about ceasing operations but boy, have they come up trumps now.
11:11 pm
Chris Whiteside said…
Pleased to hear that
8:13 am
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