Boris Johnson is poised to move Britain to a critical new phase of the coronavirus action plan on Thursday – from “contain” to “delay”, after the UK saw the biggest single-day increase in cases and the death toll rose to eight.
The prime minister will chair a meeting of the government’s Cobra emergency committee at lunchtime on Thursday, and is expected to rubber-stamp a decision to move to “delay”.
The delay phase of the plan involves much of the same advice to people as the contain phase about washing hands, quarantining and testing.
The government’s coronavirus plan states that other possible actions
include “population distancing strategies such as school closures,
encouraging greater home working, reducing the number of large-scale gatherings”.
It also says: “We would consider such measures in order
to protect vulnerable individuals with underlying illnesses and thus
at greater more at risk of becoming seriously affected by the disease. The effectiveness of these actions will need to be balanced against their impact on society.”
Ministers will hold cross-party talks with Labour on Thursday about the emergency legislation required to implement and enforce some of these measures – which Hancock said the government hopes to pass next week.
The move comes after the health secretary, Matt Hancock, was pressed by MPs from both sides of the House of Commons over the government’s handling of the outbreak.
Shadow health secretary Jon Ashworth asked him to explain why the government had not already shifted to the delay phase.
Pointing to concerns raised by the editor of the Lancet, he said, “there are those in the science community suggesting that we are not following the epidemiology in the right way; suggesting that perhaps we are placing too much emphasis on behavioural science.”
Downing Street has involved experts in behavioural psychology in deciding the government’s response – but the health secretary insisted the response was being guided by the best medical advice.
Hancock’s predecessor Jeremy Hunt said “we now have more reported cases in this country than there were in Wuhan Province when they went into lockdown,” asking Hancock whether it was still plausible to think the virus could be contained.
The health secretary replied that the WHO’s decision to declare Covid-19 a pandemic, “has a significant impact on the way that countries around the world will now take forward their plans.”
Former business secretary Greg Clark pointed to the fact that the number of patients being tested for the virus has declined in recent days, and asked how quickly capacity could be increased.
Hancock insisted the government was, “rolling out a big expansion of testing” – but declined to give a specific timetable.
The number of coronavirus patients in the UK rose by 87 to 460 - the biggest daily increase yet - as the death toll on British soil rose to eight and a 53-year-old British woman died in Bali.
Two patients in Dudley and Nuneaton, who were both over 70 with underlying health conditions, died after contracting Covid-19, health officials said. Their deaths were confirmed as the World Health Organisation declared coronavirus a global pandemic for the first time.
Earlier the death was announced of a woman in Bali, Indonesia, who was already critically ill when she was diagnosed. She is believed to be the youngest UK victim and the second Briton to die overseas from the virus.
The woman had been on a family holiday with her husband and four children. They arrived on 29 February and it is unclear where she contracted the virus. She first reported a fever on 3 March, health officials said.
“The patient had severe illnesses including diabetes, hypertension, hyperthyroid and lung disease,” said Achmad Yurianto, a spokesman for Indonesia’s virus response team.
The woman was cremated in Bali at the family’s request. Her husband is under observation in hospital and her children are in quarantine, according to local reports.
A man in poor health who had been a passenger on the Diamond Princess cruise ship became the first UK victim of the virus when he died in Japan last month. Since then six older people with underlying heath conditions have died in the UK after contracting the virus.
The health minister Nadine Dorries and a member of her staff are among the latest confirmed cases in the UK, amid growing concern about the safety of working in the Houses of Parliament and calls for more social distancing measures to be introduced.
In what is believed to be the first UK case in care home, a staff member of residential home for people with learning and physical disabilities in Desborough, Northamptonshire was confirmed to have tested positive. The Heather Holmes facility cares provides accommodation for up 12 working-age adults.
The Office for National Statistics [ONS] said a member of staff at its headquarters in Newport, south Wales, had tested positive, as Public Health Wales reported that cases in the country had increase by four to 19. The national statistician, Ian Diamond, told ONS staff that a member of the agency’s people and services directorate was being treated for Covid-19 following the positive test. END NEW
Barclays said an employee at its Canary Wharf office had tested positive and it would deep-clean and disinfect the site.
Garry Graham, the deputy general secretary of the union Prospect, which represents many staff in parliament, said: “We are seeking urgent clarification from the leader of the house [about] what action he is taking to protect workers following news that a minister and a member of her team have contracted coronavirus.”
There are currently no plans to test other ministers for the virus, despite the attendance of Dorries at No 10 reception last week.
Meanwhile, the Cabinet Office minister, Michael Gove, announced that Brexit talks planned for next week may be in doubt after European officials raised concerns about the spread of the virus.
The NHS has confirmed plans to increase coronavirus testing from around 1,500 suspected cases a day to 10,000.
Phillip Meyer, a businessman from Kent, said he and his son had been waiting nine days for a coronavirus test after getting a cough following a trip to northern Italy.
He said: “We are testing between 1,000 and 2,000 people a day in the UK, so clearly there is a bottleneck. If in South Korea they test 15,000 a day, why can’t we do that here?”
A retired intensive care doctor told the Guardian that the increase has come “way too late” after he and his friends were repeatedly refused tests despite falling ill following a skiing trip, to Ischgl in Austria. The 55-year-old doctor from Chichester, who has his name only as Andrew said: “They may be upping the testing but they haven’t put Ischgl on a high risk list, despite knowing about this for days. Six of us have been back in Chichester going about their daily life. I suspect we’ll find a big cluster in Chichester two weeks.”
Public Health England defended its decision not to test everyone reporting symptoms. A spokeswoman said: “We are testing those who are most likely to have contracted coronavirus, either through travel or by having close contact with a confirmed case, with symptoms.”
• This article was amended on 12 March 2020. The 53-year-old woman who died in Bali did not check into the Four Seasons Hotel as early reports suggested.
