Coronavirus latest: NHS to delay non-urgent care and police to drop low-priority cases in event of major outbreak

Emergency laws to tackle virus Army on standby to help in outbreak One in five 'may be too ill to work' Follow out LIVE coronavirus updates here.
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One in five employees may be too ill to work during a coronavirus outbreak this year, according to the Government’s battle plan which today put Britain on an unprecedented war footing against the growing threat.

It also disclosed that the police would be told to focus on “responding to serious crimes and maintaining public order” if the disease cuts through their ranks.

The Armed Forces will be on standby “to provide support to civil authorities if requested”.

The blueprint warns “there could well be an increase in deaths arising from the outbreak, particularly among vulnerable and elderly groups”.

Town halls are working on how to deal with a surge in funerals, including the need to keep bodies in storage if the system is overwhelmed.

Londoners wear Coronavirus masks - In pictures

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As the grim, 28-page dossier was unveiled, Boris Johnson addressed the nation. “Let me be absolutely clear that for the overwhelming majority of people who contract the virus this will be a mild disease from which they will speedily and fully recover,” the Prime Minister said.

“But I fully understand public concern about the global spread of the virus and it is highly likely that we will see a growing number of UK cases — that’s why keeping the country safe is the Government’s overriding priority.

“Our plan means we are committed to doing everything possible, based on the advice of our world-leading scientific experts, to prepare for all eventualities.”

The Government’s chief medical officer Professor Chris Whitty said the current “reasonable figure” was that one per cent of people who get the virus will die, with 99 per cent recovering.

The elderly and people with underlying health conditions are most vulnerable.

Schools may have to close and emergency laws passed to allow class sizes over 30 so children and staff can squeeze into nearby schools that are free of the virus, according to the battle plan.

And laws will allow the NHS to call nurses and doctors out of retirement to cope with high sick rates among health staff.

It said decisions would be taken whether to cancel major sporting gatherings and festivals. However, officials said the benefits of such drastic action is probably outweighed by the costs of the disruption involved, because coronavirus sufferers would infect just as many people watching a football game in a pub as watching from a stadium.

The government plan is clear that the impact on business may be very significant in the late spring or summer, when the number of cases is likely to peak.

“Given that the data are still emerging, we are uncertain of the impact of an outbreak on business,” it states.

“In a stretching scenario, it is possible that up to one fifth of employees may be absent from work during peak weeks. This may vary for individual businesses.”

“The nature and scale of the response depends upon the course of the disease, which cannot be predicted accurately at this point. As our understanding of the disease increases and its impact becomes clearer, we will issue further detailed advice.”

Shortly before the document was published:

  • Bank of England governor Mark Carney said policymakers were ready to help businesses and households through an economic shock caused by Covid-19 that could “prove large but will ultimately be temporary”.
  • The FTSE 100 was up more than two per cent mid-morning on expectations that central banks globally will cut rates in response to the crisis.
  • Health Secretary Matt Hancock said officials may have to look at restricting the London Marathon on April 26 if there is a major coronavirus outbreak but added it was “far too early” to make such decisions. He added that health chiefs were not calling for an end to handshaking, but it was a personal choice. “The scientific advice is that the impact of shaking hands is negligible and what really matters is that you wash your hands more often,” he said.
  • A clinician at the Mount Vernon Cancer Centre, Northwood, Middlesex, who was yesterday said to have Covid-19, has been given the all-clear after further testing, so as of this morning there were 39 cases in the UK.
  • In Italy, the count of infected people rose to 2,036, with 52 deaths, which appeared to be a higher mortality rate than other countries. Officials said it could take up to two weeks to know whether measures including quarantines in 11 northern towns were working.
  • The number of cases in Germany rose to 188 today, from 157.
  • Labour MP Tulip Siddiq tweeted that there were reports that London mother Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe could be released temporarily from a jail in Tehran, Iran, which is feared to have an outbreak of coronavirus. She has been jailed on spying charges which she and the Government strongly deny. More than 1,500 people have Covid-19 in Iran, with 66 deaths, according to official figures, though health experts believe these are significant underestimates.
  • Japanese Olympics minister Seiko Hashimoto said it could postpone the 2020 Games in Tokyo, due to start in July, to end of year.

The Government blueprint explains that the current phase of containment will last until it is no longer possible to hold back the disease globally. At that point, action such as tracing “spreaders” will become a waste of resources.

The next phase, delay, will kick in with action designed to slow down the epidemic so that the peak of infections occurs during the summer, when seasonal illnesses such as flu are rare and warmer weather will naturally reduce infection rates.

“Action that would be considered could include population distancing strategies (such as school closures, encouraging greater home working, reducing the number of large-scale gatherings) to slow the spread of the disease throughout the population, while ensuring the country’s ability to continue to run as normally as possible.” The document adds: “The effectiveness of these actions will need to be balanced against their impact on society.”

Firms would be allowed to postpone paying tax bills to help them ride out short-term cash flow problems and recover their finances after the outbreak is over. This would be offered “on a case-by-case basis if a firm or individual contacts HM Revenue & Customs about falling behind”.

Hospital beds would be freed up by cancelling non-essential operations.

Listen to today's episode of The Leader podcast:

The Standard has seen the plans drawn up for London to cope with mass deaths, including extended crematorium opening and hiring chilled storage for bodies. The London plan includes provision in the most extreme situation for mass graves as used in wartime and the Great Plague, and for funeral pyres.

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