Coronavirus: UK preparing for move to next phase to delay outbreak spread

Britain is making “extensive preparations” to move to the next phase in its response to the coronavirus outbreak, Boris Johnson has announced. 

The current strategy of just containing COVID-19 is “extremely unlikely to work on its own”, the prime minister said.

He confirmed “the more we can delay the peak of the spread to the summer, the better the NHS will be able to manage”.

Four people in the UK have died after catching the disease – the latest announced on Monday was a woman in her 70s treated at a hospital in Wolverhampton.

So far the government has focused its efforts on containing coronavirus, trying to stop it spreading despite a jump in cases in other European countries.

“We won’t give up hope of containing this,” Health Secretary Matt Hancock declared earlier in parliament.

But hours later Mr Johnson told Sky News it was “obvious” the outbreak is soon going to get “much more significant”.

“We’re preparing various actions to slow the spread of this disease in order to reduce the strain it places on the NHS,” he said in a Downing Street news conference.

He added “the best thing we can all do is wash our hands for 20 seconds with soap and water” and confirmed the cross-Whitehall emergency committee known as COBRA will meet to discuss the outbreak on Wednesday.

Professor Chris Whitty, England’s chief medical officer, said in less than two weeks advice will probably change again to tell anyone with a mild fever to self-isolate for seven days.

He explained timing was crucial to ensure people don’t get tired too quickly of more restrictive advice.

“What we’re moving now to is a phase when we will ask general members of the public to do different things than they would normally do,” he said.

“Anything you do, you have to be able to sustain.

“Because anything you do, you have to be able to do them for a period of time and there’s a risk if we go too early, people will understandably get fatigued and then it will be difficult to sustain this over time, so getting the timing right is absolutely critical to making this work.”

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Sir Patrick Vallance, the government’s chief scientific adviser, said the aim was to “be in control of where you are in the epidemic – not in reaction mode”.

On Wednesday morning, the latest government figures said the number of confirmed infections in the UK was 319 – a rise of 46 in a single day.

(c) Sky News 2020: Coronavirus: UK preparing for move to next phase to delay outbreak spread