Once again, Health Secretary Matt Hancock took to the TV studios to update the public on the response to the coronavirus outbreak. The UK has now seen 1,140 people testing positive for the virus, including the Health Minister Nadine Dorries, and the number of related deaths has risen to 21. Hancock told Sophy Ridge that the government, with input from the opposition, was due to set out its plans for emergency powers next week:
MH: We’re going to set out the emergency powers on Tuesday…
SR: Is the government going to be banning gatherings of over 500 people?
MH: …I’m absolutely prepared to take actions like that if that’s what necessary.
Over 70s may be asked to self-isolate for 4 months
People aged 70 and above are known to be particularly affected by exposure to the coronavirus, alongside those with existing health conditions. Ridge asked Hancock about the government’s request for those vulnerable to the virus to ‘shield’ themselves by self-isolating for an extended period of time, potentially as long as 4 months:
MH: We are not saying that yet… We’ll be setting it out with more detail when that is the right time to do so, because we absolutely appreciate that it is a very big ask…
SR: Are we talking about [this being] days, weeks away?
MH: Certainly in the coming weeks, absolutely.
UK needs to produce more ventilators
Hospital ventilators will be a vital piece of equipment needed to keep patients able to survive coronavirus infection. The NHS currently has 5,000, but it is clear that more will be needed. Hancock urged manufacturing businesses who may otherwise struggle in the current climate to exploit this gap in the market:
MH: We’re saying that if [businesses can] produce a ventilator, then we will buy it. No number is too high… Anybody who can should turn their production and their engineering minds over to the production of ventilators.
Herd immunity ‘is not our policy’
The UK’s chief scientific adviser Patrick Vallance has talked of the UK building up a ‘herd immunity’ to the coronavirus, and the implications of this strategy. However, Hancock denied that seeking herd immunity was government policy when asked about it by Andrew Marr:
MH: Herd immunity is not our policy, it’s not our goal… I want to be absolutely crystal clear that we will do what is necessary to protect life… We need to bring the infection rate down.
Jonathan Ashworth – Government should publish scientific modelling
Ridge was also joined by the Shadow Health Secretary Jonathan Ashworth. Ashworth said that Labour fundamentally supported the government’s strategy to deal with the virus, but that transparency was important to reassure the public, especially when they could see drastically different measures being taken in other countries:
JA: I need to understand better why the government is taking a different approach, based on its science, from other countries. And that’s why I think it’s so important that all the scientific modelling is published… because we have to take the public with us on this.
Lisa Nandy – Government has ‘major issues’ to address
Labour’s leadership candidate Lisa Nandy told Marr that, while she too was happy to work with the government on tackling coronavirus, she set out where she thought they were falling short:
LN: I’m really quite concerned about the idea that we’re giving sweeping powers to the police and immigration officers… while we don’t seem to have a real plan to deal with our older people… We need a worker’s task force set up to… deal with sick pay… There are major major issues that that government quite simply hasn’t addressed.
Raffaele Trombetta – Italians ‘are not lonely’
And finally, the Italian Ambassador to the UK Raffaele Trombetta told Marr that after scenes of mass singing, dancing and music playing coming from Italy’s residential areas, quarantine was what you made of it:
RT: My daughter commented that Italy’s the only country where a quarantine can turn into a street party. It is a comfort to know that… our friends, our family in Italy are, yes, isolated, but they are not lonely.
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