By Tony O’Riley-
The true number of people who have caught the coronavirus is probably much higher than official figures suggest, Boris Johnson said at a press conference today.
At the press conference in which the Uk prime minister stated that many more deaths in the Uk were likely, he said Britain was facing the “worst public health crisis for a generation”, adding that that “many more” people would die. Brits were also urged to brace themselves for considerable disruption to ordinary life over the next few months as the government introduced measures to delay and limit the spread of Covid-19.
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”The number of cases will rise sharply, indeed the true number of cases is higher – perhaps much higher – than the number of cases we have so far confirmed with tests.
”This is now not just to attempt to contain the disease as far as possible, but to delay its spread and thereby minimise the suffering. If we delay the peak even by a few weeks, then our NHS will be in a stronger state as the weather improves and fewer people suffer from normal respiratory diseases, more beds are available and we’ll have more time for medical research. We can also act to stretch the peak of the disease over a longer period so that our society is better able to cope.
Johnson said that people with a fever or a new, persistent cough were now being asked to stay at home for seven days. He also said schools were being advised to cancel overseas trips, and the over-70s and the ill were being told to avoid cruises.
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HOME STAY
”From tomorrow, if you have coronavirus symptoms, however mild — either a new continuous cough or a high temperature then you should stay at home for at least 7 days to protect others and help slow the spread of the disease. We advise all those over 70 and those with serious medical conditions against going on cruises and we advise against international school trips.
He said that at some point in the future the government would go further, and ask all family members to stay at home if someone was ill. He said:
At some point in the next few weeks we are likely to go further and if someone in a household has those symptoms then we will be asking everyone in that household will stay at home.
SPORTING EVENTS
The prime minister explained that he was not planning to ban sporting events, highlighting the low probability of the virus spreading.
He said:
”We are considering the question of banning major public events such as sporting fixtures. And the scientific advice, as we’ve said over the last couple of weeks, is that banning such events will have little effect on the spread but there’s also the issue of the burden that such events can place on public services. On average, one person infects two or three others.
You therefore have a very low probability of infecting a large number of people in a stadium and a rather higher probability of infecting people very close to you. And that means that most of the transmission actually tends to take place with friends and colleagues and those in close environments – and not in the big environments.
Though it is true that any cancellation of things can have some effect, if you then get a displacement activity where you end up with everyone congregating somewhere else, you may actually perversely have an increased risk, particularly in an indoor environment.
So it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t at some point make the decision from a resilience point but this is not a major way to tackle this epidemic. Defending his decision not to introduce the kind of extreme actions introduced in some other other countries. He said:
The measures that I have discussed today… staying at home if you think you have the symptoms, your whole household staying at home, looking after the elderly – making sure the elderly and vulnerable stay at home – these are the three most powerful defensive lines.
PUBLIC TRUST
We think it’s very important to maintain public trust and confidence in what we are doing, throughout this challenging time, always to be guided by the best possible scientific advice.
He and his advisers also argued that, if self-isolation measures were introduced too early, they would be ineffective – because people would ignore them at the point where they were most necessary”. Whitty said he thought the overall mortality rate from Covid-19 was around 1% or less. It was higher for older people, and people in the vulnerable group, and lower for others, he said.
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