COVID-19 in UK Archives - Iran News Daily

UK PM Talks of Schools Reopening in September

reporter 1222 — Sun, 09 Aug 2020 12:00:56 +0000

TEHRAN (Iran News) – British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said reopening schools in September was a social, economic, and moral imperative and insisted they would be able to operate safely despite the ongoing threat from the pandemic.

His comments follow a study earlier this month which warned that Britain risks a second wave of COVID-19 this winter twice as large as the initial outbreak if schools reopening happens without an improved test-and-trace system.

Writing in the Mail on Sunday, Johnson said reopening schools in September was a national priority. Schools would be the last places to close in future local lockdowns, he was quoted by another newspaper as telling a meeting on Thursday.

Schools in England closed in March during a national lockdown, except for the children of key workers, and reopened in June for a small number of pupils.

The government wants all pupils to return to school by early September in what Johnson has called a “national priority”.

“Keeping our schools closed a moment longer than absolutely necessary is socially intolerable, economically unsustainable and morally indefensible,” Johnson wrote, Reuters reported.

The economic costs for parents who cannot work if schools are shut are spiraling, and the country faces big problems if children miss out on education, the prime minister warned.

“This pandemic isn’t over, and the last thing any of us can afford to do becomes complacent. But now that we know enough to reopen schools to all pupils safely, we have a moral duty to do so,” he wrote.

The Sunday Times newspaper reported that he has ordered a public relations campaign to ensure schools open on time and told the meeting last week that they should be the last places to close behind restaurants, pubs, and shops.

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UK Health Workers Slam Government over Protection Shortages

reporter 1222 — Sat, 18 Apr 2020 12:01:14 +0000

TEHRAN (Iran News) – Doctors and health workers criticized the UK government Saturday for suggesting that gowns used to protect them while treating coronavirus patients could be re-used, as supplies run low across the country and there are shortages of protection.

Britain is at or near the peak of an outbreak of the coronavirus in which more than 14,000 people have already died – the fifth highest national death toll of a pandemic linked to at least 150,000 deaths worldwide.

The government issued new guidance to hospitals Friday, setting out that alternatives to fluid-repellent full-length gowns may need to be used, including reusable gowns or even long-sleeved laboratory coats.

“This guidance is a further admission of the dire situation that some doctors and healthcare workers continue to find themselves in because of government failings,” said Rob Harwood, Consultants Committee chairman at the British Medical Association – the trade union for doctors, Reuters reported.

“If it’s being proposed that staff reuse equipment, this must be demonstrably driven by science and the best evidence – rather than availability – and it absolutely cannot compromise the protection of healthcare workers.”

Britain’s response to the coronavirus outbreak – which has lagged that of European peers – is a source of increasing political criticism for Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who himself contracted the virus and is now recovering from a spell in intensive care.

Health minister Matt Hancock told a committee of lawmakers Friday that Britain was “tight on gowns” but had 55,000 more arriving and was aiming to get the right equipment where it was needed by the end of this weekend.

A health department spokesman said the new guidance was to ensure that staff knew what to do to minimize risk if shortages did occur. They said the new rules remained in line with international standards.

The Royal College of Nursing said it had written “in the strongest terms” to express their concerns over the rules change, and said they had not been consulted about them.

NHS Providers, a body which represents hospitals and other parts of Britain’s publicly funded National Health Service (NHS), said supply levels of gowns were critical.

“It is now clear that some trusts will run out of fully fluid repellent gowns this weekend,” deputy chief executive Saffron Cordery said.

The body said China was the only immediately available source of the gowns, meaning there was an international competition for supplies. It also said there had been problems with consignments arriving from China, such as stock labelled as gowns actually containing face masks.

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UK Pledges 200 Million Pounds for Stopping Second Coronavirus Wave

reporter 1222 — Sun, 12 Apr 2020 08:43:06 +0000

TEHRAN (Iran News) – UK official said Sunday the country was pledging 200 million pounds ($248 million) to the World Health Organization (WHO) and charities to help slow the spread of the coronavirus in vulnerable countries and so help prevent a second wave of infections.

More than 1.7 million people are reported to have been infected by the novel coronavirus globally and deaths have topped 108,000.

Infections have been reported in 210 countries since the first cases were identified in China in December last year and British aid minister Anne-Marie Trevelyan said assisting the poorest nations now would help prevent the virus from returning to the United Kingdom.

Britain has reported almost 10,000 deaths from the coronavirus so far, the fifth-highest national number globally.

“While our brilliant doctors and nurses fight coronavirus at home, we’re deploying British expertise and funding around the world to prevent a second deadly wave reaching the UK,” Trevelyan said in a statement, Reuters reported.

“Coronavirus does not respect country borders so our ability to protect the British public will only be effective if we strengthen the healthcare systems of vulnerable developing countries too.”

The British government said 130 million pounds would go to United Nations’ agencies, with 65 million for the WHO. Another 50 million pounds would go to the Red Cross to help war-torn and hard to reach areas, and 20 million pounds going to other organizations and charities.

The cash would help areas with weak health systems such as war-ravaged Yemen, which reported its first case Friday, and Bangladesh, which is hosting 850,000 Rohingya refugees in crowded camps, it said.

Britain’s support for the WHO contrasts with the view of US President Donald Trump who has criticized its handling of the COVID-19 pandemic with suggestions his administration might re-evaluate US funding

“The United Kingdom’s generous contribution is a strong statement that this is a global threat that demands a global response,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO’s Director-General said.

“We are all in this together, which means protecting health around the world will help to protect the health of people in the UK.”

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