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Thursday 23 April 2020 11:56
Scientists on Sage body to update ministers today
Scientists are to present to government their advice on whether the British public should wear face masks habitually today. The wearing of masks is being enforced in some other countries, like Austria, but doctors in the UK fear they could put healthy people at greater risk of contracting coronavirus.
It comes after the chief medical officer suggested social distancing measures may have to remain in place until 2021. Chris Whitty said the chances of having a usable vaccine by next year were “incredibly small” and that it would be unreasonable to end Britain’s lockdown completely until one was found.
And another top government adviser has warned coronavirus may circulate “indefinitely” and called for £6.5bn of global funding for a vaccine. Sir Jeremy Farrar, of the Wellcome Trust, said: “We absolutely must at least assume and prepare for, even if we can’t be sure it will happen, that this is not a discrete one-off episode. My belief is that this is now an endemic human infection.”
Dr Jenny Harries has said the issue of whether members of the public should wear face masks is “difficult”.
The deputy chief medical officer told ITV’s Good Morning Britain: “So I think you will have heard the CMO yesterday saying that where we’ve got absolute clear evidence, we don’t usually have these sorts of debates – so the fact that there is a lot of debate means that the evidence either isn’t clear or is weak.
“The points where we are absolutely clear that face masks are needed are if you are a patient and are symptomatic, that’s stopping the infection at source from moving on to other people, and if you’re a healthcare worker and social care worker we must preserve our face masks particularly for them, to protect them.
“But when it comes to the general public it starts to get much more difficult.”
She added: “In some countries where the public are using them they are nearly always alongside other social distancing measures so it is quite difficult to tease out what the effect of the mask might be.”
Over the past several weeks, ethicists around the world have agonised over arguments about who can die in the pandemic. By who, they have all meant which patients, not which staff, writes Alexis Paton.
Discussions have centred almost exclusively in this domain on how to identify those patients best able to benefit from escalation of care. In short, who should get our most precious of limited resources: the ventilator.
Scientists on the Sage expert body are to present ministers with their findings on whether the British public should wear face masks when they are outside.
Some countries, like Austria, have made the items mandatory in certain settings, but UK doctors fear they could put healthy people at risk. However, people with a cough probably ought to wear one, a leading GP said today.
Yesterday, Matt Hancock warned that the government might not be able to provide free masks to citizens if Sage recommends a change to the current official guidance:
Speaking to Germany’s parliament in a session where lawmakers sat apart from one another in line with the country’s social distancing regulations, Angela Merkel has said scientists are busily researching the virus at home but that “international cooperation against the virus is extremely important”.
“Science is never national, science serves mankind,” the long-serving chancellor said. “Thus it goes without saying that when medication or a vaccination is found, tested, released and is ready for use, it must be available all around the world and affordable for the whole world.”
Donald Trump has announced he plans to halt funding for the World Health Organisation (WHO) to review how it has handled the outbreak, but Mrs Merkel lauded the agency’s work in the fight against the coronavirus.
“For the German government, I emphasise the WHO is an indispensable partner and we support them in their mandate,” she said.
The chairman of the Royal College of General Practitioners has said it “makes complete sense” to advise the general public to wear masks if they are coughing to reduce the risk of spreading coronavirus, writes Kate Ng.
Professor Martin Marshall’s comments come as the Scientific Advisory Group on Emergencies is expected to present its findings on the usage of masks on Thursday.
However, he also warned that there is no evidence that healthy people would benefit from wearing a mask, and may even become more at risk of contracting an infection.
The world’s biggest cargo plane brought more than 100 tonnes of medical equipment to Ukraine from China on Thursday, in what Ukraine’s [president Volodymyr Zelenskiy claimed was the biggest cargo shipment by volume in history.
The Ukrainian-designed Antonov-225 Mriya aircraft is typically used to lift large and heavy loads for industry. On Thursday it brought 12 million masks, 260,000 protective glasses and 100,000 gowns to help protect Ukrainian medics treating coronavirus patients.
Only one of the giant craft was ever built.
“This is a record for the volume of cargo, which can be included in the Guinness Book of Records,” Zelenskiy told reporters after it landed. Reuters was not able to verify this.
Zelenskiy said several more flights were planned for the near future.
China has been providing high profile assistance to eastern European countries fighting coronavirus as part of a diplomatic push in the region.
The number of coronavirus infections in Romania rose by 386 new cases on Thursday to 10,096 confirmed cases, the government has said. It said 2,478 persons had recovered so far and 527 others had died.
Romanians have had to carry written permission notes if they want to travel during the European Union’s state of emergency, which has been extended to 15 May.
Northern Ireland’s health minister has said that in the absence of a vaccine, planning must be done for a second wave of Covid-19 later this year.
“Modelling has indicated that we are now in the peak of the first wave of the pandemic but it’s too early to confirm whether the current figures represent the peak,” Robin Swann said.
“And in the absence of a vaccine we will have to plan for a potential second wave of Covid-19 cases later in the year. The outbreak has not yet reached the point where some of the restrictions can be relaxed.”
He added that progress achieved by adherence to social distancing could be “lost very quickly” if restrictions are lifted haphazardly.
A senior Tory minister was unable to say how many people have been tested for coronavirus as the government faces a race against time to meet an ambitious pledge for 100,000 daily tests, writes Lizzy Buchan.
Brandon Lewis, the Northern Ireland secretary, came unstuck during an interview with ITV’s Good Morning Britain, where he failed to answer repeated questions on the number of individuals who’ve received Covid-19 tests.
Almost half of all people who have died with coronavirus in Europe were residents in care facilities, the World Health Organisation’s regional director for Europe has said.
Dr Hans Kluge told a press conference on Thursday there was a “deeply concerning picture” emerging regarding those in long-term care.
He said: “According to estimates from countries in the European region, up to half of those who have died from Covid-19 were resident in long-term care facilities. This is an unimaginable human tragedy.”
Alok Sharma has said he will look to introduce measures to ease commercial rent demand within the next week.
The business secretary told MPs on a select committee: “I do think the majority of landlords and tenants are working well, they are reaching agreements on debt obligations but I am certainly aware that certain landlords are putting undue financial pressure with aggressive debt recovery tactics.
“What I’m very happy to say to you is I will look to introduce temp measures on this particular issue which will ease commercial rent demand and protect the UK high street. That is something I will be doing very very shortly.”
Throughout March, as the pandemic gained momentum in the United States, much of the preparations focused on the breathing machines that were supposed to save everyone’s lives.
New York State Gov. Andrew Cuomo and President Donald Trump sparred over how many ventilators the state was short. DIYers brainstormed modifications to treat more patients. And ethicists agonized over how to allocate them fairly if we run out.
Now five weeks into the crisis, a paper published in the journal JAMA about New York State’s largest health system suggests a reality that confounds early expectations like so much else about the novel coronavirus.
Malaysia reported 71 new confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus on Thursday, raising the cumulative total to 5,603.
Its health ministry also reported two new deaths, raising the total number of fatalities from the outbreak to 95.
Four Arsenal players have become the latest to have been caught breaching government guidelines on social distancing, writes Ben Burrows.
The coronavirus pandemic has forced Premier League footballers – and everyone else – inside with mass gatherings banned and recommendations over the amount of exercise people can do in public.
Nicolas Pepe, Granit Xhaka, David Luiz and Alexandre Lacazette were all spotted not following government advice.
Jenny Harries, the deputy chief medical officer, suffered Covid-19 symptoms for about 10 days, she has revealed.
Dr Harries told Good Morning Britain: “I found it a very unpleasant experience. I wasn’t well at all, I didn’t necessarily have some of the clear respiratory symptoms.”
For “privileged” doctors who are often in good health, “it’s a good dose of our own medicine, if you like, to experience things, to know how other people feel”.
“I’m normally very fit and healthy. I was very knocked off, probably, for about a week, and very grateful to my children for looking after me.”
Tony Lloyd, a veteran Labour frontbencher, has been discharged from intensive care after being treated for coronavirus.
The shadow Northern Ireland secretary, 70, was admitted to Manchester Royal Infirmary three weeks ago after falling ill.
In a statement posted on Twitter by Faisal Rana, a councillor in his Rochdale constituency, Mr Lloyd said it had been a “tough condition” but he was “on the mend”.
“Thank you all for the many messages of support. I have now been moved out of ICU,” he said.
Take vitamin D to stay healthy during lockdown, says Public Health England
writes Rory Sullivan.
Since vitamin D is created by the body using direct sunlight on the skin, it is thought that people may not be producing enough of it due to isolation measures.
Health experts now advise people to take 10mg of the vitamin a day to ensure healthy bones and muscles.
China has said it will donate a further $30m (£24m) to the World Health Organization (WHO), which is seeking more than $1bn (£810m) to fund its battle against coronavirus pandemic.
It comes just a week after Donald Trump suspended US funding for the UN health agency and accused the Geneva-based organisation of promoting Chinese “disinformation” about the virus, which emerged in the central city of Wuhan last year.
“At this crucial moment, supporting WHO is supporting multilateralism and global solidarity,” Hua Chunying, a spokesperson from China’s foreign ministry, said on Twitter.
Despite Mr Trump’s claims of a figure four or five times higher, Washington sends just over $100m (£78m) annually to the WHO.
Businesses have been handed more than £2.8bn as part of a UK government-backed loan scheme to help them through the effects of the coronavirus outbreak, according to new figures.
Total lending doubled in the week to Tuesday, UK Finance reported, with more than 9,000 loans for £1.45bn being provided over the seven days.
More than 36,000 completed applications have been sent to lenders so far, with 1,624 approved to date, and others still being processed.
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