PRINCE CHARLES RECOVERS; UK PM’S AIDE HAS ‘SYMPTOMS’

nLONDON: A week after testing positive for the coronavirus, Prince Charles, heir to the British throne, has recovered and is out of self-isolation in Scotland, a spokesperson for the royal family said on Monday.

The spokesperson said, “Clarence House has confirmed today that, having consulted with his doctor, the Prince of Wales is now out of self-isolation.”

In a worrying development for the UK government, Dominic Cummings, the most senior aide to Prime Minister Boris Johnson, has gone into self-isolation after developing symptoms of Covid-19. A Downing Street spokesman said Cummings developed symptoms over the weekend.

Meanwhile, Neil Ferguson, an epidemiologist from Imperial College on whose advice the government had decided to impose the ongoing three-week lockdown, said that the latest data showed signs that social distancing measures were beginning to work.

The “numbers of new hospital admissions today” seemed to be “slowing down”, Ferguson told BBC. The UK has reported 22,141 infections and 1,408 deaths.

Jenny Harries, England’s deputy chief medical officer , on Sunday suggested the UK may be subject to some form of lockdown measures for six months or longer, warning that the country could face a second wave of coronavirus infections if the restrictions are lifted too soon.

Britain has ordered 10,000 ventilators from a consortium of leading aerospace, engineering and Formula One racing companies which will start production this week. The team, including Airbus, BAE Systems, Ford and Rolls-royce, have joined forces to ramp up production of a ventilator made by Smiths Group.

The consortium, which also includes seven Formula One teams including Mclaren and Mercedes, said they had pulled staff off existing projects to meet the urgent need.

Also, the UK government deployed specialist units across departments to prevent the spread of misinformation about the pandemic. The effort is coordinated by the Rapid Response Unit, which is operating from 10, Downing Street and the cabinet office.