‘Significant’ personal protective equipment order placed by Stormont
THE UK’S coronavirus death toll rose by 181 yesterday — the biggest day-on-day increase since the outbreak began.
A total of 759 people have now died in UK hospitals after being diagnosed with Covid-19, while 113,777 have tested positive, the Department of Health and Social Care said.
Hundreds of thousands more people are thought to be infected.
It took 13 days for the number of deaths in the UK to go from one to just above 100.
It took a further eight days to reach the latest total of 759, analysis shows.
The jump in coronavirus-related deaths in the UK from 578 to 759 is a 31% jump on the figures released on Thursday.
It comes as the Prime Minister and Health Secretary said they were self-isolating after they tested positive for coronavirus. Across the UK yesterday: Firefighters agreed to deliver food and medicine, drive ambulances and retrieve bodies if mass casualties arise;
Police began fining people breaching coronavirus lockdown rules, less than 24 hours after new laws were brought into force;
GP Habib Zaidi (76) who died at Southend Hospital in Essex, is feared to have become the first doctor in the UK to have died after contracting coronavirus;
Sports Direct founder Mike Ashley apologised for “ill-judged and poorly timed” emails after the businessman faced fierce criticism when he tried to claim Sports Direct was an essential operator for keeping the nation fit;
Supermarkets said they will use a government database of 1.5 million vulnerable shoppers to help prioritise delivery slots;
Labour deputy leadership candidate Angela Rayner announced on Twitter that she is self-isolating after suffering symptoms, while Duncan Selbie, the chief executive of Public Health England, is also self-isolating with symptoms.
A public health expert from Belfast believes the UK will be left with a “high burden of coronavirus cases” following its response to the Covid-19 outbreak.
Dr Gabriel Scally, president of Epidemiology and Public Health at the Royal Society of Medicine in London, said there will be populations across the UK with a high exposure to the virus.
The Government has been urged to change its response to tackling the spread of coronavirus by health experts.
Boris Johnson said only those seriously ill in hospital would be tested, advising anyone with symptoms to self-isolate at home for seven days.
The Republic of Ireland, like many other countries, is following international advice from the World Health Organisation (WHO).
Speaking to RTE Morning Ireland, Dr Scally, who led the Cervicalcheck review in Ireland, said: “The things that both the Republic of Ireland and the UK have in common are the great deal of emphasis on social distancing, which is now being reinforced by strict rules that are being implemented very successfully in both jurisdictions.
“The second thing is, hospitals are in a high state of readiness and preparedness and that is a common feature, but there is a great deal of concern in the UK about the availability of protective equipment.
“The case numbers are expected to climb substantially, particularly in London, which is a hotspot.
“A big difference is that the
UK is making no effort to control the spread of the virus in the community by testing for cases and by contact tracing, and so the United States, the UK and Sweden
❝ We are going to end up with populations in the UK with a high exposure to the virus
are the three real outliers on this. Those three countries are taking a different route.
“I think the end game is going to be really very, very different.
“There are going to be a high burden of cases, particularly in the US and, I think, in the UK as a result of what they’ve done or rather what they’ve not done.
“When we get past this — what is likely to be a very large surge — we’re going to end up with populations in the UK with a high exposure to the virus.
“So a lot of people will have had it compared to the Republic of Ireland and other European countries, and it will then be difficult to lift some of the restrictions, particularly around travel and so on because the two countries, the two groups of countries, will be in completely different places.
“Personally, I think there’s no doubt in my mind the Republic of Ireland is taking exactly the right course, based on international experience, and the very best advice.
“That will buy the country time, it’ll buy time for vaccines to develop.”
It came as it was announced a further three people with Covid-19 died in Ireland, taking the country’s death toll to 22.
The latest victims were described as a person in the north west of the country and two females in the east.
There were 302 new confirmed cases of Covid-19 announced last night, taking the total in Ireland to 2,121.