Anxiety goes viral

World struggles to cope as death toll surpasses 300,000

Amental illness crisis is looming as millions of people worldwide are surrounded by death and disease and forced into isolation, poverty and anxiety by the pandemic of Covid-19, United Nations health experts said on Thursday.

“The isolation, the fear, the uncertainty, the economic turmoil — they all cause or could cause psychological distress,” said Devora Kestel, director of the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) mental health department.

Presenting a UN report and policy guidance on Covid-19 and mental health, Kestel said an upsurge in the number and severity of mental illnesses is likely, and governments should put the issue “front and centre” of their responses.

“The mental health and wellbeing of whole societies have been severely impacted by this crisis and are a priority to be addressed urgently,” she told reporters at a briefing.

The report highlighted several regions and sections of societies as vulnerable to mental distress — including children and young people isolated from friends and school, healthcare workers who are seeing thousands of patients infected with and dying from the new coronavirus. —

During this crisis, millions of people have discovered cycling — whether for exercise or as a means of safe, socially-distanced transport

Grant Shapps

London’s Transport minister

andre Wu and a dozen or so other people queue up at an appropriate social distance outside Brixton Cycles in south London to buy a new bike.

“During this pandemic crisis I was thinking that doing public transport was not something I was looking forward to again, so I was like, OK, let’s just get a bicycle,” said Wu.

As coronavirus lockdown measures are gradually eased in Britain and across Europe, he is not alone.

Brixton Cycles director Lincoln Romain said his company has received such increased demand that suppliers had run out of stock.

“We’ve seen a mixture of everybody to be honest,” he said.

“We’ve seen commuters, people that commute all the time, we’ve seen new cyclists, we’ve seen people that have to get in so they have bikes that have been in the shed a little while.”

Britain has the second-worst pandemic death toll in the world, but stayat-home restrictions have been partially lifted in England this week.

People unable to work from home have been encouraged to avoid public transport when they return to their jobs to prevent overcrowding and the risk of close-contact transmission.

In London, that means making a choice between using the underground “Tube”, taking the bus or getting back on the saddle.

Transport minister Grant Shapps said many had already made their choice.

“During this crisis, millions of people have discovered cycling — whether for exercise or as a means of safe, socially-distanced transport,” he said. To cope with increased demand, the government has announced an emergency plan of £250 million ($305 million) to adapt transport in the face of the epidemic.

Part of the funding will be used to create temporary cycle paths or widen already existing ones in the coming weeks. But cyclist Kelly Wise said there were still concerns about safety.

“People forget they still need to social-distance when stopped at traffic lights and not to tailgate so close behind another cyclists,” she said.

“Someone could cough in front of you and you could breath it in.

“I’ve experienced this. Someone stopped right next to me at a red light and this was during the worse part of the virus outbreak.”

The upsurge in cycling has become a trend across Europe.

In Barcelona, the use of cycle paths has increased by 325 per cent during peak hours, according to the city’s head of urban planning, Janet Sanz.

Similar initiatives to the one in Britain have emerged in most major European cities. —