Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Calls for Johnson to give clearer response as pubs & restaurants stay open
if they weren’t so selfish.” At Tesco, Marion Koppel, 96, said: “I’m trying to do my normal shopping but people are panic buying so much they are making it impossible.
“I don’t know what has got into everyone – please just calm down.”
Kathryn Hopkins, 56, from Doncaster said: “Some stores are opening early for pensioners but in our region their free bus pass is not valid until after 9.30am.”
The carer said she had tried to do a shop on Wednesday but failed – despite visiting three stores before 10am. She said: “It must be a terrible shock to older people who turn up and the shelves are empty. A lot of the basics are nowhere to be seen.” Retired teacher
Monday, Wednesday & Friday, 9-10am. Today (Friday), from opening until 9am. Monday to Friday, 9-10am. Sundays, first hour (store times may vary).
Monday to Friday, 9-10am. Sundays, first hour.
Monday, Thursday, Friday, first hour. Monday to Sunday, first hour.
same pack is approaching £2, so it is not sustainable for us to sell it at 79p.
“There are global issues at play because the supply of some of the core ingredients for paracetamol in India has come into problems and that has affected the ability of paracetamol to be made globally and therefore there is a supply issue.”
Mr Greene said paracetamol is not the only drug increasing in price and bedlam and makes me feel so frustrated. It was so shocking how empty the store was. The whole frozen section was gone. But I saw kind
he called for government assistance to help pharmacies survive.
He added: “We can’t carry on with this uncertainty, we can’t carry the additional costs at this moment in time when we have an underlying funding issue and therefore we are asking and we have been in discussion with the department officials around the immediacy of funding being released.”
BORIS Johnson faced demands for a clearer response to the pandemic yesterday as he again stopped short of forcing a full lockdown despite soaring deaths.
The Prime Minister and his two top coronavirus advisers again urged people to stop congregating in pubs and restaurants but still did not order the venues to shut.
The Mirror understands wider plans for a lockdown have been drawn up, but ministers have not yet worked out how they would be enforced.
Instead Mr Johnson dangled the prospect of “turning the tide” on the disease within 12 weeks if people voluntarily obey the experts. He added: “If we feel that it isn’t working and we need to bring forward tougher measures, nothing is ruled out.” He admitted the virus is “proceeding in a way that does not seem yet to be responding to our interventions”.
It came amid fears that many younger people were ignoring advice to limit social contact to slow the virus’s spread.
Chief Scientific Adviser Sir Patrick Vallance said: “Unless everyone does this, it doesn’t have the effect. Mixing in pubs and restaurants is a real part of allowing the disease to spread and it needs to stop.”
He said the NHS would “grind to a halt” unless people heeded the advice, with patients suffering other serious conditions denied life-saving treatment.
As UK deaths rose to 144 England’s Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty said: “It’s important we don’t give the impression that every young healthy person is just going to breeze through this. There’ll be some young people who will have severe disease even though they’re otherwise healthy.”
Calling for stronger leadership in the crisis, Shadow Health Secretary Jonathan Ashworth said: “This virus exploits ambivalence. People need clarity, reassurance and expect determined resolve from government.”
Mr Johnson said UK scientists are expected to start trials for the first coronavirus vaccine within a month.he also said a UK patient who tested positive for the virus has been placed in a trial for a potential treatment.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock said a new type of test is available that can check if a patient has had coronavirus and has the antibodies in their system.
He said: “It is in production and we have been bought them today.”
The Government wants to move to 250,000 tests a day of those suspected of having the virus and those who have built up antibodies after recovering, allowing those now resistant to the illness to return to work. It came as: Deaths in Italy overtook those registered in China, rising by 427 to 3,405.
The Bank of England cut interest rates from 0.25% to 0.1% – their lowest ever level – and pumped another of £200billion into the economy in its second emergency injection in eight days – taking its bondbuying scheme to £645billion.
A drug developed to treat malaria and prescribed on the NHS for arthritis has shown signs it may help beat the virus. Donald Trump announced hydroxychloroquine, sold under the brand name Plaquenil, will be fasttracked for approval in the US.
The Government published its Coronavirus Bill, outlining powers which could force pubs, shops, airports and train stations to shut.
It includes fines of up to £1,000 for refusing to be tested for Covid-19.
The plan is to be rushed through Parliament next week.