Tracing and testing to get grip on the spread daily virus update

THE measures introduced by Boris Johnson on Monday night hopefully go a long way towards suppressing the spread of the virus and “flattening the curve”.

But there are additional measures which we need to complete the picture of how Covid-19 will run its course in the UK and enable the NHS to forward plan.

The answer is simple – we need more testing. Without community tracing and testing we aren’t able to track submerged infections, ones that don’t have obvious symptoms, and isolate them.

What brought about the success in China and South Korea was that every contact with a known case of coronavirus was traced, tested and isolated whether they had symptoms or not.

This meant agencies could get a grip on how many people were infected. Without this we’re in the dark.

I TAKE the immune suppressant Azathioprine for my colitis condition. Does this put me a greater risk of coronavirus?

Stephen Fletcher

Yes, it does. Any drug which suppresses the immune system stops it reacting to potentially toxic invaders like bacteria and viruses.

You could say that your immune system has been put to sleep. In the first place it doesn’t recognise an invader as harmful and in the second place even if it did it isn’t strong enough to marshal the body’s defences to fight off the invader.

So you do fall into the group of people who are the most vulnerable and must be confined to your home, not going out, not meeting friends or family.

Nevertheless you should be washing your hands frequently and remember not to touch your face.