How ‘Covid secure’ is 10 Downing Street?

FORTUNATELY, it has been reported that nobody present at the meeting inside Number 10 Downing Street has been infected, but surely that is not the point (“Covid MP defends Boris meeting”, Post, November 18).

Looking at the shoulder-toshoulder space between Boris Johnson and MP Lee Anderson it appears to be less than two metres. Even if from nose to nose when stood sideways they still look a bit close and if they were applying the one-metre-plus rule, where were the mitigating measures such as screens and face masks?

What else goes on inside No. 10 regarding “hands, face, space” is anyone’s guess. Perhaps Boris Johnson’s unhygienic and unnecessary style of elbow bumping or similar has caught on. But from the constant media coverage of outside No 10 some Government ministers, MPS and other visitors can still be seen entering and leaving without face masks on – showing no consideration to the doorman or anybody else who might just happen to be in their path.

Meanwhile, in the Commons chamber MPS can be seen walking and taking close to each other with only a few wearing face masks when seated. Other MPS remove them the moment they enter which in a way is no better than those shoppers who rip them off the moment they leave a supermarket or a bank. Even if it’s not the actual Parliament rules, I would have thought by now MPS and ministers would want to wear them and in so doing set an example to the rest of us.

The same applying to hand sanitiser. There should be small bottles in place close to every seat for individual use when they sit down and depart. The chamber, including the benches and other surfaces that they touch, might well be disinfected when not in use at night, but shouldn’t it also be an ongoing Covid-19 safety requirement by all MPS who attend?

There is also an absence of screens in the chamber (I can only make out one near the Speaker). In view of the fact that raised voices can project saliva droplets further than usual speech, I am surprised that there are not more, including a screen down the middle of the large table which ministers and the Opposition speak from.

It is claimed that No 10 and Parliament are “Covid secure”. Are they?

Mark Iles Newark