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Vital letter not sent to blood cancer sufferers Toll in Britain could finish up worse than Second World War, say experts

MORE than a third of blood cancer sufferers have not had a letter telling them to stay home for their own safety.

The letter is also vital to get food and medicine deliveries and to claim statutory sick pay if unable to work.

Of 382 with the disease, 37 per cent told Blood Cancer UK they still have not had one since lockdown began on March 23.

This came after it emerged the NHS in Wales sent 13,000 such letters to the wrong address and 10,000 to dead people.

Gemma Peters, boss of Blood Cancer

UK, said it was unacceptable that large numbers still haven’t received the letter.

Estate agent Sandra Litchfield, 54, from Bedford, has a rare form of blood cancer that affects her immune system.

She turned to her MP Mohammad Yasin after two GPS said she was no more at risk than the general public. Now she has a letter in which the council says it will collect her prescriptions and shopping.

Sandra said it will be a big help when restrictions are lifted and “my employer will expect me to go back to work – which means meeting the general public”.

HUNDREDS of thousands could die in the UK without a vaccine even if lockdown goes on for years, a study says.

Social distancing measures would need to stay in place until December 2024 to see the virus off.

And the economic damage would be so grave it would kill more Britons than the Second World War.

The study was conducted by Philip Thomas, a Professor of Risk Management at the University of Bristol.

It estimates 150,000 people will die from Covid-19 over five years under intermittent lockdown conditions necessary to keep infection rates, or the R number, at the Government goal of below one.

But more than three times this number – 675,000 – will die from the collateral effects of the lengthy lockdown measures.

The analysis, shortly to be published in the scientific journal Nanotechnology Perceptions, was based on projected death rates linked to the virus, together with the economic impact of social distancing or lockdown and that of previous recessions.

The Government is planning to move cautiously out of lockdown, keeping a mixture of levels in place to stop the NHS from being placed under too much strain.

However, to maintain this will demand social distancing measures likely to cause a drop of 23.5 per cent to the economy in 2020 and still further in 2021.

Without a vaccine, it would take until 2024 until the virus is contained, the paper states, and an extra 675,000 lives would be lost due to the effects of poverty on

TEST. Test. Test. The key message from theworld Health Organisation has been clear from the outset of the virus crisis.

The Government met its target of 100,000 tests by the end of April.

Now Boris Johnson’s ambition is to hit 200,000 by the end of May.

The aim must be to test everyone in the community who believes they may have been exposed to Covid-19.

Compared to this 200,000 is a drop in the ocean. Ramping up to mass testing would overwhelm the infrastructure so new capacity must be found.

Fortunately, there is a ready-made delivery network for testing that reaches into every part of the country.

This is our 11,500 local pharmacies,

healthcare and impoverishment in general. Approximately 525,000 British civilian and military personnel died in the Second World War.

Professor Thomas said: “It is not enough