UK suffers bleakest day since virus hit Europe
●Health Secretary Hancock defends handling of pandemic
Health secretary Matt Hancock has claimed the NHS has not yet been “overrun” despite the UK posting one of the highest daily death tolls in Europe since the pandemic first began.
It was confirmed yesterday that a further 980 people had died in the previous 24 hours after contracting coronavirus.
Mr Hancock announced the new figure at the daily Downing Street press conference where he confirmed the total UK death toll had now reached 8,958.
Yesterday’s daily death toll has only been exceeded in
Europe by France, where 1,417 died in a single day – a figure that unlike the UK included deaths in care homes.
Italy announced its record daily death toll of 971 almost two weeks ago. Spain’s worst day amounted to 950 coronavirus deaths.
Yet while Europe’s worst-hit countries are now past the peak of the outbreak, the UK’S figures are still expected to rise for at least two more weeks.
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon also confirmed yesterday a further 48 deaths from Covid-19 had been recorded in Scotland, bringing the overall toll north of the Border to
495. Announcing the fatalities, Mr Hancock said: “We never forget that behind this number, behind each one is a name, a loss, and a family that will never be the same again.”
He added: “This Easter will be another test of the nation’s resolve. It’s a time of year when people normally come together. But, however warm the weather, however tempting your local beach or park, we need everyone to stay at home.”
The grim statistic came on the day the global death toll from coronavirus soared past 100,000.
Mr Hancock said every person with coronavirus had still been able to access care as he declaredallkeynhsandsocial care workers who needed to be tested for Covid-19 would receive tests.
He said: “I’m very pleased that, thus far in this crisis, there is no point where the NHS has been overrun, and every single person with coronavirus has been able to access the best possible care in the NHS.”
Mr Hancock said the economical impact of the crisis, and how that would affect the health service, had not yet been established.
“But it is a piece of work I’m working on jointly with the Chancellor,” Mr Hancock said.
His reassurances were delivered as Apple and Google announced they were jointly developing technology to alert people if they had recently come into contact with others found to be infected with coronavirus.
Their contact-tracing method would work by using a smartphone’s Bluetooth signals to determine to whom the owner had recently been in proximity for long enough to have established contagion as a risk.
If one of those people later tested positive for the Covid-19 virus, a warning would be sent to the original handset owner.
No GPS location data or personal information would be recorded.
Deputy chief medical officer Jonathan Van-tam admitted the UK was still in a “dangerous phase” in regard to the number of new coronavirus cases.
Quoting data from 16 March to yesterday, he said: “You can see the broad trend, that we have been in an increase phase and we are now at a point where we are at a high level and the numbers are varying day by day.
“We are in a dangerous phase still. And I need to reinforce that again to you, that this is not over.”
Prof Van-tam said without the social distancing measures, the NHS would have “absolutely” been overwhelmed some weeks ago.
“Because of the extraordinary efforts the public are making on social distancing, we have stopped the NHS from becoming overwhelmed,” he said.
“Because without it I can assure you it absolutely would have been, and several weeks ago.”
In regard to the number of people occupying hospital beds after being diagnosed with Covid-19 between 20 March and Thursday, he said: “There has been a steady increase, but possibly you can see that the curve is bending.
“It’s impossible to say we have peaked. London has gone down in the last day, but Yorkshire and the North East has gone up.”
The figures were more encouraging in Scotland, where a total of 5,275 people have tested positive for the virus, up by 318 from 4,957 the day before.
There are 207 people in intensive care with coronavirus or coronavirus symptoms – a fall of five on Thursday.
Mr Hancock said the UK Government now had the capacity to test all frontline staff who needed it amid significant numbers self-isolating for fear of having contracted Covid-19.
The health secretary said 15 testing drive-through centres had been opened to enable more testing for frontline staff, including ones in Glasgow, Leeds and London, with two more “Lighthouse megalabs” on track in Glasgow and Cheshire following the opening of the first in Milton Keynes on Thursday.
But Mr Hancock conceded there was still a “lot of work” needed to reach his target of 100,000 daily Covid-19 tests by the end of this month.
The health secretary also set out the Government’s plan to address shortages of personal protective equipment (PPE).
He said health and social care workers must treat the equipment like the “precious resource that it is” and stressed there was enough PPE to go around frontline workers if it was used in line with official guidance. But he acknowledged distributing masks, gloves, aprons and hand sanitiser was requiring a “Herculean logistical effort”.
Giving an update on Thursday’s Cobra meeting, Ms Sturgeon said there was no evidence of any change to the spread of the virus that would be needed to lift the restrictions.
She said: “As that evidence becomes available we will be able to review the situation, but for now, the message remains exactly the same.”
She said she expects the NHS Louisa Jordan hospital, set up at the Scottish Events Campus (SEC) in Glasgow, will not need to be used, but that it will be available if needed.