The lack of a coordinated response to coronavirus is proving costly

SIR – Many have suggested that, if there is a slow and steady spread of coronavirus, the NHS will cope. A rapid rise in infections, requiring more intensive-care capacity, is of concern – in Britain and most other countries.

This is exactly why the widespread failure to follow the example of a few well-led countries a month ago is inexplicable. Entry should have been barred for those who had travelled to China within the incubation period. All residents returning from China should have been a subject to an enforced, supervised quarantine.

Most countries did not implement this and so the human, social and economic costs of the pending coronavirus pandemic will be greater than they needed to have been.

Damian Chunilal

Hong Kong

SIR – We are informed that testing kits for coronavirus are not available outside government-controlled facilities.

This grip must not be suffered to persist: it evokes earlier government attempts to micromanage healthcare when collective infections loom. Doctors have patients to treat and not merely multitudes to herd.

Proper serological tests must be made available to bona fide laboratories throughout the land.

Dr Georges S Kaye London SW7 SIR – If you are tempted to stock up on face masks, please don’t be surprised if hospitals have to start cancelling routine surgery when our supplies run out.

Dr Sarah A Pape FRSCEd Longwitton, Northumberland

SIR – Given the apparently disproportionate public fear of coronavirus, it seems to me that the significant difference between the Sars outbreak and today is that, in 2004, social media was only in its infancy.

Richard Thwaites

Cheltenham, Gloucestershire

SIR – I must take issue with the suggestion that coronavirus is no more cause for concern than influenza.

Ultimately, that may well prove to be the case, but for people such as my husband, who has a weakened immune system, the current situation is incredibly stressful.

Patients with underlying health problems can be vaccinated against the flu. Not so coronavirus – or not yet, anyway.

Hazel Norman

Swanage, Dorset

SIR – I had occasion to take a friend to a major London hospital the other day for an outpatient appointment.

Doors needed to be opened and lift buttons needed to be pressed – but I did not once see any hand get. Surely in a large hospital, and with the current coronavirus threat, this is one of the first lines of defence against contamination.

Susan Lister

West Horndon, Essex