U.K. sets June 1 contact-tracing rollout
It also seeks to bring Parliament back early
LONDON — The British government pledged Wednesday to have a “test, track and trace” program for the coronavirus in place by June 1, and also sought to bring as many lawmakers as possible back to the green benches of Parliament a day later.
The dual announcements form part of a strategy to convince the country that it’s safe to move on to the next stage of easing the COVID-19 lockdown, notably with the reopening of schools for some, but not all, younger children at the start of June.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson made the contact-tracing pledge after more criticism of his government’s failure to have a national system in place over the past 10 weeks. Being able to track contacts is considered a central plank of the government’s plan to ease further lockdown restrictions.
“We’re making fast progress in testing and tracing and I have great confidence that by June 1 we will have a system that will enable us, that will help us very greatly to defeat this disease,” Johnson said.
Johnson said there will be 25,000 trackers in place, able to trace the contacts of 10,000 new cases a day.
That is significantly more than the 2,412 daily infections recorded on Tuesday by Public Health England, none of which were in London, where the country’s outbreak began and was most pronounced.
Government figures Wednesday showed that another 363 people who have tested positive for the virus have died in the U.K. in all settings, including hospitals and care homes. That took the total to 35,704, the highest death tally in Europe and second in the world behind the United States.
Meanwhile, the leader of the House of Commons said members of Parliament should return to London to work in person on June 2 after weeks of remote working.
Jacob Rees-mogg said the decision recognizes “the need for business to continue.” Authorities are likely to limit the number of people allowed into the small chamber, where lawmakers sit shoulder to shoulder on long benches.
In other developments:
The head of emergencies at the World Health Organization warned Wednesday that any end to sizable U.S. funding for the U.N. health agency will have a “major implication for delivering essential health services to the most vulnerable people in the world.”
Michael Ryan was responding to questions from reporters about a letter sent by President Donald Trump to the WHO’S chief threatening an end — for good — to funding from the United States, the agency’s biggest donor, unless it reforms.
Brazil President Jair Bolsonaro unveiled rules Wednesday expanding the prescription of chloroquine, the predecessor of an anti-malaria drug promoted by Trump, for coronavirus patients.
Chloroquine was already being used in Brazil for COVID-19 patients who are hospitalized in serious condition, and under the new regulations, it can be given to people with lighter symptoms such as abdominal pain, cough or fever, according to the Health Ministry.
Slovakia reopened theaters, cinemas and shopping malls on Wednesday, all with new restrictions on visitor numbers, even though it has had only 28 deaths from COVID-19.
As beaches reopened in Barcelona, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez asked lawmakers to back a plan to extend the nation’s state of emergency by another two weeks until June 7. Spain’s main opposition, the conservative Popular Party, rejected the move.
U.N. Secretary-general Antonio Guterres warned that the pandemic could push millions into extreme poverty in Africa, where the virus has reached every country. Guterres said Africa needs more than $200 billion and “an across-the-board debt standstill” for struggling nations.