As Britain’s over-70s have been asked to stay at home for four months to stop them catching coronavirus, health secretary Matt Hancock has said they can still meet friends and family providing everyone is ‘fit and healthy’.
Age UK has said elderly people feeling well can still carry on as normal, and go out and meet people, providing basic hygiene measures such as washing hands regularly are observed.
The Alzheimer’s Society has not advised against visiting elderly relatives, but it said that anyone concerned should ring them to check they have handwash and hand sanitiser, are cleaning remote controls, door handles and taps regularly, and whether they need anyone to do a shopping trip.
Independent Age has also not advised against visits, but urged family members to ensure older relatives have all the supplies they need such as food and medication.
Several care homes in the UK have suspended all visits in a bid to stop the virus spreading and Independent Age has told its volunteers home visits should now be conducted over the phone.
Matt Hancock advised Britain’s almost four million over-70s to stay at home this morning, as he admitted the NHS does not have enough ventilators to fight the virus. The UK has reported 1,140 cases of coronavirus so far and 21 deaths due to the disease.
British families have been told to ring elderly loved ones to ensure they have everything they need during outbreak (stock)
Health secretary Matt Hancock said that the over-70s should stay at home for four months to avoid spreading coronavirus
Age UK said in its advice online that those who are feeling well can ‘keep doing what they normally do as long as they don’t have symptoms and maintain good hygiene practices like washing hands regularly’.
‘You only need to stay at home and avoid contact with other people if you have a high temperature or a persistent cough, or if you’ve been advised by NHS 111, or another healthcare professional,’ they said.
‘If you or someone you know has a weakened immune system (for example, because of an existing health condition), it’s important to ensure you and those you’re in close contact with pay attention to the advice above.’
The Alzheimer’s Society said that people caring for someone with dementia should check that their relative has everything they need – including medicines, food and library books.
‘Make sure the person has access to the medication they need,’ they said. ‘If you or the person with dementia is advised to self-isolate, speak to a GP or local pharmacist to make sure they will have a supply. Keep checking in to make sure they are continuing to take the right medication.
‘Check that they know who to call if they get unwell – leave the number prominently displayed.
‘If the person is going to be stuck in doors for a while, encourage them to stay active and consider gentle exercises. Try to make sure they have activities that they can engage in at home as well; reading, magazines, jigsaws, music, knitting, their favourite TV/radio programmes available.
‘Keep in touch. If you can’t visit the person, then stay in contact by phone, post, email or Skype. Tell the person that you’re thinking of them and encourage others to do so as well.’
The UK’s death rate doubled overnight as a further ten patients died from the coronavirus. The total number of cases in the UK leapt from 820 to 1,140 on Saturday
Independent Age’s Simon Hewett-Avison said families need to make sure their elderly relatives have the supplies the need – but also warned the virus could increase the risk of isolating people further.
‘We have seen elderly people are quite concerned about this,’ he told The BBC. ‘I was taking to a lady last week n Teesside. She was constantly looking at the news and was really concerned.
‘We are keen to encourage people to see this as an opportunity to reconnect with family and friends that they have fallen out of contact with and check in with the.’
In a notice posted this week, the charity said all its home visits would be suspended due to coronavirus.
‘We have made the difficult decision to ask all our volunteers to pause visits to older people until further notice,’ they said. ‘As part of this, we are also encouraging our volunteers to make calls to those they support to keep in contact and provide reassurance where they can.’
They told volunteers to check those receiving calls are well stocked, and to encourage them to keep in touch with others over the phone and digitally if possible.
‘We recommend that they listen to chatty radio stations and, if they are feeling lonely, to put some extra pictures around of people they care about.’
Health Secretary Matt Hancock admits the NHS does not have enough ventilators to cope with coronavirus and confirms the elderly WILL be told to stay at home for FOUR MONTHS
Matt Hancock today confirmed the government will tell the elderly to stay at home for up to four months as he admitted the NHS does not currently have enough ventilators for the fight against coronavirus.
The Health Secretary said people over the age of 70 will be told to self-isolate even if they do not have symptoms in a bid to stem the spread of the disease and protect the most vulnerable in society.
He said ‘we don’t want to do that too soon because clearly it is not an easy thing to do, it is not an easy thing to sustain’ but he said he expected the stay-at-home advice to be issued ‘certainly in the coming weeks absolutely’.
Meanwhile, the government has issued a ‘call to arms’ to manufacturers in the UK to ask them to step in and build vital ventilators for the NHS.
Mr Hancock said the health service currently has an estimated 5,000 of the machines but it will need ‘many times more than that’ because they are the ‘big thing’ needed in the treatment of coronavirus.
The Health Secretary said ‘it is not possible to produce too many’ as he promised the government will buy all those which are made.
However, he refused to guarantee that everyone who needs a ventilator will have access to one as he said ‘we don’t make guarantees in health care’ but he vowed to do ‘everything we possibly can to protect life’.
The government’s attempts to make the NHS battle-ready will also include turning operating theatres which usually conduct routine knee and hip replacement operations into coronavirus wards because they have built-in oxygen supplies. Mr Hancock said much elective surgery will ‘of course’ be cancelled.
Meanwhile, the Cabinet minister hit out at people who are needlessly panic-buying, telling all shoppers to ‘behave responsibly’ because ministers are ‘confident’ the UK’s existing ‘food supply will continue’.
A number of European nations have responded to the outbreak by closing restaurants, bars and non-essential shops.
Mr Hancock said the UK had not ‘ruled that out’ as he vowed: ‘We will stop at nothing to fight this virus.’
Despite the grim outlook, Mr Hancock said the UK has endured worse, telling Sky News: ‘We have been through worse as a country, of course we have, but it is a very significant challenge
‘The measures that we are taking, the measures that we are looking at taking, are very, very significant and they will disrupt the ordinary lives of almost everybody in this country in order to tackle this virus.’
Mr Hancock’s comments came after the number of positive tests for coronavirus in the UK increased to 1,140 on Saturday while the death toll hit 21.
The government estimated last week that as many as 10,000 people were likely to already have the virus and Mr Hancock today said that number was likely to be ‘a little higher than that’.
Boris Johnson last week announced that anyone who experiences a new persistent cough or a fever should self-isolate for seven days as the government moved from the contain phase of its action plan to the delay phase.
But the government’s response is set to escalate still further with Whitehall effectively now on a war footing as the spread of the disease gets worse.
The mass isolation of the elderly – even if they are not ill – is expected to start within the next 20 days and it is one of a number of more draconian measures now being prepared by ministers.
Matt Hancock today admitted the NHS does not have enough ventilators to tackle the coronavirus outbreak as he confirmed the elderly will soon be told to stay at home for up to four months
Mass isolating of the elderly – even if they are not ill – will begin within the next 20 days as Boris Johnson ratchets up efforts to tackle the UK’s outbreak
Whole families will soon be told to isolate themselves even if just one member falls ill with coronavirus-related symptoms.
Tomorrow NHS England will hand out new guidelines for hospitals which will tell trusts they can scrap routine surgery and outpatient appointments to free up resources.
The government is striking agreements with private hospitals so that more beds can be brought into public use should existing NHS provision be overwhelmed.
Meanwhile, troops could be deployed to guard hospitals and supermarkets, and police could under a worst case scenario be told to only deal with loss of life incidents.
Elsewhere, economists predicted that the UK could suffer a six per cent drop in GDP in the coming months.
The government will this week move to ban mass gatherings so that 999 services can focus on coronavirus as ministers crash emergency legislation through the House of Commons to give them the powers they need.
Those powers will include the ability to force people into quarantine if they pose a ‘risk to public health’ but Mr Hancock said he did not believe they will need to be used ‘very much because people are being very responsible’.
The increase in activity came after 10 more patients died in England after testing positive for Covid-19, while the US government imposed a travel ban on the UK and Ireland in response to the coronavirus pandemic.
The 10 patients who died since Friday were being cared for in Buckinghamshire, Sandwell & West Birmingham, Wolverhampton, Leicester, Barts, London, north Middlesex and Chester, NHS England said.
A number of the patients, who were over 60, had underlying health conditions.
There had been 1,140 positive tests for coronavirus in the UK as of 9am on Saturday, up from 798 at the same time on Friday.
The UK death toll now stands at 21, with 20 in England and one in Scotland.
Pressure on the NHS is expected to grow to previously unprecedented levels in the coming weeks with the number of coronavirus cases expected to spike.
Mr Hancock said ventilators will be key to the health service’s ability to treat people in the weeks ahead.
He told Sophy Ridge on Sky News: ‘We start with around 5,000 ventilators, we think we need many times more than that and we are saying if you produce a ventilator then we will buy it. No number is too high.’
‘They are relatively complicated pieces of kit, I couldn’t make one, but they’re not so complicated that the advanced manufacturing that this country is so good at now can’t be able to turn its production lines over to.
‘We’ve been talking to a whole host of companies about it and the Prime Minister is hosting a conference call today with them to say very clearly to the nation’s manufacturers ventilators are the thing that we are going to need and frankly right across the world, the demand for them is incredibly high so it is not possible to produce too many.
‘So anybody who can should turn production and their engineering minds over to the production of ventilators.’
The government is urging major companies like JCB and Rolls Royce to convert their production lines to produce the artificial respirators.
Ministers are under growing pressure to do more to combat panic-buying which has gripped supermarkets up and down the UK in recent days.
Asked if food supply might be at risk, the Health Secretary said: ‘No, one of the things we are confident about is that the food supply will continue.’
But pressed to guarantee this would not be the case, he said: ‘Well we are confident about it. What I can guarantee is we will work with the supermarkets to ensure that people get enough.
‘I understand why people might be stocking up but people have got to behave responsibly.’
The Health Secretary denied that achieving ‘herd immunity’ was part of the government’s policy in tackling the coronavirus outbreak.
He responded to criticism from some elements of the scientific community, and when asked if he was playing ‘roulette’ with public safety Mr Hancock replied: ‘No, obviously.’
‘What we will do is listen to all the credible scientists and we will look at all the evidence,’ he added.
‘Herd immunity is not our goal or policy, it’s a scientific concept. Our policy is to protect lives and to beat this virus.’
The number of confirmed cases of Covid-19 across Europe is 40,677 and the number of deaths is 1,553. The World Health Organisation has said that Europe is the new epicentre of the virus
Shoppers are faced with partially empty shelves at a supermarket in London as consumers worry about product shortages as a result of the coronavirus
QUEEN LEAVES PALACE AMID VIRUS WORRY
The Queen attends the Commonwealth Day service this month
The Queen has quit Buckingham Palace over coronavirus fears after Corbra crisis talks, it has been reported.
Her Majesty, 93, has been taken to Windsor Castle with plans in place to quarantine her and Prince Philip, 98, at Sandringham if the outbreak worsens.
The news comes as Britain’s coronavirus death rate almost doubled today as ten more people died, bringing total deaths to 21.
A royal source told The Sun: ‘She is in good health but it was thought best to move her. A lot of her staff are a bit panicky over coronavirus.
‘The Queen has met a lot of people there until recently. But she is weeks away from her 94th birthday and advisers believe it is best to get her out of harm’s way.’
Her Majesty’s upcoming visits to Cheshire and Camden were yesterday postponed because of the coronavirus pandemic.
She is also said to have been advised to cancel her annual garden parties in May and June in order to reduce the spread of coronavirus.
It comes after she was earlier this month reported to have vowed not to let the outbreak stop her from performing her duties and to set an example by ‘keeping calm and carrying on’ until there is ‘compelling advice to the contrary’.
Writing in The Sunday Telegraph, Mr Hancock today described coronavirus as the ‘biggest public health emergency in a generation’.
He said ‘dramatic action at home and abroad’ will be required to defeat it.
He also said the UK is likely to move ‘soon’ to bolster its response to the outbreak.
That will mean tougher measures designed to ‘shield’ older and medically vulnerable people with families expected to be told to self-isolate together even if only one family member has symptoms.
The elderly will soon face up to four months of self-isolation as ministers try to stop the most vulnerable groups in society from being exposed to the disease.
Mr Hancock said the country will need to work together to combat the threat of loneliness which the crackdown could result in, especially among the elderly.
He wrote: ‘Everyone will need to help to ensure they get the support they need to stay at home, and to protect them from the consequences of isolation: loneliness, and a lack of support.’
The Health Secretary invoked the spirit of the Blitz as he urged people to look out for each other.
‘Our generation has never been tested like this,’ he said.
‘Our grandparents were, during the Second World War, when our cities were bombed during the Blitz.
‘Despite the pounding every night, the rationing, the loss of life, they pulled together in one gigantic national effort.
‘Today our generation is facing its own test, fighting a very real and new disease. We must fight the disease to protect life.’
Meanwhile, Health minister Nadine Dorries said confirmation she had contracted the coronavirus was like ‘iced water trickling down my spine’.
Ms Dorries tested positive for the disease last week and remains in self-isolation.
Nadine Dorries, pictured in the House of Commons on March 4, said testing positive for coronavirus sent ‘iced water trickling down my spine’
The first UK death from coronavirus was announced on March 5, and Saturday’s announcement of 10 deaths is by far the largest number of deaths announced on a single day in the UK since the outbreak took hold
Writing in the Sunday Times, she said of her diagnosis: ‘I stopped listening for a second as the thought flew through my mind: my mum is going to get it and it’s my fault. I had brought Covid-19 home from Westminster and had unwittingly passed it on to her.
‘It felt as though the clocks had stopped. I knew that everything was about to change and I wanted to hold time where it stood.’
She said her symptoms included a persistent cough, achy muscles and intermittent night sweats.
Ms Dorries, best known by many for her stint on I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here, advised people to think of everything as being contaminated.
She said: ‘Every lift button, shopping-trolley handle, wait-button on a zebra crossing – and every cup in a cafe. Wash your hands for 20 seconds. Carry hand-sanitiser and use it over and over. Resist the urge to hug or shake hands with anyone.’
Ms Dorries is the only MP to have tested positive for coronavirus but many parliamentarians are now in self-isolation after either meeting people who have the disease or developing symptoms.