U.K. Readies for Curbs on Elderly as Death Toll Climbs to 35

(Bloomberg) --

Health Secretary Matt Hancock said the U.K.’s coronavirus strategy has been effective in slowing down the spread of the disease as the government prepared to impose further restrictions on everyday activities.

The number of deaths rose to 35, compared to 21 a day earlier, according to data released by the U.K.’s department of health and social care on Sunday afternoon. A total of 1,372 have tested positive for the disease, compared to 1,140 on Saturday, it said.

People over the age of 70 will be asked to stay home in “the coming weeks,” Hancock told Sky News. He acknowledged it would be “a very big ask” as many might have to be isolated for months, and urged the country to work together to help protect the elderly and vulnerable.

“Since the early days of the virus, the rate of increase has been slower than in other countries,” Hancock said as he defended Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s approach to tackling the virus. “We will absolutely take the measures that we think are needed at the right time based on the best scientific advice.”

Johnson’s government has been criticized for not following other countries by shutting down schools and banning large gatherings to stop the spread of the disease. The U.K. response has instead centered on personal hygiene, self-isolation of those who think they are sick and tracing and testing those who’ve had contact with people confirmed to have the disease.

Stay at Home

Hancock said it would be more effective to ask people to stay home than to ban gatherings and ministers are working on plans to provide food and medicines to those asked to self-isolate. The government will publish the science underpinning its plans to enable open debate, he told Sky News.

“What we’ll do is listen to all the credible scientists, and listen to all the evidence, and also listen to all the politicians who are making points about the judgments we make,” Hancock said. “But what we will not do is deviate from a plan which is based on the very best scientific advice.”

Ministers will introduce proposed emergency laws to Parliament this week to enable them to take action to control the outbreak. The legislation will include powers to ban gatherings and reinforce regulations allowing people to be quarantined if they are judged to be a risk to the public, Hancock said.

The opposition Labour Party, which has broadly supported the government response so far, said there should be provisions for low paid and insecure workers in the legislation, including guaranteed sick pay, mortgage and rent holidays and help for food banks.

Johnson will talk to manufacturers in a conference call on Monday to urge them to switch to producing ventilators for the National Health Service, and the government has pledged to buy as many as they can produce, Hancock said. Officials are also in talks with private health-care providers about using their facilities to boost capacity.

Shortage of Doctors

Chaand Nagpaul, chairman of the council of the British Medical Association, said there is a shortage of family doctors in the U.K., which will become increasingly serious as they and other health workers start catching the disease. He called on the government to provide testing for doctors and publish its plans for increasing space for treating seriously ill patients.

“Our starting position has unfortunately been far worse than many other European nations,” he said. “We have about a quarter of the critical care beds that Germany has, as an example. It’s really critical, really important that we now see transparently what plans the government has to expand that capacity.”

--With assistance from Claudia Maedler and Marthe Fourcade.

To contact the reporters on this story: Thomas Penny in London at tpenny@bloomberg.net;Greg Ritchie in London at gritchie10@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Andrew Davis at abdavis@bloomberg.net, James Amott

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