The UK response to Covid-19 [MOD WARNING 1ST POST]

Testing, testing: Contact tracing only works if you have the capacity to test each and every possible victim, of course — which is why Health Secretary Matt Hancock’s target to reach 100,000 tests a day by the end of the month is now so important. And there was good news on that front too last night, as the government’s coordinator for COVID-19 testing, professor John Newton, said the 100k capacity will indeed be reached within the next eight days. “We will certainly have the capacity,” he told ITV’s “Peston” show. “And then we will make access as easy as possible for everybody who needs a test to come and get it. And if there are enough people who need testing, then we will hit our target — we’re very confident of that.” Good times.

Magic number: Prof Newton was also clear that 100,000 tests a day should be sufficient for Korean-style “test and trace” program — but that the capacity could be doubled again if need be. “We’re very confident that 100,000 tests will be enough to support whatever strategy the government wants to pursue,” he said. “And if you look at other countries, for example South Korea, they’ve never done more than 20,000 tests a day — in fact they’re currently doing about 8,000 tests a day. So ‘yes’ is the answer, it will be enough. We will probably have more, actually … 100,000 a day is probably just the beginning.”

MASKING UP
SAVING FACE: The government’s top scientific advisers have concluded Britons should cover their faces in crowded environments to help slow the spread of the virus, the Sun’s front page story says today. The Sun’s online Political Editor Natasha Clark bagged the scoop Wednesday morning after the SAGE committee of scientists met to discuss the issue on Tuesday. She says SAGE has now issued its guidance to ministers, who will consider whether to change their official advice to the public in the days ahead.

How it’s going to work: The recommendation will apparently be for people to wear simple face coverings, rather than real masks, amid fears of mass panic-buying of surgical-standard kit which could further deplete the stocks available to the NHS. Scarves, bandanas or homemade cloth masks will do the job, many scientists say, as the aim is to stop virus carriers — who may not be showing any symptoms — from passing the disease on to others nearby. The Sun says the recommendation will be only to wear face coverings in crowded places like public transport or at work, where keeping 2 meters apart is not possible.

Split decision: Playbook is told the new advice has indeed been issued to ministers, but that SAGE was far from unified at Tuesday’s meeting. Indeed, the expert panel was apparently the most divided it’s ever been, with some scientists warning of a lack of concrete evidence about the benefits of face-covering and others concerned about the effect on the availability of masks for the NHS.

No-brainer: Commons health committee Chairman Jeremy Hunt was asked by Peston last night if mask-wearing in public is inevitable. “I think so,” he said. “I lived in Japan for a couple of years, and there it’s just a common courtesy — it has been for many years —that if you’ve got a cold, you wear a mask to stop passing it on to other people. I think the concern is that if that became general advice, we might run out of masks in the NHS, and that’s the reason for some of the hesitance. So I hope we are building up really big stocks — because for things like the tube, buses, I think it’s going to be a no-brainer. People are going to want to wear masks, frankly, whether they’re asked to or not.”

Can confirm: Playbook was on the tube to parliament Wednesday, and about three-quarters of the passengers were masked up.

Watch and wait: The Cabinet meets (virtually) today at 11 a.m., but government sources insist the decision will not be taken there; nor at the next COBRA meeting either. “We’re not expecting to say anything imminently,” one official said last night, though with Matt Hancock leading tonight’s Downing Street press conference, he is bound to be quizzed again on this topic. One source points out — quite rightly — that it would be vital to “get the comms absolutely right” before any change of policy was unveiled. So I guess we may be waiting a little longer for anything concrete.

And then there’s this: “Masks have no real benefit,” another government aide told Playbook pithily when asked, “they just make it hard to talk. The best reason to introduce them is to shut up all the armchair epidemiologists carping at the sidelines.” Ouch.

BonnieSituation wrote: »

Whatever about the latter thing you quoted, what exactly is "interesting" about the first quote on testing?

It's the same guff being spouted for a fortnight.

We get it, they want to have capacity for 100k tests in a certain period of time. Maybe if they keep saying it, it may happen.