How Britain aims to fight coronavirus
The British government unveiled its action plan to tackle the spread of coronavirus on Tuesday, including possible measures to close schools, force people to work from home and cancel large-scale gatherings to delay the peak of the outbreak.
Below are the main measures set out in the plan:
- Emergency services, including the police and fire and rescue services, will enact plans to ensure they are able to maintain a critical function. (Photo: Reuters)
- With a serious loss of officers and staff, police would concentrate on responding to serious crimes and maintaining public order. (Photo: Reuters)
- Businesses facing short-term cash flow issues, for example as a result of subdued demand, can use existing mitigations to the `Time to Pay` system. (Photo: Reuters)
- Some non-urgent medical care may be delayed to prioritise and triage service delivery. Staff rostering changes may be necessary, including calling leavers and retirees back to duty. (Photo: Reuters)
- The requirement for medicines might start to increase, with a need to draw down on existing stockpiles of the most important medicines, medical devices and clinical consumables. (Photo: Reuters)
- The government will provide advice to local authorities on dealing with the challenge of any increase in deaths arising from the outbreak. (Photo: Reuters)