By Coronavirus at highest level of emergency, says NHS
It has been announced that NHS England have declared Coronavirus a level 4 incident, which is currently the highest level of emergency. On their Twitter page they have said:
“Just to let you know that the NHS moved to a national incident response Level 4 to ramp up preparation for a potential Coronavirus outbreak.”
The World Health Organisation’s latest situation report states that the global risk is still “very high.”
This comes as Boris Johnson unveiled his plan for dealing with the outbreak. Under the level four alert, all hospitals in England have now been told to “assume that they will need to look after Covid-19 cases in due course.”
A national incident management team and coordination centre have been set up to deal with cases of Coronavirus. NHS regions must now report centrally and set up their own incident teams, with a contact available 24/7 for “patient management, alerts, referrals and tracking.”
One unidentified NHS emergency adviser explained:
“Level one is a localised incident, like a small fire, where the NHS trust can manage by themselves without any intervention. Level two is a larger incident, like a small flood, where the commissioners would have to get involved.”
A former emergency department nurse who was heavily involved in dealing with the 2009 swine flu pandemic added:
“A level three is declared when there is a regional emergency and level four, the highest emergency level, is declared when there is a national medical crisis.”
Prime Minister Boris Johnson has detailed the government’s plan to deal with the virus. He said that police could be reduced to just dealing with very serious crimes and maintaining public order, while the NHS could be closed to all but critical care.
Emergency services all have measures in place to “fulfil critical functions.” It has also been said that plans were in place to draft in the Army, if necessary, to maintain public order.
All adults and children in intensive care or with any kind of respiratory infection will now be tested for the virus.
Public responses have included:
“Seems a bit extreme with only 51 cases so far…”
“50 cases. Not even a bus full of people out of 65m.”
But also:
“Surely public events, schools and any towns with cases should now be shut down and isolated?”
“How can this be the highest level? Surely it is likely to get much worse?”
It has been said that this latest update is in part because of the increased rate of transmission and the “significant escalation” of confirmed cases in the UK, as well as the shift from ‘imported’ cases to more of those which have been transmitted locally. The number of people now diagnosed with Covid-19 in the UK has risen to 51. Much of the official advice and information surrounding Coronavirus is, arguably, conflicting. Despite the NHS’s declaration that Coronavirus is now a level 4 incident, or at the highest level or emergency, the UK Chief Medical Officer has only listed the risk to the public as moderate.
For further information on this situation, see our previous articles here:
80% of the UK could catch Coronavirus
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