U.K. health authorities will soon ask people with minor flu or cold-like symptoms to self-isolate for a week to help slow the spread of coronavirus, Englands Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty said Monday.
Speaking at a press conference alongside Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Chief Scientific Adviser Patrick Vallance, Whitty said the new health advice would likely be issued “within the next 10 to 14 days.”
“We are now very close to the time … when the modelling would imply we should move to a situation where we say everybody who has even minor respiratory tract infections or a fever should be self-isolating for seven days afterwards,” Whitty said.
“This is going to be the next step. We have not yet reached that step but we are going to be reaching that step in the really quite near future.”
Johnson said ministers were “doing everything we can to combat this outbreak.” Responding to criticisms that his government has not been as aggressive as other countries in its response, he said that other countries experience “doesnt necessarily mirror whats happening here,” and emphasized the importance of timing public health interventions effectively.
Whitty added that there was a risk that more draconian social distancing measures should not be introduced too early because of the risk people would become “fatigued” with the measures before the outbreak had peaked.
“Once youve started these things youll have to continRead More – Source
U.K. health authorities will soon ask people with minor flu or cold-like symptoms to self-isolate for a week to help slow the spread of coronavirus, Englands Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty said Monday.
Speaking at a press conference alongside Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Chief Scientific Adviser Patrick Vallance, Whitty said the new health advice would likely be issued “within the next 10 to 14 days.”
“We are now very close to the time … when the modelling would imply we should move to a situation where we say everybody who has even minor respiratory tract infections or a fever should be self-isolating for seven days afterwards,” Whitty said.
“This is going to be the next step. We have not yet reached that step but we are going to be reaching that step in the really quite near future.”
Johnson said ministers were “doing everything we can to combat this outbreak.” Responding to criticisms that his government has not been as aggressive as other countries in its response, he said that other countries experience “doesnt necessarily mirror whats happening here,” and emphasized the importance of timing public health interventions effectively.
Whitty added that there was a risk that more draconian social distancing measures should not be introduced too early because of the risk people would become “fatigued” with the measures before the outbreak had peaked.
“Once youve started these things youll have to continRead More – Source
