LONDON (Reuters) - Britain said on Sunday it was pledging 200 million pounds ($248 million) to the World Health Organisation (WHO) and charities to help slow the spread of the coronavirus in vulnerable countries and so help prevent a second wave of infections.
A cyclist passes by a graffiti alluding to the coronavirus, as the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continues, London, Britain, April 11, 2020. REUTERS/Henry Nicholls
More than 1.6 million people are reported to have been infected by the novel coronavirus globally and deaths have topped 100,000 according to a Reuters tally.
Infections have been reported in 210 countries since the first cases were identified in China in December last year and British aid minister Anne-Marie Trevelyan said assisting the poorest nations now would help prevent the virus returning to the United Kingdom.
Britain has reported almost 10,000 deaths from the coronavirus so far, the fifth highest national number globally.
“While our brilliant doctors and nurses fight coronavirus at home, we’re deploying British expertise and funding around the world to prevent a second deadly wave reaching the UK,” Trevelyan said in a statement.
“Coronavirus does not respect country borders so our ability to protect the British public will only be effective if we strengthen the healthcare systems of vulnerable developing countries too.”
The British government said 130 million pounds would go to United Nations’ agencies, with 65 million for the WHO. Another 50 million pounds would go to the Red Cross to help war-torn and hard to reach areas, and 20 million pounds going to other organisations and charities.
The cash would help areas with weak health systems such as war-ravaged Yemen, which reported its first case on Friday, and Bangladesh, which is hosting 850,000 Rohingya refugees in crowded camps, it said.
Britain’s support for the WHO contrasts with the view of U.S. President Donald Trump who has criticised its handling of the COVID-19 pandemic with suggestions his administration might re-evaluate U.S. funding
“The United Kingdom’s generous contribution is a strong statement that this is a global threat that demands a global response,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO’s Director General said.
“We are all in this together, which means protecting health around the world will help to protect the health of people in the UK.”
Reporting by Michael Holden; editing by Guy Faulconbridge
LONDON (Reuters) - Britain said on Sunday it was pledging 200 million pounds ($248 million) to the World Health Organisation (WHO) and charities to help slow the spread of the coronavirus in vulnerable countries and so help prevent a second wave of infections.
A cyclist passes by a graffiti alluding to the coronavirus, as the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continues, London, Britain, April 11, 2020. REUTERS/Henry Nicholls
More than 1.6 million people are reported to have been infected by the novel coronavirus globally and deaths have topped 100,000 according to a Reuters tally.
Infections have been reported in 210 countries since the first cases were identified in China in December last year and British aid minister Anne-Marie Trevelyan said assisting the poorest nations now would help prevent the virus returning to the United Kingdom.
Britain has reported almost 10,000 deaths from the coronavirus so far, the fifth highest national number globally.
“While our brilliant doctors and nurses fight coronavirus at home, we’re deploying British expertise and funding around the world to prevent a second deadly wave reaching the UK,” Trevelyan said in a statement.
“Coronavirus does not respect country borders so our ability to protect the British public will only be effective if we strengthen the healthcare systems of vulnerable developing countries too.”
The British government said 130 million pounds would go to United Nations’ agencies, with 65 million for the WHO. Another 50 million pounds would go to the Red Cross to help war-torn and hard to reach areas, and 20 million pounds going to other organisations and charities.
The cash would help areas with weak health systems such as war-ravaged Yemen, which reported its first case on Friday, and Bangladesh, which is hosting 850,000 Rohingya refugees in crowded camps, it said.
Britain’s support for the WHO contrasts with the view of U.S. President Donald Trump who has criticised its handling of the COVID-19 pandemic with suggestions his administration might re-evaluate U.S. funding
“The United Kingdom’s generous contribution is a strong statement that this is a global threat that demands a global response,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO’s Director General said.
“We are all in this together, which means protecting health around the world will help to protect the health of people in the UK.”
Reporting by Michael Holden; editing by Guy Faulconbridge
The spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in London
LONDON (Reuters) - Britain said on Sunday it was pledging 200 million pounds ($248 million) to the World Health Organisation (WHO) and charities to help slow the spread of the coronavirus in vulnerable countries and so help prevent a second wave of infections.
More than 1.6 million people are reported to have been infected by the novel coronavirus globally and deaths have topped 100,000 according to a Reuters tally.
Infections have been reported in 210 countries since the first cases were identified in China in December last year and British aid minister Anne-Marie Trevelyan said assisting the poorest nations now would help prevent the virus returning to the United Kingdom.
Britain has reported almost 10,000 deaths from the coronavirus so far, the fifth highest national number globally.
"While our brilliant doctors and nurses fight coronavirus at home, we’re deploying British expertise and funding around the world to prevent a second deadly wave reaching the UK," Trevelyan said in a statement.
"Coronavirus does not respect country borders so our ability to protect the British public will only be effective if we strengthen the healthcare systems of vulnerable developing countries too."
The British government said 130 million pounds would go to United Nations' agencies, with 65 million for the WHO. Another 50 million pounds would go to the Red Cross to help war-torn and hard to reach areas, and 20 million pounds going to other organisations and charities.
The cash would help areas with weak health systems such as war-ravaged Yemen, which reported its first case on Friday, and Bangladesh, which is hosting 850,000 Rohingya refugees in crowded camps, it said.
Britain's support for the WHO contrasts with the view of U.S. President Donald Trump who has criticised its handling of the COVID-19 pandemic with suggestions his administration might re-evaluate U.S. funding
"The United Kingdom’s generous contribution is a strong statement that this is a global threat that demands a global response," Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO's Director General said.
"We are all in this together, which means protecting health around the world will help to protect the health of people in the UK."
(Reporting by Michael Holden; editing by Guy Faulconbridge)
LONDON (Reuters) - Britain’s COVID-19 death toll neared 10,000 on Saturday after health officials reported another 917 hospital deaths, while one senior minister said Prime Minister Boris Johnson will need time off as he recovers from being seriously ill with the virus.
Britain has now reported 9,875 deaths from the coronavirus pandemic, the fifth highest national number globally. Saturday’s increase was the second day running that the number of deaths had increased by more than 900.
Almost 80,000 people in Britain have tested positive for the virus, among them Johnson, who is in the early stages of recovery on a hospital ward after spending three nights in intensive care.
Downing Street said Johnson “continues to make very good progress”, but interior minister Priti Patel said it was vital he took time to fully recover.
“The message to the prime minister is that we want him to get better and he needs some time and some space to rest, recuperate and recover,” Patel said.
“And the whole of cabinet would support that message,” she told a news conference in Downing Street.
Foreign minister Dominic Raab is currently deputising for the prime minister.
Johnson’s office said on Friday that he was back on his feet and British newspapers reported he was watching films and reading letters sent to him by his fiancee Carrie Symonds, who is pregnant and who herself has suffered COVID-19 symptoms.
The government’s main focus in recent days has been trying to ensure Britons comply with stay-home orders and a ban on social gatherings, especially over a sunny Easter weekend.
FILE PHOTO: A sign of support for British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who has been in hospital since Monday as the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continues, in Swynnerton, Britain, April 9, 2020. REUTERS/Carl Recine/File Photo
Police said only a small minority of people were ignoring the message and early data showed officers in England and Wales had issued 1,084 on-the-spot fines so far for people breaking the restrictions. Police powers to enforce came in on March 26 - after the start of lockdown measures
‘NO MAGICAL SOLUTION’
However, the government has come under increasing pressure to detail how long the strict curbs on movement will last, with the shutdown meaning many businesses are unable to operate.
Ministers have said Britain needs to pass the peak of the outbreak before any changes can be made. Health minister Matt Hancock said that although the rise in numbers of hospital admissions had started to flatten out, the judgement was they had not reached that point.
“There is no magical solution that doesn’t require difficult decisions,” said Stephen Powis, the medical director of the National Health Service in England.
“This was never going to be a sprint over a few weeks; this is going to be longer, it is going to be a marathon.”
There was mounting criticism on Saturday from doctors and nurses who said they were having to treat patients without proper personal protective equipment (PPE) such as masks and gloves.
Some 19 health care workers including 11 doctors have died after testing positive for the coronavirus.
The British Medical Association, which represents doctors, said medics were facing a “heart-breaking” decision over whether to treat patients without proper protection and so put themselves at risk.
Slideshow (3 Images)
The Royal College of Nursing said it was getting calls about shortages, saying some staff were “petrified”.
Hancock said 761 million items of PPE had been delivered to the National Health Service but there were issues in ensuring it reached the people who needed it.
“I’m sorry if people feel that there have been failings,” Home Secretary Patel said.
Editing by Toby Chopra, David Evans and Frances Kerry
LONDON (Reuters) - Britain’s COVID-19 death toll neared 10,000 on Saturday after health officials reported another 917 hospital deaths, while one senior minister said Prime Minister Boris Johnson will need time off as he recovers from being seriously ill with the virus.
Britain has now reported 9,875 deaths from the coronavirus pandemic, the fifth highest national number globally. Saturday’s increase was the second day running that the number of deaths had increased by more than 900.
Almost 80,000 people in Britain have tested positive for the virus, among them Johnson, who is in the early stages of recovery on a hospital ward after spending three nights in intensive care.
Downing Street said Johnson “continues to make very good progress”, but interior minister Priti Patel said it was vital he took time to fully recover.
“The message to the prime minister is that we want him to get better and he needs some time and some space to rest, recuperate and recover,” Patel said.
“And the whole of cabinet would support that message,” she told a news conference in Downing Street.
Foreign minister Dominic Raab is currently deputising for the prime minister.
Johnson’s office said on Friday that he was back on his feet and British newspapers reported he was watching films and reading letters sent to him by his fiancee Carrie Symonds, who is pregnant and who herself has suffered COVID-19 symptoms.
The government’s main focus in recent days has been trying to ensure Britons comply with stay-home orders and a ban on social gatherings, especially over a sunny Easter weekend.
FILE PHOTO: A sign of support for British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who has been in hospital since Monday as the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continues, in Swynnerton, Britain, April 9, 2020. REUTERS/Carl Recine/File Photo
Police said only a small minority of people were ignoring the message and early data showed officers in England and Wales had issued 1,084 on-the-spot fines so far for people breaking the restrictions. Police powers to enforce came in on March 26 - after the start of lockdown measures
‘NO MAGICAL SOLUTION’
However, the government has come under increasing pressure to detail how long the strict curbs on movement will last, with the shutdown meaning many businesses are unable to operate.
Ministers have said Britain needs to pass the peak of the outbreak before any changes can be made. Health minister Matt Hancock said that although the rise in numbers of hospital admissions had started to flatten out, the judgement was they had not reached that point.
“There is no magical solution that doesn’t require difficult decisions,” said Stephen Powis, the medical director of the National Health Service in England.
“This was never going to be a sprint over a few weeks; this is going to be longer, it is going to be a marathon.”
There was mounting criticism on Saturday from doctors and nurses who said they were having to treat patients without proper personal protective equipment (PPE) such as masks and gloves.
Some 19 health care workers including 11 doctors have died after testing positive for the coronavirus.
The British Medical Association, which represents doctors, said medics were facing a “heart-breaking” decision over whether to treat patients without proper protection and so put themselves at risk.
Slideshow (3 Images)
The Royal College of Nursing said it was getting calls about shortages, saying some staff were “petrified”.
Hancock said 761 million items of PPE had been delivered to the National Health Service but there were issues in ensuring it reached the people who needed it.
“I’m sorry if people feel that there have been failings,” Home Secretary Patel said.
Editing by Toby Chopra, David Evans and Frances Kerry
The growth in the total number of new deaths has stalled in the last four days.
In other some other countries that implemented lockdown, the numbers of reported deaths stopped growing about three weeks into lockdown.
But it is too soon to know for sure whether we have reached that point.
There have been reporting lags at weekends and it is possible that a Bank Holiday weekend will include deaths that go unreported until next week.
The government is urging people to stay at home over Easter to curb the spread of the virus, despite warm and sunny weather across parts of the UK.
At the Downing Street briefing, NHS England medical director Stephen Powis said: "It is a bank holiday weekend, it is a time of year when typically we would be celebrating or getting together with relatives and close friends.
"But I'm afraid this year it has to be, for all of us, a stay-at-home Easter."
Police have issued more than 1,000 fines to people not following social distancing measures, according to early figures released at the government briefing.
Martin Hewitt, chair of the National Police Chiefs Council, said most spoken to by officers had understood the rules but a "small minority" had refused to comply.
Also at the briefing, Home Secretary Priti Patel said people suffering from domestic abuse during the lockdown would still be able to get support from the police.
For those people, Ms Patel said, "Home is not the safe haven that it should be."
She said she had worked with law enforcement, charities, schools, businesses and councils to address the issue.
"Anyone in immediate danger should call 999 and press 55 on a mobile if you are unable to talk," she said.
"Our outstanding police will still be there for you."
Mr Johnson, 55, had three nights in intensive care before returning to a ward on Thursday.
No 10 said he was receiving daily updates and pregnancy scans from his fiancee, Carrie Symonds, and had been passing the time with films and sudoku.
For several weeks the government and NHS leaders have insisted there are enough stocks of personal protective equipment (PPE) and that the problem lay in the distribution from warehouses to the front line.
Some hospitals have reported receiving higher consignments of gloves, masks, gowns and aprons. But doctors and nurses have continued to report shortages.
Care homes, pharmacies, GP practices and community health teams feel they are at the back of the queue for equipment to protect staff who may come into contact with patients who have Covid-19.
There has also been confusion over how safety guidelines should apply.
Matt Hancock has admitted there are global supply problems and says it is a "Herculean effort" to get deliveries to health workers and a "huge task" to keep it going. He set out a series of measures to step up provision of equipment.
He may be given credit for acknowledging the scale of the problem. But NHS and care staff won't take much notice of plans until they are reflected in reality on the ground. Some are also irritated at the suggestion that PPE is a "precious resource" and should only be used when it is needed.
In other developments:
"Much-loved" nurse Julie Omar, 52, has become one of the latest NHS workers to die with symptoms of Covid-19. The trauma and orthopaedics nurse, who worked for Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust, died at home on Friday
The news came shortly after the death of another nurse, 47-year-old Leilani Dayrit, in Rugby. Mary Dayrit, 19, said her mother was "selfless until the very end"
Police have apologised after a man was threatened with spray and arrested in Manchester as he dropped off food for vulnerable relatives
Ministers have agreed to give £200m to developing countries in a bid to prevent "future waves" of coronavirus infections hitting the UK
The World Health Organization has warned of a "deadly resurgence" in infections if restrictions are lifted too early.
Across the nation, tributes have been flooding in for health workers who reportedly died from coronavirus-related complications. Some of them came from minority black or Asian communities, according to media reports.
On Saturday, Health Secretary Matt Hancock addressed the fact that a number of health workers who have died from coronavirus were from "minority ethnic backgrounds," saying on BBC Breakfast he found it "really upsetting."
In an interview with the British daily The Guardian, the head of the the doctors' union, the British Medical Association (BMA), called for a government investigation into whether minorities were more vulnerable to Covid-19.
"At face value, it seems hard to see how this can be random," Dr. Chaand Nagpaul said in reference to the first 10 doctors in the UK to be named as having died from coronavirus-related symptoms coming from minority backgrounds, according to The Guardian.
"We have heard the virus does not discriminate between individuals but there's no doubt there appears to be a manifest disproportionate severity of infection in BAME [black and minority ethnic] people and doctors. This has to be addressed -- the government must act now," he told The Guardian.
Covid-19 has ripped through families and grounded the UK economy, and questions are mounting in the British media as to whether it is having a disproportionate effect on minority groups in Britain.
But unlike the US -- where data released by Chicago and Michigan authorities showed a clear racial disparity in coronavirus victims -- the picture is not that clear in the UK. Experts say there are many unknowns: mainly that British health authorities are not reporting race in statistics on confirmed cases or fatalities.
This public data deficit has not only left communities in the dark, it has failed to highlight the structural inequalities or health factors that might be at play behind the mounting deaths: be it geography, poverty or genetic disposition.
"The UK ought to be good at collecting data," Sunder Katwala, the director of British Future, a think tank that focuses on identity, told CNN.
Experts say Britain has a strong tradition of research on the social determinants of health and health inequalities, and is among the few countries in Europe that collects race data.
But officials dropped the ball in making that information public, Katwala said. "I think with the sheer pressure of this crisis -- of realizing how big it is and the economic impacts -- it feels like policymakers have been slightly slow to work on this dimension."
The National Health Service (NHS) has been collating race and socio-economic information from Covid-19 cases, Sarah MacLennan, NHS England spokesperson told CNN. Data teams will then look at how "socio-economic aspects and housing conditions" affect the spread of the virus, she said.
No timeline was provided on when those data points would be released to the public.
On Friday, the UK had the fifth highest number of coronavirus-related deaths in the world, with 8,958 fatalities and 74,605 confirmed cases, according to Johns Hopkins University figures.
First signs
Early research this month by Intensive Care National Audit and Research Centre (ICNARC), into confirmed Covid-19 cases admitted to critical care units in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, indicates that ethnic minorities may be over-represented when compared to the general population. The data is not from all critical care units in those regions.
Figures released on April 10 found that as many as a third of 3,370 coronavirus patients receiving critical care came from Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) backgrounds -- nearly three times the 13% proportion of ethnic minorities in the UK population, according to the 2011 census.
These are cities that have large minority populations, suggesting that geography has left minorities even more exposed.
Studies show these communities, particularly people of Asian backgrounds, "have higher rates of cardiovascular disease, diabetes and high blood pressure, which has been shown in China and Italy [Covid-19 cases] to be associated with more severe disease," University of Leicester professor Kamlesh Khunti told CNN.
Black people of West African descent also have an increased risk of strokes and hypertension, conditions that can exacerbate coronavirus symptoms, compared to the general population, according to Keith Neal, emeritus professor of the Epidemiology of Infectious Diseases at the University of Nottingham.
Knowing that the virus typically affects older people more seriously, comparing ICNARC's findings to the over-65 population of each minority group could make "that figure [of disproportionality] even worse," Neal added.
Poverty linked to poor health
These danger signs also point to long-standing structural inequalities in Britain. "Members of minorities in Britain are more likely to be living in poverty, they're more likely to be in overcrowded houses," Kate E Pickett, a professor of Epidemiology at the University of York and co-founder of the Equality Trust, told CNN.
"So there are the reasons why the spread might be happening more rapidly in those groups where their baseline health is worse" and their ability to social distance is low, she said.
Zubaida Haque, the deputy director of the race and equality think tank Runnymede Trust, said, "It's not your race, per se, which makes you vulnerable to Covid-19.
"It's what your experience of being that color or ethnicity means, in terms of health outcomes and we know through a government commissioned review that if you are poorer, have high rates of child poverty, have insecure work -- all of those factors are linked to poor health outcomes," she said.
That includes Ear, Nose and Throat consultant Dr. Amged el-Hawrani, health care assistant Thomas Harvey and Dr. Alfa Sa'adu, who died from coronavirus-related complications.
Harvey's daughter Tamira alleged that London's Goodmayes Hospital failed to provide necessary personal protective equipment (PPE) to her father. And just a few days before Harvey's death, emergency services "refused" to come to take him to hospital, Tamira said, despite family concerns that he wasn't "breathing properly."
The NHS trust responsible for the hospital where Thomas Harvey worked told CNN that there were no symptomatic patients when he went off work sick and that it has been following national PPE guidance. The London Ambulance Service did not respond to his daughter's allegations that they "refused" to come once.
Cultural factors
Cultural factors could have also come into play. "One explanation to why Italy was badly hit is it had more of a culture of multigenerational family living households," Katwala said, a trend "more true of some minority communities in the UK than the general population."
In Derby, a multiracial city of nearly 250,000, local Nazir Hussain said announcements of coronavirus-related deaths have become a daily occurrence among its Asian population.
Hussain, a committee member at Derby Jamia Mosque said the community was braced for the worst, and had prepared 300 graves in the event of more deaths. The fear is the older generation, many of whom live in big multigenerational households, may be more vulnerable to the virus, he said.
Dominic Rech and Martin Goillandeau contributed to this report.
