United Kingdom Extends Measures To Combat COVID-19 Outbreak
The world has been rapidly trying to respond to every new development that the World Health Organization and Centers For Disease Control release in regard to the COVID-19 pandemic. Taking every recommended step and measure that these officials deliver to us is of the utmost importance right now. The United States and United Kingdom are two of the world’s countries that have been criticized the most for their lack of a response to the coronavirus. Now, the U.S. is quarantining itself more and more every day, and the U.K. has made some major policy changes that will be made official this week.
The United Kingdom is projecting to shut down all their schools this Friday until further notice as their main response to the coronavirus pandemic. The only exceptions to this rule will involve any schools that are looking after the children of government officials and key workers involved in the combating of coronavirus, as well as more vulnerable children who lack the proper resources to survive on their own without the aid of school programming.
In England and Wales all academic final exams have been cancelled for the time being, it’s predicted that areas in Scotland and Northern Ireland will be making the same type of changes. The death rate in the United Kingdom has reached 104, after an additional 30 people died within a week, prompting more serious restrictive measures to be implemented.
According to reports, “confirmed cases in the UK rose to 2,626 on Wednesday, from 1,950 on Tuesday. There have been 56,221 tests carried out in the UK for Covid-19, of which 53,595 were confirmed negative. The government says it plans to more than double the number of tests being carried out in England to 25,000 a day.”
Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland will all follow the UK’s lead within the coming weeks as well. In terms of industry worker protections, the European government is bringing forward emergency legislation policies to protect private renters from eviction, after multiple complaints. Other policies involved a new advert that’s being spread across the UK’s television, radio and internet media outlets to remind everyone to stay home as much as they can and to continue to practice good hygiene.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson also announced a series of new key measures that are designed to specifically target individuals with coronavirus currently, and work to maintain their isolation and health.
England’s Education Secretary Gavin Williamson, told the press that “assessments or exams would not go ahead this year and performance tables would not be published. Officials are working with exam boards to ensure that children get the qualifications that they need, and schools have already been preparing for a shutdown for some time, with some creating homework packs or setting up ways of working online.”
In addition to all of these measures, parts of Europe are enforcing strict travel bans while also working to return tourists to their home countries as smoothly and safely as possible. UK supermarkets are also going to begin placing limits on how much one person can purchase at a time to maintain food rations.
Closing the schools is the best way to prevent the spread of infection. While young children are the most likely to survive coronavirus and have the least amount of symptoms, their ability to spread it is just as severe as the average adult. Right now, the focus is on maintaining the spread, and curing those infected. Europe is following suit with the rest of the world now when it comes to taking the proper measures to ensure its citizens safety.
Eric Mastrota is a Contributing Editor at The National Digest based in New York. A graduate of SUNY New Paltz, he reports on world news, culture, and lifestyle. You can reach him at eric.mastrota@thenationaldigest.com.
