UK's COVID-19 Strategy Has Fallen Apart

From the start of 2020, COVID-19 has been our inescapable reality and has affected all aspects of life on this planet. The pandemic causes daily social, economic, and political struggles on a global scale, not even mentioning the threat it poses to billions of people’s health and lives. By early spring, starting with Italy and Spain, Europe became the region which is most affected by the pandemic. As statistics indicate, the increase in the number of deaths each day appears to be decreasing in Italy and Spain, while in the UK, the number is still doubling every three to four days. Experts believe that the trajectory of the virus shows a similar trend in most countries, which implies that UK and US are couple of weeks behind Italy in the progress of the epidemic. 

The World Health Organization laid out a public health response to cope with the ongoing pandemic, which stresses the importance of intensive testing, tracing contacts, social distancing, and implementation of quarantine. From the beginning, the UK’s response to the pandemic has differed from the rest of the continent’s as well as the world’s. Underestimating the impacts of the pandemic, the UK government failed to give a clear and strong message on the need for social distancing. In early March, Prime Minister Boris Johnson even stated that he shook hands with people who were diagnosed with the virus, in an attempt to reduce worries across the country. As of today, the UK is listed amongst the most heavily affected countries, and is in a critical position since its Prime Minister is in ICU because of coronavirus. 

When the virus first hit Britain, with the absence of a vaccination, the UK’s plan of action was to keep the most vulnerable people under isolation, while managing the spread of the virus in the rest of the population. The underlying motive of this plan was to build some sort of “herd immunity” that would have normally been created through vaccination. Policy makers and scientists hoped that if 60% of the population developed immunity to COVID-19, then the outbreak would be brought under control. Many citizens opposed this idea, since defining who is “vulnerable” was subjective. Moreover, the numerous deaths of children and healthcare workers proved to the government that the virus does not only target the lives of the elderly or those with underlying conditions, but can impact anyone. The government finally came to this realization, but is still facing criticism due to its lack of measures in response. 

The number of confirmed coronavirus cases are on the rise in UK. According to Wordometer, as of April 7th, there are 51,608 existing cases, 5,373 deaths, and only 135 recoveries in the country. However, it should be noted that these statistics only reflect those who are in the hospital and who have been tested so far. With the inadequacy of testing in the country and the exponential growth rate of the virus, officials speculate that the true level of the disease outbreak extends beyond the figures. 

Now that the lockdown and physical distancing are in place, the severity of the situation has been grasped by the government. However, the government is still facing criticism over the shortage of testing and the inability to test National Health Service (NHS) staff who shows symptoms. Last Thursday, Health Secretary Matt Hancock set a new target of 100,000 tests per day by the end of April. As of now, UK is lagging in terms of testing capacity. Increasing the number of tests conducted would serve as a preventive measure and play an important role in the analysis of the spread. Healthcare officials and workers are under intense pressure due to the lack of testing, delays in results, and exponential increase in positive test results. Hancock even mentioned the idea of putting forward immunity passports for people who recovered from the virus, so that they can be integrated back into the workforce. 

It can be argued that Britain had one advantage in the stages that led to the outbreak of the epidemic in the country: the experience of other countries. As the virus hit Britain weeks later than China, Italy, South Korea, and Spain, policy makers had the time to plan an efficient and successful plan of action, but still failed to do so. The government should work to increase its testing capacity in the upcoming days so as to minimize the impacts of the epidemic. Although governments do have a critical role to play in times of crises, the world should also be reminded that every member of the civil society should partake in this process—even if it is just the simple practice of social distancing. 

More detailed information on the UK’s coronavirus action plan can be reached here through the government’s official website.