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Day 1: Boris Johnson addresses the public in first daily update

Posted on March 2020 By Jamie Southwell

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​The British Prime Minster has given his first of daily updates in response to the ongoing global Coronavirus pandemic, urging the general public to avoid pubs, clubs, and restaurants.

During last night’s public conference Boris Johnson issued his new plan of action for the UK moving forward, and the importance of UK residents working from home whenever possible. He was joined on stage by the UK’s Chief Medical Adviser, Prof. Chris Whitty, and Sir Patrick Vallance, the UK’s Chief Scientific Adviser. Urging certain groups of people to considering the following advice, stating it’s “particularly important”.

Key points and new government measures from this conference:

  • Everybody with the ability to the work from home should be.

  • Everybody should be actively avoiding crowded places and public gatherings, venues like pubs, clubs, restaurants, and theatres.

  • Individuals suffering from the most severe health conditions will need to be “largely shielded from social contact for around 12 weeks” onward from next weekend.

  • The people considered for this are as follows, people over 70 years old, pregnant women, and adults that are typically advised to take flu vaccines.

  • Anyone without a ‘necessary’ reason to visit friends or family in care homes should stop until further notice.

  • Sir Patrick Vallance says that we’re only “three weeks” behind Italy with the rate it’s spreading throughout the UK.

  • We should be trying to ease the workload of the NHS by only using the service “where we really need to”, as to free up time and effort of staff during this crisis.

  • Those with a cough or fever living with others in a household, will have to remain in self-isolation for a 14 day period, not only by themselves, but the other residents too.

  • An exception to them leaving the house during isolation, is for exercise at a safe distant from others.

  • No plans to close schools for now.

  • London is considered the centre of the UK’s outbreaks in cases, with the disease rapidly spreading throughout the entirety of the UK, but primarily sourcing from the capital.

As of today, the UK currently has a total of 1,543 cases and Sir Patrick Vallance predicts we’ll continue to rise to that of Italy, the worst hit country in Europe. If you're looking for any safety information about protecting yourself against COVID-19, please visit our page by clicking here.

Here's the full conference, courtesy of HuffPost UK: