Govt warns of threat to business as it unveils coronavirus action plan
The government laid out a range of measures on Tuesday to tackle the coronavirus as it warned that the outbreak could keep workers at home for weeks at a time, close schools and force the emergency services to respond to only the most serious crimes.
It did not, however, announce plans to extend statutory sick pay to all workers, as unions had hoped.
Publishing its 27-page Coronavirus: action plan – a guide to what you can expect across the UK, the government outlined various scenarios and what steps it could take in response. The plan is focused on four core areas: containing the outbreak; delaying its spread to the summer months, when there is less pressure on health services; mitigating the outbreak once established; and researching diagnostics and treatment.
At a press conference, the prime minister Boris Johnson conceded it was "highly likely" the number of British cases would rise, but argued that "for the vast majority of people in this country, we should be going about our business as usual".
He added: "The plan does not set out what the government will do; it sets out the things we could do at the right time and on the basis of scientific advice."
The government said steps had already been taken to contain the outbreak, including tracing, monitoring and isolating close contacts when a case is detected. It also said the UK had stockpiles of key medicines and equipment, which were monitored "daily".
In the event of the outbreak worsening, however, the response would escalate.
"During this phase, the pressures on services and wider society may start to become significant and clearly noticeable," the plan warned. The Ministry of Defence would provide support to civil authorities if requested.
"Action that would be considered could include population distancing strategies, such as school closures, encouraging greater home working, reducing the number of large-scale gatherings, to slow the spread of the disease throughout the population while ensuring the country’s ability to continue to run as normally as possible," it said.
Should the outbreak worsen still, staffing pressures could force the emergency services to respond to serious crimes only, while businesses with short-term cash flow issues could contact HMRC to discuss deferring tax payments.
The government called on companies to review continuity plans "to build their own resilience", warning that in a stretching scenario,"it is possible that up to one fifth of employees may be absent from work during peak weeks".
There are growing concerns about so-called gig workers, however, who would not be eligible for sick pay if they needed to self-isolate.
Unions have warned that up to 2m workers may not be able to afford to self-isolate. Johnson did not announce a hoped-for extension of statutory sick pay to all workers on Tuesday, instead telling reporters: "We’re going to keep all options under review but we’re well aware of the issue."
The current Department of Work and Pensions advice for workers with no sick pay who think they might be infected is to claim Universal Credit, which can take up to five weeks to come through.
As at Tuesday morning, there were 39 confirmed cases in the UK. Chris Witty, the chief medical officer for England, said that around 1% of people who contract the virus might die, "based on the Chinese experience", but conceded that could be lower as there was no way of telling how many people were infected but asymptomatic.