UK’s response to coronavirus set to escalate within hours

Boris Johnson will chair an emergency COBRA meeting on Thursday, where he is set to declare we are moving from the contain to delay phase.

This next phase means that schools may close, people will be made to work from home and major sporting events will be cancelled and pubs restaurants could be ordered to close.

The governments plans would prevent person to person transmission by preventing public gatherings.

The prime minister said on Monday the containment strategy was “extremely unlikely to work on its own.”

The delay phase will slow the coronavirus outbreak from hitting it’s peak until the summer, as many experts say the NHS would struggle to cope with the burden of the outbreak.

Richard Horton, the editor-in-chief at the prestigious Lancet medical journal slammed Johnson and tweeted, “The UK Government – Matt Hancock and Boris Johnson – claim they are following the science.

“But that is not true. The evidence is clear.

“We need urgent implementation of social distancing and closure policies. The Government is playing roulette with the public. This is a major error.”