LONDON, 13 March (BelTA - Xinhua) - The British government announced that the country has switched from the "containment" phase to "delay" in response to the COVID-19 outbreak, which will see more "social distancing" measures.
The COVID-19 outbreak is "the worst public health crisis for a generation," British Prime Minister Boris Johnson told reporters after an emergency COBRA committee meeting.
COBRA, or COBR, meetings are named after Britain's Cabinet Office Briefing Room A on Whitehall. It gathers ministers, civil servants, the police, intelligence officers and others appropriate to whatever they are looking into in an emergency response.
UK's plan to tackle the COVID-19 outbreak includes four phases -- containment, delay, research and mitigate.
In the delay phase, the government will ramp up efforts to delay the spread of COVID-19, aiming to lower the peak impact of the novel coronavirus and push it away from the winter season.
Under the previous phase of "containment", local health authorities urged people to self-isolate only if they had the cough and fever but had also been to an affected country recently, or had contact with someone who had tested positive for the virus. But in the "delay" phase, anyone with a new continuous cough or a high temperature should self-isolate for seven days.
Starting from Friday, school trips abroad will also be banned, said Johnson. But "we will not close school now."
Johnson told reporters that advice on schools may change as disease spreads, adding that his government is considering banning major public events.
"This disease is more dangerous (than seasonal flu) ... I must level with the British public, many more families are going to lose loved ones before their time," Johnson warned.
As of Thursday morning, 590 patients in Britain have tested positive for COVID-19, an increase of 134 in the last 24 hours, according to the Department of Health and Social Care.
Two more patients have died in London hospitals since Wednesday after testing positive for the novel coronavirus, taking the total number of deaths in Britain to 10.
