Coronavirus: Elderly people may be asked to self-isolate for 4 months even if they are not ill to combat spread
Those in the UK above the age of 70 will soon be told to stay at home for as many as four months as the government steps up its fight against the COVID-19 pandemic that is threatening to spiral out of control and was described by health secretary Matt Hancock as "one of the biggest challenges we have seen in a generation."
The move comes in the wake of the kingdom, which has over 1,000 confirmed cases of coronavirus, having one of its worst nights in the pandemic and seeing its death toll double to 21 in a few hours, according to the Daily Mail.
The government's Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) advised that "shielding the vulnerable and household isolation will need to be instituted soon" in a bid to stop the National Health Service (NHS) from "falling over."
It does not mean that the elderly will be left without care, with political editor Robert Peston, who first reported the move, stating plans were underway for "doctors to give consultations to patients quarantined at home by video links over the internet."
Concerns have still been raised by psychologists, who said the scrapping of regular social outings could compound the elderly's loneliness and already stressful isolation experience.
It will be part of a wider package of emergency powers that include banning mass gatherings, allowing police to detain suspected virus victims, and controversially forcing schools to stay open, and which are expected to be rubber-stamped soon at a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
Troops will be deployed to guard hospitals and supermarkets, where panic-buying for hygiene products such as toilet rolls and hand sanitizers, as well as other essentials, is wreaking havoc after families were told to isolate themselves entirely even if just one member fell ill with the virus.
Defense sources told the Mail that Army units were stepping up their training for public order roles. The Royal Logistics Corps are reportedly preparing to be used to escort food convoys while the Royal Army Medical Corps will be building tented field hospitals next to care homes.
Troops trained in chemical, biological, and nuclear warfare will be tasked in deep-cleaning buildings in case they need to be turned into hospitals or morgues.
England has a total of just 4,000 public intensive care beds, most of which are occupied, and in a bid to relieve the strain, Johnson is reportedly looking to go to private hospital groups to ask them to free up beds for NHS use.
He will be asking these private hospitals to take on pre-planned operations that NHS hospitals can no longer do as they clear surgical wards for virus patients and urge them to set up make-shift critical care wards to cope with the pandemic's peak as well.
Furthermore, Johnson is also looking to ask manufacturers like Rolls Royce and JCB to overhaul their current production lines to produce essential medical equipment such as ventilators. "We need every part of society and every industry to ask what they can do to help the effort," said NHS chief executive Sir Simon Stevens.