Troops could be deployed to help over-stretched emergency services and schools could be closed if the coronavirus outbreak worsens, a Government “action plan” has revealed.
Medical experts are predicting around a fifth of Britain’s working population – six million people – may be “absent from work” during the peak of the crisis this summer.
Boris Johnson confirmed the British Army stood “ready to back-fill” certain roles if the illness left police and the NHS short staffed.
Under the plan to tackle the spread of Covid-19, published on Tuesday, there could be school closures, enforced home working and a reduction in the number of large-scale gatherings.
Recently retired doctors could also be asked to return into service and at the border, officials could get greater powers to act if they spot people with the virus.
The measures would only be rolled out if the virus moved beyond the currently designated “contain phase”.
Speaking at a press conference in Downing Street, the prime minister said he was confident the British public and the NHS would rise to the “national challenge” posed by the disease.
He said it was “highly likely” the UK would see more widespread infection than at present, but added: “Let me be absolutely clear that for the overwhelming majority of people who contract the virus, this will be a mild disease from which they will speedily and fully recover, as we have already seen.”
Mr Johnson told reporters that “keeping the country safe is the Government’s overriding priority”, and the plan shows “we are committed to doing everything possible”.
“It is necessary to have some legislation in respect of things like school operations, borders, quarantine but these are exceptional and short term. They are not intended to last beyond the outbreak”, he said.
He added: “And the army is of course always ready to back-fill as and when, but that is under the reasonable worst case scenario.”
Worst-case scenario planning has estimated that up to 80% of the population could become infected and of those around 1% “might end up dying”, the UK Government’s chief medical officer Professor Chris Whitty has said.
Prof Whitty said: “Overall, probably around 1% of people who get this virus might end up dying based on the Chinese experience.
“To be clear that therefore means 99% of people will not. Even for the highest risk group, the great majority of people will survive this.”
As of Tuesday morning, the Department of Health said 13,911 people had been tested in the UK, of which 13,860 were negative.
Globally, more than 90,000 cases have been confirmed, with more than 3,000 deaths.
Government advice remains that the action everyone should be taking is to regularly wash their hands for 20 seconds and cover the mouth with a disposable tissue when sneezing or coughing.
