Professors call for ‘some kind’ of COVID Plan B with emergency departments in ‘terrible place’
Health leaders have urged the government to introduce “some kind of Plan B” with emergency departments in a “terrible place” amid rising levels of coronavirus infections.
Dr Katherine Henderson, president of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, warned ministers that hospitals are “already struggling to cope” and that medical professionals are worried about the winter months ahead.
Meanwhile, Professor Adam Finn, who is on the Joint Committee of Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI), told Sky News’ Trevor Phillips on Sunday that COVID-19 hospital admissions and deaths are rising and the government must not be “complacent”.
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Plan B would see the return of face masks in some settings
Prof Finn added that vaccines are not going to be enough to keep the spread of coronavirus under control and said people need to make an effort to avoid contact in order to slow transmission rates.
Their comments come as the government faces increasing pressure to enact what is known as “Plan B”, which includes working from home guidance and the mandatory use of face masks in some settings.
Health Secretary Sajid Javid said this week that new cases could reach 100,000 a day, but Downing Street insisted there was spare capacity in the NHS and that the fall-back Plan B would only be triggered if it came under “significant pressure”.
Mr Javid said the focus was on delivering the booster jab programme successfully.
Earlier this week, it was announced that the former head of England’s coronavirus vaccine delivery drive is returning to the NHS to lead the booster rollout, amid growing concerns about COVID-19’s impact this winter.
Scientific advisers have told the government preparations for Plan B restrictions should be made now so that measures “can be ready for rapid deployment if required”.
Prof Finn said vaccines alone will not combat rising infection rates at present
Experts on the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) also said, in minutes of a meeting published on Friday, that early intervention “would reduce the need for more stringent, disruptive, and longer-lasting measures”.
Speaking to Sky News’ Trevor Phillips on Sunday, Dr Henderson said: “Every bed that gets filled by a patient with COVID in a sense is in a hospital bed with a potentially avoidable disease.
“The problem is that things are worse at the moment so we need everybody to be as careful with the healthcare resources as they possibly can be, and try and minimise the need for healthcare resources.”
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Dr Henderson continued: “So if we can get COVID levels down, if we can make sure that the vulnerable don’t get infected and then need hospital care, if we can make sure that we don’t have people who are severely ill because they catch it when they’re unvaccinated, all of that will help, we’re all in this together to try and make it better.”
Prof Finn called for “a very different kind of message coming from the government now that there is a serious problem”.
He told Sky News’ Trevor Phillips on Sunday that he wants to “avoid lockdowns”, but added that “we can’t avoid it if we all just go back to normal now”.
Health Secretary Sajid Javid has said the government is focusing on rolling out its booster jab programme
On vaccines, Prof Finn said “they’re not by themselves going to be enough at the present time to keep the spread of the virus under control”, adding: “We do need to see people continuing to make efforts to avoid contact, to avoid transmission, and to do other things as well as get vaccinated if we’re going to stop this rise from going up further.”
The warnings from health professionals came as Labour’s shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves suggested the government should look at implementing Plan B.
“Labour as a responsible opposition have always said that we would follow the science, and we’ve seen today that SAGE are saying that some aspects of Plan B, like wearing masks on public transport and in shops, and also working from home more flexibly should be introduced,” she told the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show.
Some scientists have suggested work from home guidance should be implemented once more
“I think the first thing is, the government have got to do more to make Plan A work. If the scientists are saying work from home and masks, we should do that. So get A working better because the vaccination programme has been stalling, introduce those parts of Plan B.”
Meanwhile, Chancellor Rishi Sunak said on Sunday that a return of the furlough scheme is “not on the cards”, adding that the vaccine rollout is the “best line of defence against having to move to put in place any restrictions”.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said there are no plans for another lockdown and that “vaccines are our way through this winter”.
The latest data released on 23 October showed that the UK had recorded a further 180 COVID-related deaths and 49,298 in a 24-hour period.
A judo Olympian has said her family is “devastated” after the discovery of body in the search for her missing brother.
Lubjana Piovesana, 28, appealed for help to find her younger sibling, Luis, 26, on Saturday. He had not been seen since the early hours of Friday morning.
A body was found in the River Frome near Napier Road in Eastville, Bristol, at around 6pm today, Avon and Somerset Police said.
Formal identification is yet to take place, the force added.
In a post on Instagram, Ms Piovesana wrote: “Hello everyone, Luis has been found.
“We are completely devastated but he has passed away.
“I am grateful for everyone’s support. And I am so sorry this happened.
“Luis was my little brother and loved by everyone. I wish he could have seen the love from everyone. He will be remembered by us all.”
The post was signed off with a dove emoji.
Luis Piovesana did not have any money or his mobile phone with him when he went missing, police said. Pics: Avon & Somerset Police
Mr Piovesana was last seen at around 3am on Friday at the Eastgate retail park, which is less than a 10-minute walk away from where the body was found.
He had travelled there by taxi from a venue in Little Ann Street, St Jude’s, a 10-minute drive away.
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The 26-year-old’s family spent the weekend searching for him, and asked people to check their sheds and gardens.
His partner, Laurin Bohler, said loved ones had travelled from Birmingham to help.
Mounted officers and police drones were also involved in the investigation.
Ms Piovesana competed for Team GB before switching to the Austrian team, and defeated British competitor Lucy Renshall in the women’s -63kg judo event at the Paris Olympics last year.
A man has been jailed for life for murdering his son’s girlfriend after she returned home from the school run.
Officers from Dyfed-Powys Police were called to an address on Bigyn Road in Llanelli, Carmarthenshire, on 5 July last year.
Sophie Evans, 30, had sustained 72 separate injuries on the outside of the body, “all but three of them new injuries”.
Richard Jones, who is now 50, believed he was “being taken advantage of financially” by Ms Evans and his son, with whom she was in a relationship.
While the purpose of Jones’s visit was “purely normal”, he confronted her on that morning about his suspicions and Ms Evans’s reaction was such that Jones “lost [his] temper”.
He subjected Ms Evans to “gross violence” before ultimately strangling her and leaving the property to run errands, including ordering a new bank card and buying pastries from a bakery.
Richard Jones. Pic: Dyfed-Powys Police
‘Last time on their school run’
During sentencing on Monday, the defendant kept his head bowed for most of the hearing.
He will have to serve at least 20 years behind bars before he can be considered for release by the parole board.
Swansea Crown Court heard Ms Evans was the mother of two young children.
Passing his sentence, Judge Geraint Walters said Ms Evans “had just taken her two children for the last time on their school run” prior to the attack.
“She wasn’t to know that when she parted company with them that morning,” he added.
The court heard the Jones believed he was being defrauded by Ms Evans and his son.
“There is clear evidence, that in the days leading up to this, that you had begun harbouring thoughts that Sophie Evans and your own son were in fact financially scamming you,” he said.
“What precisely brought about that view is difficult to determine.”
Judge Walters said Jones “lost [his] temper when [he] didn’t get the answer that [he] thought [he] deserved”.
He added that, having lost his temper, the defendant “subjected [Ms Evans] to gross violence over a period of time, before you ultimately extinguished her life by strangulation”.
The court was told in evidence that at the time of the attack, Ms Evans was wearing only a bath towel.
‘The rock of our family’
In a victim personal statement, Ms Evans’s sister Kerry Quinlan told the court she was “the rock of our family”.
She said Ms Evans was taken from them in a “senseless and cruel act”.
“Words cannot express fully how much of a loss this has been to her children,” she added.
“When they cry themselves to sleep wanting their mum, she isn’t there and never will be.”
Ms Quinlan added that Jones had “taken everything from us, all in the most despicable way possible”.
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Ms Evans’s partner at the time, and the defendant’s son, Jamie Davies, said in a victim personal statement, read on his behalf, that they had both “trusted” Jones, and that Ms Evans had even been planning the defendant’s 50th birthday.
“The thought of having to live my life without Sophie causes me extreme pain and heartache,” he added.
Prosecuting, Michael Jones KC said the offence was aggravated by the defendant’s previous convictions and the fact Ms Evans was murdered in her home.
In mitigation, David Elias KC said there was a “lack of premeditation”.
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