Brighton Pavilion MP Caroline Lucas has criticised the government’s proposed criteria for lifting the coronavirus lockdown.
The Green MP said that a more stringent approach to “contact tracing” needed to be in place before the lockdown restrictions were ended.
Ms Lucas said that the government should “adopt WHO (World Health Organisation) advice on community-based testing and contact-tracing to prevent the further spread of covid-19 and as a precondition for any relaxation of the lockdown”.
She said: “The First Minister of State, Dominic Raab, has set out five conditions for the lifting of the lockdown.
“But they do not include the clear WHO advice that health systems must have the capacity to ‘detect, test, isolate and treat every case and trace every contact’.
“A Green Party report, published today and put together by the party’s health team with input from other experts, makes the case that we will prevent further covid-19 outbreaks and new lockdowns only if there is a network of community-based protection schemes, or ‘community shields’, which can respond quickly to any re-emergence of covid-19 once the current lockdown is lifted.
“These ‘shields’, co-ordinated by Public Health England’s regional Outbreak Management Teams, would be created by bringing together and building on existing systems including the NHS 111 phone service, GP surgeries and local authority public health teams to identify those with symptoms, arrange for their testing and then, crucially, trace all their contacts in order to stamp out outbreaks of the virus in the communities where it’s happening.
“This test-trace-isolate strategy has been followed successfully by countries which have been more effective than the UK in suppressing the virus, such as South Korea and Germany.
“If attempts to lift the lockdown are made before this infrastructure is in place, we’re likely to see a repeating cycle of national lockdowns as surges of new cases of the virus occur.”
Ms Lucas said: “The government record on testing in this crisis has been poor, with a change in strategy which squandered vital time and mixed signals coming from ministers and scientific advisers who have even suggested that WHO advice doesn’t somehow apply to Britain.
“It would be criminally negligent if it compounded this error by failing to listen to the WHO’s advice on the criteria which need to be in place before lifting the lockdown.
“It is profoundly worrying that the ‘Five Conditions for Exit’ announced by First Minister Dominic Raab last week made no mention of this advice.”
The Green MP added: “A community shield approach wouldn’t only help trace outbreaks of the virus where they occur and allow a swift response, it would also provide support to covid-19 patients by monitoring their condition by phone and app, leaving them safely at home but not isolated.
“This would give people the reassurance they need to exit lockdown with confidence when the time is right.
“Preparations need to be made now to allow these ‘shields’ to be in place for the ending of lockdown once the upward curve of infections has been brought down.
“The system could be activated immediately in communities where the infection rate is low and rolled out more widely as the number of cases declines.
“People need the reassurance that lifting the lockdown won’t result in further out-of-control outbreaks and this would help give it to them – and build on the amazing community solidarity we have seen in the past few weeks.”
Correct the headline. Not ministers’ conditions for lifting coronavirus lockdown- they are SCIENTIFIC ADVISORS’ CONDITIONS
Yes Caroline we should definitely follow guidance from the WHO. Those people who said “there is zero evidence that covid19 can pass to humans from animals” – after that had been proven wrong. The WHO who said “there is no need to close borders” when that had been proven the key factor in the viruses dispersal globally at a rapid rate. The WHO – Well at this point it would probably be quicker to find something the WHO didn’t lie about.
If there’s one organisation I’m not interested in listening to it’s the one that has lied repeatedly and is shilling for the CCP.
Well.. She would say that wouldn’t she….
Despite the mistakes made by WHO and the fact that nearly the whole world has been caught out by the virus, what Lucas is saying is absolutely correct. The people running this country are not fit for purpose. The western system of democracy is hopelessly outdated and inefficient. The system of electing people to run countries and councils by a form of popularity contest is ridiculous. You wouldn’t hold a popularity contest to find someone to run a company like Tescos. People actually need to be competent in these well paid and responsible roles – and currently they aren’t. How can someone like Hancock – who has a degree in Economics – be qualified to be Health Secretary? Shouldn’t the role be filled by someone with a degree in some form of medicine and/or experience of working in the NHS