Britain’s over 70s will soon be ordered to isolate themselves for up to four months to protect them from coronavirus — in a drastic action plan a government official on Sunday compared to surviving World War II.
The UK’s Health Secretary, Matt Hancock, told Sky News that the government would “in the coming weeks” order the “elderly and vulnerable” to “shield themselves by self-isolating.”
“We will be setting it out with more detail when it’s the right time to do so because we absolutely appreciate that that is a very big ask of the elderly and the vulnerable,” he told Sky.
“It’s for their own self-protection,” he said of the drastic measures aimed against the group most at risk from the outbreak.
The UK is also planning new laws to force anyone infected to stay in quarantine, as well as potential bans on large public gatherings, he confirmed.
Hancock told the BBC that he was awaiting the right time for the formal announcement because his department feared those affected would “tire of it” and rebel against the order.
“This is going to be a national effort, and I don’t mean those words lightly,” he told the broadcaster.
“Every single person in this country is going to be affected and going to have to do things.”
He said the government “will stop at nothing to fight this virus” that has claimed 21 lives in the UK amid more than 1,140 confirmed cases.
In an op-ed in the Sunday Telegraph, Hancock compared the fight against the disease to “the Second World War, when our cities were bombed during the Blitz.”
“Despite the pounding every night, the rationing, the loss of life, they pulled together in one gigantic national effort,” he wrote.
“Today our generation is facing its own test, fighting a very real and new disease. We must fight the disease to protect life.”