This is an overwhelming yet tragic story of a country (which shall remain a mystery) that stole the spotlight in this pandemic crisis. I am very sure you are keen to know what really went south, so, let me spill the beans.
To begin with, the first confirmed case was reported on the 31st of January 2020. Instead of attending the emergency COBRA committee meeting, the Prime Minister of the country sent his Health Secretary to do so. This was the first point of error made, as the government did not see the need to act fast on the case.
As the Epidemiologists and the public health officers of the country implied, strategy for combatting COVID-19 was disorganized in the aspects of not getting sufficient medical equipment, implementing necessary health precautions such as social distancing, etc. In other words, the government overly relied on doctors and scientists to fight the crisis without supplying the necessary equipment, almost as if expecting a superhero to save the world without his superpowers.
In the initial stages, the country did a decent job in isolating and tracing the victims although it became challenging with the increase of patients. On top of that, shortage of medical supplies really took a toll on their operation to fight COVID-19.
Cherry on the top, the government started making certain poor, controversial decisions such as on March 12th, the day after WHO announced COVID-19 as a ‘pandemic’, the government ceased tracing and testing as the spread was inevitable. Instead, they jumped to the next step; flattening the curve as a certain blonde put it as “We need to squash this SOMBRERO!”
In the meantime, the Chief Medical Advisor introduced the concept of ‘herd immunity’ which means the resistance to the spread of a contagious disease within a population that results if a sufficiently high proportion of individuals are immune to the disease, especially through vaccination. Fortunately, through a scientific study, it was proven if the government continues to not take immediate action against the crisis, a high number of 510,000 deaths would be the ghastly result.
There onwards, starting from 16th of March, social distancing and work from home policies were implemented, threatening the survival of businesses across the country.
While other countries were under lockdown; Italy since the 9th, Spain since the 14th and France since the 16th of March, this particular nation waited till the 23rd of March as the government did not completely encourage it due to the economic catastrophe it would fuel.
During the lockdown period, the government made several attempts to increase the capacity of NHS (National Health Service) which is the country’s state funded healthcare body. As a result, a massive hospital popped up on April 3rd, in a convention centre in the capital city itself, with the support of the Army.
At the start of April, the Health Secretary assured to bring the daily test rate up to 100,000 per day but unfortunately, they could not meet their target as it was reported under 20,000 on 15th May. Almost everything the government did, seemed to backfire on them, for instance, paying 20 million to a Chinese company for medical kits that turned up to not work.
As of 29th of May this mysterious country has reported 269,127 cases and 37,837 deaths.
All in all, to look on the bright side, at least their Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, has recovered completely.
-Written by Rtr. Damindri Herath-
References-
https://time.com/5823382/britain-coronavirus-response/
https://www.ecdc.europa.eu/en/geographical-distribution-2019-ncov-cases
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Image link-
https://images.app.goo.gl/sbPt3UWKq7KX1Rsc6
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