Coronavirus UK phases: What is the next stage after delay in the UK government’s Covid-19 plan?
The government is set to move to the next stage.
Ministers have signed off on moving the UK to the next stage of the government’s plan for combating coronavirus – the ‘delay’ phase.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson chaired an emergency Cobra meeting today where ministers assessed whether it was time to move out of the containment stage to the second phase.
Since the containment phase began, coronavirus has been termed a pandemic by the World Health Organisation, and there are 590 people in total in the UK who have tested positive for the virus.
Now that we’re in the second of the government’s four phases, here’s what they all mean and what the next one after delay would be.
What is the next phase in the government’s coronavirus plan?
The government’s plan for dealing with the virus consists of the steps ‘contain, delay, research, mitigate’.
The research phase runs in tandem with the other phases, with ‘current emphasis’ being on both the research and contain phases.
This means that the mitigation phase will technically be the one which will follow the delay phase, should the outbreak progress that far in the UK.
The contain phase, which we were in previously, focuses on stopping coronavirus from spreading in the UK for as long as possible.
The delay phase aims to slow the spread of the virus in the UK and push the worst of the outbreak farther from winter.
The research phase does pretty much what it says on the tin – its aim is to help the powers that be understand coronavirus better and use that knowledge to combat the disease.
Mitigation involves offering the best possible care for those who end up catching the virus, in an effort ‘to minimise the overall impact of the disease on society, public services and on the economy.’
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