Another week has passed and the UK has now been under lockdown for just under 4 weeks . Overall it seems like people are starting to follow the guidelines given by the PM compared to perhaps the starting weeks of lockdown and the it has been said by scientist that the peak is flattening but the question remains, will our efforts be enough?
Furthermore it has been another devastating week in terms of Coronavirus deaths with the number of deaths rising over 15,000 but it’s also been a week where we’ve seen great acts of bravery and compassion through the works of the NHS, Captain Tom Moore and many others.
We also had some good news in hearing that PM , Boris Johnson, had left St. Thomas Hospital and was recovering in his second home at chequers and in other news somehow Mr Donald Trump found a way to get everyone talking about him again, even amidst the pandemic.
We’ve got a lot to go through about what happened this week so sit back and keep reading!
Boris Johnson leaves Hospital
The prime minister, Boris Johnson left hospital on the 12th of April after spending seven nights at St. Thomas Hospital, three of which were spent in intensive care.
Mr Johnson praised NHS staff for saving his life and in particular he singled out two nurses. The nurses were Luis from Portugal and Jenny from New Zealand who stayed at the PM’s bedside ” when things could have gone either way”.
Speaking to the nation through a video message hours after being released from hospital, the prime minister seemed optimistic that the UK were “making progress in this incredible national battle against Coronavirus”.
Mr Johnson was full of praise for a list of NHS workers and was adamant that the NHS would help us to defeat the virus saying that “we will defeat this Coronavirus and defeat it together. We will win because our NHS is the beating heart of this country. It is the best of this country. It is unconquerable. It is powered by love”.
The prime minister will now head to chequers to continue his recovery as advised by medics and foreign secretary, Dominic Raab, will also continue to deputise for the PM.
Congratulations Captain Tom Moore:
A National Treasure & A National Hero
The 99-year-old former British army officer, Captain Tom Moore, has so far raised over £25 million for the NHS by walking 100 laps of his garden just before he is set to turn 100 years old.
At the beginning of this month the 99-year-old veteran set out to raise only £1000 through his ” 100th birthday walk” JustGiving campaign, fast forward a few weeks and he has now obliterated that target by 5195% (at time of posting), to be exact.
Support for the veteran has come in from almost every corner of the world, with donations to his JustGiving page coming in as far as Australia.
Just after finishing his 100th lap Cpt Moore gave the UK another message of hope saying in his interview with BBC Breakfast that ” At the end of the day we shall all be OK. The sun will shine on you again and the clouds will go away. “
Mr Moore has been praised and honoured by a vast amount of celebrities; David Beckham, Lewis Hamilton Jamie Oliver, Aaron Ramsey and Amanda Holding are among those who praised the veterans generous works.
Downing Street also confirmed that the PM was looking for ways in which to formally recognise Cpt Moore’s “heroic” actions , could this be a potential knighthood?
The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are also among those who have credited Cpt Moore’s work after making a video message discussing the veterans “incredible” work.
Furthermore to add to all his great accomplishments, Cpt Tom Moore is now number 1 on the iTunes chart with his “You’ll never walk alone” single featuring NHS Voices for Care Choir after knocking Dame Vera Lynn and Katherine Jenkins of the top spot.
Trump manages to snatch headlines amidst the pandemic
Even with a global pandemic to deal with , Donald Trump has still managed to make headlines after announcing he is halting US funding to the World Health Organisation (WHO) because he claims that the WHO has “failed in its basic duty” in the fight to defeat Coronavirus.
Mr Trump also accused the United Nations of mismanaging and covering up the spread of the virus as it first emerged in China and he also added that “they must be held accountable”.
In response to Donald Trump’s accusation, the UN chief said ” it was not the time” to cut funding for the WHO amidst a global pandemic.
Trump, who is also under the firing seat due to the way he handled the virus outbreak, has also accused China of giving false official numbers of Coronavirus deaths and cases and he is not the only one to have done so.
Bill Gates, Microsoft founder and philanthropist, said on twitter that ” Halting funding for the World Health Organisation during a world health crisis is as dangerous as it sounds.”
Public Health England to start recording deaths by ethnicity
The NHS and Public Health England are to launch an investigation to why BAME’s are being “disproportionately” affected by Coronavirus and they will also start recording the number of Coronavirus deaths by ethnicity.
The investigation will be launched due to data by The Intensive Care National Audit and Research Centre showing that 34% of more than 4,800 critically-ill patients with Covid-19 identified as black, Asian or minority ethnic.
The problem occurs when you put in to context that according to the 2011 census only 14% of people in England and Wales identify themselves as BAME, bearing the statistic in mind you can now see that a greater proportion of BAME are becoming critically-ill in England and Wales with Coronavirus despite making up less than a quarter of the population.
For now the question still remains the same , why? Why are BAME’s being disproportionately affected by Coronavirus? Right now we do not have these answers and all we can do is wait for the answers to be given to us by Public Health England.
The UK isn’t the only country that is going through the same trouble, most notably the US have been going through the same ordeal. Currently some reasons given in US news outlets regarding their side of the issue is that BAME’s in the US tend to have lower-skilled jobs , where they are in contact with vast quantities of people.
Furthermore, a large proportion of the US’ Blacks, Asians and minority ethnics are obese so are at an even higher risk of contracting and dying from the virus. Could this apply to the UK as well?
But as I said before, we can not be sure and all we can do for now is to wait and not speculate.
Three lockdown weeks complete and now another three weeks confirmed
It is now confirmed that lockdown measure in the UK will now last for “at least” another three weeks. The foreign secretary announced, this week, that relaxing the measure would be a major risk to the public’s health and the economy.
This comes after research suggesting that relaxing too early could result in a “second wave” of cases and deaths which would be detrimental to the economy.
This is because the UK would go into lockdown for a second time meaning the economy would also be hit bad for a second time as a result of people being at home and not working.
Ministers are required by law to discuss whether the lockdown is effective and working every three week so until then it is almost certain that there will be no talks of relaxation to the guidelines.
Dominic Raab, who is deputising for the recovering PM, said that five condition needed to be met before any lockdown guidelines were eased.
The conditions were:
- Making sure that the NHS would be able to cope
- A “sustained and controlled” drop in total of daily death rates
- Reliable data showing that infection were dropping to “manageable levels”
- Making sure that the supplies of tests and PPE could meet future demands
- Being very confident that any relaxations or adjustment would not risk a potential second peak
The Weekly Politics 
You’re right about Donald trump. He always finds a way to stay relevant
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Yep he always finds a way
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