Army drafted in to help with Covid response in Tier 3 areas to combat a second peak of infections
Army personnel are being drafted in to help with the response to Covid-19 in Tier 3 areas, following a new wave of requests for the military to assist with the "national effort" to combat a second peak of infections.
A team of military personnel were deployed to Liverpool on Friday, where they will help to identify local sources of infection and aid environmental health officers enforcing coronavirus rules.
Further teams are expected to be deployed to Tier 3 areas in the coming weeks, to carry out a range of tasks depending on the need in each location. As of Friday, the military was carrying out 32 tasks under the official military aid to the civil authorities (Maca) mechanism allowing the Government and local authorities to formally request assistance from the Armed Forces.
Lieutenant General Tyrone Urch,the UK's Standing Joint Commander, said: "We are all extremely proud to be able to support this national effort, and remain ready to respond to all requests for further support throughout the winter period.”
On Saturday, South Yorkshire became the latest area to move to England's top level of restrictions, while Wales entered the first full day of a national lockdown, Dan Jarvis, the mayor of Sheffield City, said the Government must "define precisely what the exit criteria is" from Tier 3.
Politicians in Nottingham and Nottinghamshire were continuing to negotiate with ministers about also moving into the highest tier of restrictions.
The initial military deployment to Liverpool comprises five Army and Navy environmental health officers trained in "outbreak management", They will help to identify trends and clusters of infections, allowing local authorities to crack down on local outbreaks, including by taking action against businesses failing to comply with the Covid-19 rules.
Yesterday, two prominent scientists claimed that the UK was a month away from the number of patients in hospital exceeding those seen during the first peak in March. Sir Jeremy Farrar said the country was "in for [a] return of March/April" but with the added pressures brought by the winter.
Professor Neil Ferguson, seen by many as one of the driving forces behind the first lockdown, claimed that if coronavirus cases continued to increase at the current rate, the government may need to close schools to older pupils.
"Of course, nobody wants to start moving to virtual education and closing schools even partially," he said.
"The challenge may be that we are not able to get on top of the transmission otherwise."
As of yesterday, a further 174 people had died within 28 days of testing positive for Covid-19. This brings the UK total to 44,745.
Separate figures published by the UK's statistics agencies show there have now been 59,000 deaths registered in the UK where Covid-19 was mentioned on the death certificate.
Professor Ferguson also said ministers faced a "political judgement" over whether to allow different households to mix indoors over Christmas.
“It risks some transmission and there will be consequences of that. Some people will die because of getting infected on that day,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
“But if it is only one or two days, the impact is likely to be limited. So that is really a political judgment about the cost versus the benefits.”
The average number of formal requests received for military assistance was 130 per year between 2016 and 2019, but the Ministry of Defence has received 316 so far in 2020, including 258 specifically for tasks related to the Covid-19 pandemic.
In Birmingham, around 100 military personnel are supporting the city council's "drop and collect" testing scheme. Meanwhile 50 medics are aiding Public Health England's testing trials in schools.
