Coronavirus UK: Army ready to set up emergency morgues to cope with COVID-19 deaths
THE coronavirus pandemic could force the British Army to build "emergency morgues" to cope with the number of deaths, former MoD minister Tobias Ellwood conceded.
Coronavirus: Army to set up 'emergency morgues' says Ellwood
The British Government confirmed on Wednesday up to 20,000 military personnel will be put in stand by to provide support to emergency services during the coronavirus pandemic. Former Ministry of Defence minister Tobias Ellwood confirmed soldiers will be relieving the Police to allow officers to take on a variety of tasks to back communities across the country. But Mr Ellwood also confirmed the British Army will also be employed to help build "emergency morgues" should the COVID-19 death toll continued to grow.
Speaking to ITV's Peston, the former MoD minister said: "They won’t be running anything, they are there to assist.
"What you’ll see is probably the Police being removed from Number 10 as we’ve seen in the past and army officers and soldiers replacing them so they themselves can go do other things.
"Tank drivers, ambulance drivers, there may be emergency morgues set up so hospital outfits as well."
Coronavirus-related death rose to 104 on Wednesday and the number of affected patients was 2,626 as on Thursday morning.
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The Ministry of Defence initially had 10,000 personnel on standby, but on Wednesday sources revealed an additional “five to ten thousand” are getting to respond to the crisis.
Senior military sources say they are getting ready in case there an influx of requests for help from other services.
Military personnel will be trained to drive oxygen tankers if the NHS begins to run short, while medics will work in hospitals to ease demand on overstretched doctors and nurses.
A senior military source said officials have discussed how it could “add additional capacity in terms of beds and support within the NHS”. Field hospitals, a small mobile medical unit, are also being considered in the event hospitals run out of beds.
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There are fears the already-under pressure NHS will buckle under the strain of the coronavirus outbreak if it continues to accelerate, exposing staff to the deadly symptoms.
Nearly one million people have so far signed a petition calling for frontline NHS staff to be tested for coronavirus as a matter of priority.
On Wednesday, Public Health England announced the number of new coronavirus cases had surged by 676 to 2,626 in just 24-hours, with the death toll increasing by nearly half (33) to a total of 104.
Following alarm that many Londoners were ignoring emergency health advice, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said: "We do not rule out, because it would be quite wrong to do so, taking further and faster measures in due course."
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Around a third of the 1,557 cases of infection recorded in England by yesterday were identified by health authorities in the Greater London area.
Yet despite the Government’s call for people to avoid minimise travel and going out, many Underground trains and buses in London were crowded yesterday.
Figures from Transport for London showed just a 19 percent decline in travel on the London Underground and a 10 percent reduction in bus journeys since the Prime Minister urged people to avoid unnecessary travel and try to work from home earlier this week.
In some areas, pubs were reported to be packed in the evenings in defiance of the official “social distancing” advice.