UK health staff ‘terrified’ over lack of protective kit

LONDON: British doctors and health workers have raised the alarm about a lack of sufficient protective kit to treat potential coronavirus patients, potentially exposing themselves and putting vulnerable patients at risk. One doctor said he felt “terrified” of the lack of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) available for carers. “I may be OK — I’m young and healthy — but I can’t bear the thought of infecting other patients with a disease that could kill them. And that is the risk, without proper PPE,” wrote one doctor in the Guardian newspaper. Health workers are worried “less about themselves than whether they would be spreading it between their patients,” said Rosena Allin-Khan, a Labour MP and a doctor in the emergency department at St George’s University Hospital in London. “They have also been worried about not being tested themselves,” she said. In the absence of tests, which are currently reserved for the most serious cases, caregivers with symptoms are instead told to self-isolate for two weeks. SCHOOLS CLOSE British schools closed indefinitely on Friday as part of tougher government measures to stem the coronavirus pandemic, following similar shutdowns in Europe and across the world. — AFP