Government urged to use ‘small window of opportunity’ to limit Omicron’s impact
The re-introduction of mandatory mask wearing in shops and on public transport to combat Covid’s newest variant is sensible and the right thing to do, according to a doctors’ leader.
But Dr Chaand Nagpaul, BMA council chairman, added that for this measure to be fully effective it is important for the Government to extend this mandate to all public indoor and closed settings.
The Covid-19 Bereaved Families For Justice’s memory wall
He said: ‘This includes the hospitality industry – such as for staff in restaurants and beauty salons – where the public tend to spend long periods of time in close contact with others. This addition to Government measures will have minimal economic and social impact, but rather evidence tells us that it will help to further reduce the spread of the virus.
‘We only have a small window of opportunity to get this right to ensure that we don’t lose control of this new variant, which has the potential to have a devastating impact on the health service. The Government must act now, or we risk seeing even more unnecessary deaths.’
Responding to the publication today of Learn Lessons, Save Lives by Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice – which the BMA contributed to – Dr Nagpaul reflected that doctors and other healthcare workers were left ‘horribly exposed’ to Covid-19.
He said: ‘Government was simply not prepared for the pandemic; it failed to provide sufficient or adequate PPE, risking the health and lives of doctors in the course of their duties from a novel, highly contagious virus.
‘There were at least 414 deaths involving Covid-19 among healthcare workers between March and December 2020. During this time doctors suffered the emotional turmoil of seeing so many of their friends and colleagues become seriously unwell, on ventilators, with many losing their own lives.
‘There were inadequate risk assessments and protections in place when infection was at its peak and it was troubling to see gross inequalities exacerbated within the health service, with 95% of doctors who lost their lives coming from a Black, Asian and minority ethnic background.’
The BMA is carrying out its own work to learn lessons from the medical profession.