Britain wants more ventilators, hospital beds

London

Britain told manufacturers to ramp up the country’s production of ventilators and ordered private hospitals to prepare for an overspill of patients from the public health service as the death toll from coronavirus grew.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who has been criticized for so far not following more draconian steps taken by other European countries, was preparing to ban mass gatherings from next week, a government source said.

Health authorities in England announced a further 10 coronavirus deaths, almost doubling since Friday although the toll remains lower than in Italy, Spain and France. “Ministers are working with the chief scientific adviser and chief medical officer on our plan to stop various types of public events, including mass gatherings, beginning next week,” the government source said.

Johnson’s office said later on Saturday that he was due to speak to manufacturers on Monday about supporting the production of essential medical kit. Engineers had been asked to find ways to quickly produce more ventilators in Britain which the government would buy.

Germany and Italy have scrambled to get more ventilators, and manufacturers warned on Friday that hospitals everywhere faced a lack of equipment needed to treat coronavirus patients.

The Sunday Telegraph said companies including RollsRoyce had been asked by Johnson to transform their production lines to produce ventilators as part of a “national effort.” On Friday, England’s soccer Premier League suspended all matches until April 4 and the London Marathon was postponed. Queen Elizabeth, who is 93, canceled some public engagements for next week. J

ohnson postponed for a year local and mayoral elections in England that had been due to take place in May. The government was also negotiating with healthcare firms about paying for thousands of beds in private hospitals.

As of Saturday morning, 21 people had died after testing positive for COVID-19 in Britain. “All 10 individuals were in the at-risk groups,” Chris Whitty, chief medical officer for England, said in a statement.

Britain’s health ministry said the number of confirmed positive tests for coronavirus in the country rose to 1,140 on Saturday, a 43 per cent increase from the figure of 798 given on Friday.