London (AFP)
The British authorities announced Monday to launch the tests of a tracking application, at the heart of the device planned to consider the relaxation of the containment implemented for six weeks to fight against the new coronavirus.
With 28,734 deaths according to the latest report released on Monday, the United Kingdom is the second country most affected in Europe by the virus after Italy.
The Covid-19 casualty curve marks a "slow but continuing" decline, said Professor Jonathan Van-Tam, one of the heads of the British health services, at the Downing Street daily press conference.
The confinement was declared on March 23 and extended until Thursday, the date on which it must be reviewed.
A spokesman for Downing Street said that this date would not necessarily be an opportunity to announce a relaxation. He also did not confirm that an exit strategy would be released on Sunday evening in a speech by Prime Minister Boris Johnson, as claimed by some media.
To avoid a new wave of contaminations, the United Kingdom intends, like many countries, to rely on a tracing application tested from Tuesday on the Isle of Wight (south) in order to be generalized in several weeks .
The application will be available from Tuesday for health workers on the island, detailed the Minister of Health Matt Hancock, then to all 80,000 households in Wight.
The application must in particular make it possible to warn anyone who has been in contact with a person tested positive, using energy-efficient Bluetooth technology. Location information will be stored on carriers' phones, he said.
- "Tandem" -
Far from suggesting the end of social distancing measures, the application must work "in tandem" with them, according to the minister.
Closing company canteens, reducing the number of shared offices, additional cleaning are among the tracks envisaged by the government to allow companies to resume their activities, according to the BBC and the Financial Times.
Employees in contact with the public should be protected by plastic screens and workers who can are encouraged to continue working from home, according to these recommendations.
Those who must go to the office are encouraged to work shift schedules to avoid metros and commuter trains being crowded.
As a sign of the current decline, the activity of the field hospital opened in London especially to deal with the pandemic is "paused" due to the lack of patients, the government announced on Monday.
Scottish Prime Minister Nicola Sturgeon, however, warned on Monday that "the number of people still infected and all other indicators" were still too high to make a "significant change" to the measures in place.
Even though the UK has now "passed the peak of the epidemic" according to the government, the end of containment raises many questions. Companies will have to carry out a "risk assessment" before they can welcome their employees again, suggest government documents on deconfinement cited in the press.
If the recommended distance of two meters between each worker cannot be respected, the wearing of personal protective clothing (PPE) will be considered. A "clear recommendation" is needed, however, BBC Adam Marshall, managing director of the British Chambers of Commerce, said on Monday.
The change also worries the leaders of large infrastructures such as airports, where measures of social distancing are impossible to put into practice.
"It will not work in aviation or any other form of public transport" due to lack of space, writes John Holland-Kaye, boss of London Heathrow airport in the daily The Telegraph. "For a single jumbo jumper there would be a one kilometer queue."
© 2020 AFP