As I write on Sunday evening, it is great to see that our Prime Minister Boris Johnson has returned to Downing Street, after recovering from his serious Covid-19 illness. Coronavirus is the biggest challenge our country has faced for decades and this will be a marathon, not a sprint. Having Boris back, recovered and rested, is exactly what we need to deal with the longer-term challenges we face, as well as with the immediate crisis.
While there is no good outcome, we are seeing a welcome reduction in hospital admissions and we continue to thank all our fantastic frontline NHS and social care workers for everything they are doing. Good planning has ensured that so far, everyone who has needed intensive care or a ventilator has received it. The harrowing scenes we saw from Spain and Italy, where medics had to prioritise who received treatment, have thankfully not happened here.
The Government has unveiled a network of mobile testing units, to ensure that all essential workers that need a Coronavirus test can get one. Testing capacity is rapidly increasing towards the goal of 100,000 a day, and testing eligibility has been expanded so that all essential workers and their households can be tested if they are displaying symptoms.
To ensure that everyone can access these tests, mobile testing units are being deployed, operated by the Armed Forces, which will be travelling around the country to deliver testing where it is needed. There will be nearly 100 of these units deployed in the coming weeks. These units will allow for hundreds of essential workers and their households to be tested each day, with results within 48 hours, so they can get back where they are needed, on the front line.
The government have now delivered over half a million food packages to the people at the highest risk from the effects of coronavirus. This effort is strongly complimented by West Sussex County Council and Crawley Borough Council, who continue to deliver supplies to the most vulnerable (shielded) and vulnerable residents respectively. We are moving forward and we will get through this.
Councillor Duncan Crow, Leader of Crawley Borough Council Conservative Group
29th April 2020