Friday, March 29

NHS clapping tribute tonight


 

 

Britain will once again unite to clap the NHS workers on the frontline of the battle against coronavirus same time, same place

Clap for our Carers will start at 8pm tonight from the nation’s doorsteps, windows, gardens and balconies.

Give the kids your pots and pans, let granny use our vuvuzelas – you’ll never walk alone.

Prince Charles, 71, who had coronavirus at the time, was pictured clapping at Birkhall, his private home on the Balmoral estate in Scotland.

With the spread of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) causing significant global disruption in 2020, the U.K. has escalated its response by announcing strict country-wide measures aimed at slowing the spread of the virus.

After ordering pubs, bars, restaurants, theatres, gyms and leisure centres across the country to close indefinitely, Prime Minister Boris Johnson addressed the public on March 23, outlining strict exercise and shopping limits, ordering all shops other than food stores and pharmacies to close, and implementing a ban on public gatherings of two or more people.

The government is also delivering an unprecedented economic relief package aimed at businesses and individuals hit by the pandemic, which is estimated to cost over £400 billion.

As individuals and groups across the U.K. continue to conduct their daily life in lockdown, we look at the situation in the country and around the world in pictures.

(Pictured) Soldiers and private contractors help to prepare the ExCel centre in London, England, which is being made into the temporary NHS Nightingale hospital comprising two wards, each of 2,000 people, to help tackle coronavirus, on March 30.

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, William and Kate, posted a video of their three children – George, Charlotte and Louis – clapping, while Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Chancellor Rishi Sunak also joined in from Downing Street.

Mr Johnson said: “It was very moving to join in the national clap for the NHS but it’s not just the NHS its police, social care workers, teachers and everybody who works in schools, DWP staff… an amazing national effort by the public services, but also by every member of the British public who is volunteering.”

Many households across the UK joined in, with some holding signs, cheering and letting off fireworks.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn also took part, appearing to cheer in a video.

On Wednesday afternoon it was revealed a further 563 people had died in the UK after contracting coronavirus – bringing the total number of deaths to 2,352.

Mr Johnson, who is self-isolating in Downing Street after being diagnosed with COVID-19, admitted the UK needs to “massively ramp up” testing for the virus. He said testing was “how we would unlock the coronavirus puzzle” and “defeat it in the end”.

NHS staff have expressed frustration that they are being forced to self-isolate just as they are needed most, because tests are not available to show whether they are clear of the disease.