BMA says government is ‘wilfully negligent’ for ruling out Plan B despite Covid surge

The government is being “wilfully negligent” by not introducing measures to suppress the recent rise in coronavirus cases, the chair of the British Medical Association (BMA) has said.

Dr Chaand Nagpaul made the comments after the health secretary ignored NHS leaders’ pleas for the implementation of ‘Plan B’, which could see the return of mandatory mask wearing in indoor spaces and the need to work from home where possible.

Speaking at a No 10 press conference on Wednesday afternoon, Sajid Javid said the current pressure on the NHS was not “unsustainable”, noting that the contingency plan would only be introduced if hospitals were at risk of being “overwhelmed”.

However, Dr Nagpaul disagreed with the minister’s assessment, suggesting that the NHS was already reaching breaking point and that the government should follow through on its promise to protect the health service.

“By the health secretary’s own admission we could soon see 100,000 cases a day and we now have the same number of weekly Covid deaths as we had during March, when the country was in lockdown,” he said.

Dr Nagpaul described the government’s decision not to take further preventative action as “wilfully negligent”, branding the current rate of coronavirus infections and deaths as “unacceptable”.

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Source: The Independent, 21 October 2021