Architecture of Containment: Getting to Gold

From the Foreword: Britain has to have a coherent strategy for living with Covid-19 [coronavirus disease 2019], which will last until there is a vaccine available that is able to be scaled for the whole population. That is the stark reality. But the economic and health costs of lockdown are so immense that we need at the same time to get as many people back to work and have as much of 'normal' life return as possible. The only viable solution is to build a containment infrastructure that is comprehensive and that embodies the best technology and practice. A gold standard, if you like. Despite the progress which has been made, Britain is still significantly short of attaining that standard. Whether we reach it depends on the decisions taken now. In this paper we set out the different elements of such an infrastructure. Lockdown won't eliminate the virus on its own. It does, however, give us time to prepare and to build so that we can open up as widely as possible and as safely as possible. Otherwise we will find that the economic, social and health devastation of the lockdown has an impact as serious or, in some ways, more serious than the disease itself.COVID-19 (Disease);Disaster recovery;Public health

Changing the Game on Testing

From the Foreword: Britain is unfortunately in a different and worse position than most comparable countries. We are opening up with a death rate and level of new infections that are comparatively high. The risks are obvious. In addition, even if existing strategy succeeds completely in suppressing the disease during the summer months, we face along with all countries the possibility of fresh outbreaks of the disease in the autumn and winter. We need to prepare for this now. We believe this requires a radical and urgent shift in government strategy. In earlier reports we have suggested a series of containment measures, including the provision of masks, wearable devices to alert people to early signs of Covid-19 [coronavirus disease 2019], a different approach to track and trace and provision of oximeters to people suffering symptoms, and we have of course highlighted the importance of testing. Today we make a more fundamental suggestion. This is that the government change its testing strategy from one that is targeted to certain groups and those with symptoms, is reliant on lab-based tests and will therefore only test a minority of the population to mass testing using available and soon-to-be available rapid on-the-spot antigen and antibody tests, which do not require lab processing, so that a majority of the population can be tested and regularly. We believe this should be at the core of the containment strategy.COVID-19 (Disease);Health--Testing;United Kingdom