TheTimes8April2020

12 2GM Wednesday April 8 2020 | the times

News

Jack Malvern

News Coronavirus

Volunteers around the country are

receiving their first taste of being an

NHS volunteer responder with a loud

blast from their phone.

George Sheppard, 24, who is study-

ing for a master’s degree in European

politics at Oxford University, said that

he was among the first to receive an

alert through the scheme’s Good Sam

app. “I almost jumped out of my skin,”

he said. “It’s a siren. The app is designed

for paramedics.”

Mr Sheppard is one of 750,000 volun-

teers being organised by the Royal Vol-

untary Service, which said that it was

on schedule to approve all of them by

yesterday afternoon. Volunteers said

that supply was much greater than

demand but put this down to “teething

issues”. A spokeswoman for the service

said she expected more people to

become involved as GPs, pharmacists

and councils generated requests.

The shortfall in demand may be con-

nected to a delay in people receiving

letters from their GPs notifying them

that they are one of 1.5 million people

considered at high risk. The “shielding

letters” or text messages should have

been delivered on March 29 telling

recipients to stop all face-to-face con-

tact for 12 weeks. People say that they

have not been contacted despite having

conditions such as asthma, lung disease

or having had an organ transplant.

Supermarkets have used the letters as

proof of the need for priority for deliver-

ies. Bev Pearson, whose daughter Lucy,

20, is a transplant recipient, told the

BBC: “It’s like she’s been forgotten.”

One volunteer, Sally Dixon, 51, an

associate principal at Sunderland Col-

lege, was among the first to receive a

call “like an air raid siren” on Saturday,

when the first tasks were assigned. “If

you accept, it shows you on a map how

far away they are from you,” she said.

“Mine was 700 metres away.”

She was told that a vulnerable couple

needed help with shopping but not

immediately. “We’ve set it up so I phone

them every couple of days. It could be

groceries or something to collect from

the pharmacy. I’m poised to do some-

thing,” she said.

Ms Dixon is trying to work out how

to pay for groceries because some

supermarkets do not know how to

Religious festivities may have proved

It is sometimes described as the Jewish

Mardi Gras: families and friends gather

in large numbers, children in costumes

sing and dance, and gifts of food are

widely exchanged. Purim is a time of

joy. For some, this year, it may also have

carried a death sentence.

The misfortune lay in the annual

festival’s timing. Purim was celebrated

on March 9 and 10, in the final days

before social distancing was intro-

duced.

Almost a month later concerns are

growing that coronavirus may have

infected a disproportionate number of

Jewish people. No verified statistics

exist but it is a fear that echoes from

north London to New York and Israel.

Theories abound but some look back

at Purim and wonder. Was it then that

the virus took hold? In Britain, commu-

nity workers and medical professionals

have said that some religious and cul-

tural traditions, including those within

Islam and Judaism, may have made

certain communities vulnerable.

Common to both faiths, in addition

to their significant representation

among NHS doctors, are close-knit

family and inter-generational ties, fre-

quent communal activities and regular

attendance at places of worship.

With big communal events looming

for the three major monotheistic

religions — Passover begins tonight,

Easter is this weekend and Ramadan

starts on April 23 — global lockdown

measures face a severe test.

The government has published no

official statistics to indicate whether

there is a greater prevalence of Covid-

19 among any religious or ethnic

minorities in Britain. However, the

British Islamic Medical Association

(Bima) has said that British Muslims

“have certain characteristics that place

us at higher risk than the general popu-

lation”.

One Jewish doctor suggested that

overcrowding in the ultra-Orthodox

neighbourhoods of north London pro-

vided conditions “ideal for spreading

infection”. Another told The Jewish

Chronicle that British Jews were dying

at an unprecedented rate.

Medical staff in Israel said that coro-

navirus was spreading in ultra-Ortho-

dox districts up to five times more

rapidly than in the rest of the country;

initial infections within New York’s

Hassidic areas were said to be higher

than the city’s overall rate.

The Board of Deputies of British Jews

said that as of Sunday it knew of 115

Covid-19 deaths in the Jewish commu-

nity, or 2.3 per cent of all UK deaths at

the time. Jews make up 0.4 per cent of

the UK population.

Yehudis Fletcher, founder of a Jewish

counter-extremism think tank,

believes that “the very culture that’s

normally our biggest strength becomes

our biggest weakness during a pan-

demic like this”.

Ms Fletcher, from Manchester, said:

“I don’t know anyone who doesn’t

know people who have died. I’ve been

following the funerals over Zoom.

There’s absolute devastation. Everyone

is affected. I wake up every morning

and check the family Whatsapp group

to make sure there isn’t more bad news.”

Unverified claims have been made

that British Muslims are also dying at a

disproportionate rate. There is per-

ceived to be a particular vulnerability

because many households are home to

three generations of the same family.

In an open letter, the Bima warned

that Muslims were at higher risk partly

because of an “increased incidence of

long-term illnesses such as diabetes

and high blood pressure”.

Other factors included an “elderly

population that often live with extend-

ed family”, regular gatherings and the

frequency of “handshaking and hug-

ging among congregants”.

There is also concern that govern-

ment advice restricting social contact

was slow to permeate some neighbour-

hoods. On March 16 the Muslim

Council of Britain issued a “strong

recommendation for Muslim commu-

nities to suspend all congregational

activities”. It said: “We all have a public

duty to protect one another from

harm.”

A day later Ephraim Mirvis, the Chief

Rabbi, announced the suspension of

the 120 synagogues that fall under his

aegis and urged the closure of all British

synagogues. His statement came on the

day that the Church of England and the

Methodist Church suspended their

congregational services.

Confusingly, leading scholars from

the Deobandi movement, which runs

hundreds of mosques and most UK

Islamic seminaries, advised on the

same day that mosques should stay

open, saying “the protection of faith

supersedes the protection of one’s self”.

It is understood that on March 20

hundreds of mosques opened their

doors for Friday prayers. The Times has

been told that a handful, including in

Manchester and Rochdale, even held

services on March 27, after the nation-

wide lockdown was imposed.

Ultra-Orthodox synagogues in

Stamford Hill, north London, were also

slow to follow the Chief Rabbi’s lead.

Their representative organisation is the

Union of Orthodox Hebrew Congrega-

tions (UOHC), which is not affiliated to

the mainstream Orthodox community.

Its synagogues remained open on

March 20 and 21 but have now closed.

The UOHC did not respond to a

request for comment.

In some quarters, including a minor-

ity within the Christian world, a belief

that faith will provide protection from

coronavirus poses an additional risk.

Volunteer army

called to action

by the sound of

paramedic siren

Purim brought Jews

together as infection

spread, highlighting the

risk to faith groups,

writes Andrew Norfolk