the times | Thursday October 15 2020 2GM 9
News
Students face a fortnight of online-only
teaching if they want to go home for
Christmas under plans being consid-
ered by ministers.
Gavin Williamson, the education
secretary, said at the end of last month
that students in areas with high infec-
tion rates would need to isolate for two
weeks before the end of term.
Under the proposal ministers would
ask universities in England to keep stu-
dents off campus for a fortnight from
December 8, The Guardian has suggest-
ed. The move is designed to deliver on
Boris Johnson’s pledge “to get students
home safely for Christmas”.
In some university cities, infection
rates are higher among students than
locals.
Michelle Donelan, the universities
minister for England, is expected to
meet university leaders today to discuss
the plan. However, vice-chancellors
said they did not have the power to con-
fine students and feared that the two-
week period would lead to a rise in Cov-
id-19 cases if students had little to do
other than socialise.
Mr Williamson promised in the
Commons two weeks ago that students
will be able to go home for Christmas.
He said that some would self-isolate
before the Christmas break and finish
their studies early to make sure they
could return to their families.
He said: “I know this will not be the
restart [of term] any of them expected.
When we are living in a global pan-
demic, we have to operate in a society
with restrictions.
“We are going to work with universi-
ties to make sure that all students are
supported to return home safely and
spend Christmas with their loved ones,
if they choose to do so.”Travellers will still have to
quarantine despite testing
are down by as much as 90 per cent
since March. Mark Tanzer, ABTA’s
chief executive, said that at least 20
travel companies with UK operations
had collapsed in the past seven months.
The taskforce will report back to the
prime minister next month and a test-
ing regime could be in place by the end
of the year. It will be made up solely of
representatives from 12 government
departments and quangos, with no-
body from the travel industry.
One travel boss said: “There is clearly
the need for balance. There is room to
challenge [the agenda] constructively
and allowing someone within the travel
industry, who understands its unique
challenges, on to the taskforce is vital.”
The industry favours a system of tests
before passengers depart for the UK.
Alternatively, calls have been made for
a single test on arrival or soon after to
minimise the two-week quarantine
period. Heathrow has already set up
testing facilities to screen arrivals.
Mr Shapps said that arrivals into the
UK would be required to quarantine for
at least a week before being tested for
the virus. He reiterated that asympto-
matic passengers would not be identi-
fied by tests taken just after landing.
Under the proposals, travellers
would have to sit the test in person after
a week, and analysis would be carried
out at a private lab at the traveller’s
expense — about £150 — to avoid over-
loading the NHS.Travellers arriving in the UK will still be
required to quarantine for a week under
a coronavirus-testing regime being
drawn up by the government, accord-
ing to the transport secretary.
Grant Shapps said that a single test
would be taken “about a week” after
people arrived from high-risk countries
as part of “test and release” proposals to
be submitted to the prime minister.
He ruled out testing passengers at
airports after they had landed, saying
he was certain that this would allow
many asymptomatic people to spread
the virus. A similar system has been put
in place by at least 30 countries.
Addressing the Association of British
Travel Agents (ABTA), Mr Shapps con-
firmed that the UK was considering
trial schemes with countries that would
require passengers to isolate and be
tested before travel. This could ulti-
mately require no quarantine in the
UK, he said.
Last week the government set up a
taskforce to create a testing regime to
open up the UK to international travel.
At present arrivals from places with
high levels of Covid-19 have to isolate
for two weeks. This includes returning
British holidaymakers.
The measures have been condemned
by the travel industry, where bookingsGraeme Paton
Transport Correspondent
Ben Clatworthy Assistant Travel EditorAn intensive care doctor treating coro-
navirus patients claimed the health
service was “better prepared for the
first surge” as hospital admissions
continue to rise.
He also voiced his frustration that
people were not taking the virus seri-
ously enough or did not understand the
severity of the situation in hospitals.
“Before the first peak, elective sur-
gery was curtailed so the hospital was
pretty empty, staff were redeployed,
and this time, there was no real curtail-
ment of any elective work,” said the
doctor, who works at the Royal Liver-
pool Hospital and asked not to be
named. “We went into the second surge
already quite busy. It didn’t take long for
the hospital to fill up.”
Paul Brand, the Liverpool council
cabinet member for adult social care
and health, said the city’s intensive care
units were more than 90 per cent full.
The city is soon expected to reach
levels of bed occupancy seen during the
first wave of Covid-19.
“My biggest concern is that people
are not getting the whole story,” the
doctor told The Times. “We are still
hearing indirectly through members of
the public, ‘what’s the problem’, ‘isn’t it
just like flu’.”
“I do understand that people are con-
cerned about their businesses. But I
don’t think people are getting what a
big threat this is to health and what’s
going on in the hospitals.” He added: “IElderly patients who test positive for
coronavirus will have be sent to special-
ist care homes, ministers have said.
The Department of Health is to set
up about 500 coronavirus care homes,
at least one in every local area, as part of
a winter campaign.
Concerns were raised last night that
the plans could risk trapping the elderly
in deadly environments families would
be denied a say in where their family
members were sent or be able to check
the housing conditions.
Residents will have to stay at the
facility until an isolation period is com-
pleted and they test negative for the
virus.
The Care Quality Commission regu-
lator has been instructed to be ready to
inspect the specialist homes. It is likely
that areas of the country designated as
Tier 2 and Tier 3 lockdown areas will be
prioritised for the homes.
A letter sent by Tom Surrey, a De-
partment of Health official, to NHS
bosses and social services said: “Any-
one with a Covid-19 positive test result
being discharged into or back into a
registered care home setting must be
discharged into an appropriate desig-
nated setting and cared for there for the
remainder of the... isolation period.”
The initiative has been ordered by
Matt Hancock, the health secretary,
who has ringfenced £588 million for it.News
Isolation may save
students’ Christmas
As of yesterday, 113 universities in the
UK had reported coronavirus cases,
about 85 per cent of the total.
Lecturers have called for all teaching
to be online. Jo Grady, general secre-
tary of the University and College
Union, said recently: “Ministers were
given clear recommendations on how
to stem the spread of the virus before
term started at the vast majority of
universities.
“They could have taken swift and
decisive action then and instructed uni-
versities to move their teaching online
to mitigate against tens of thousands of
students moving across the country.
“The chaos we see on campus and in
halls of residence now is a direct result
of ministers’ decision to ignore that
advice and choose to put the health of
university staff, students and local
communities at risk.
“To stop more areas being forced into
harsher restrictions, we need a nation-
ally co-ordinated response from gov-
ernment that belatedly moves working
online at universities.
“Students must be allowed to return
home if they wish, provided it is safe to
do so.”
The Department for Education said:
“All students will be able to go home at
Christmas if they so choose. However, if
students are travelling home, we must
ensure they do so in a way which mini-
mises the risks of spreading the virus,
and the date when universities must
stop in-person teaching will be an
important part of this. We will set out
details on this shortly.
“We have issued clear guidance
setting out four tiers of restrictions for
education settings, and continue to
work closely with universities and
public health officials to make decisions
about what measures need to be
applied to respond appropriately to the
situation locally.”Nicola Woolcock
Education CorrespondentMOLLY DARLINGTON/REUTERS; CHRISTOPHER FURLONG/GETTY IMAGESavoid more ‘division’
We were better prepared
last time, doctor warns
would really like the message out there
that Covid is serious in Liverpool, it’s
here, people are dying from it and it’s
getting worse.”
He said Tier 3 restrictions came too
late “and are probably not enough”.
Joe Anderson, the mayor of Liver-
pool, said: “I’ve had contact from many
people who work in our NHS. They are
telling me that they are overwhelmed,
that they know that the hospital is
really struggling to cope, that around
20 per cent of staff are off ill.”
He has spoken to the Liverpool Uni-
versity Hospitals Foundation Trust
regarding the release of more figures
and information.
Calum Semple, professor of outbreak
medicine at the University of Liverpool
and a member of the Scientific Adviso-
ry Group for Emergencies (Sage), said
in a video issued by Liverpool city
council that “we are looking at exceed-
ing healthcare capacity in the next
week or so”.
Steve Rotheram, the mayor of the
Liverpool City Region, said the Night-
ingale Hospital for the North West, in
Manchester, was on standby.
Research by the Society for Acute
Medicine has found that three quarters
of staff in urgent and acute care believe
hospitals are not prepared to cope over
the next six months. Seventy per cent of
society members said they would not be
able to provide the level of care they
would want to over that period.
NHS sources pointed out that more
is known about the virus, effects and
drugs than at the start of the first peak.Charlotte Wace
Northern CorrespondentSpecial homes
to take elderly
with virus
Hannah Mays