Sick leave rules could be relaxed so workers can sign themselves off for a fortnight amid coronavirus fears, says Health Secretary Matt Hancock
- The government has unveiled its plan for dealing with a coronavirus escalation
- Matt Hancock said workers might be allowed to sign themselves off for fortnight
- Under current rules a doctor’s note is needed to be off for longer than a week
- The isolation period for coronavirus is 14 days meaning people might go to GP
Sick leave rules could be relaxed so workers can sign themselves off for a fortnight, Matt Hancock suggested today.
The Health Secretary said the government was looking at whether the current self-certification period should be doubled.
Under existing arrangements, workers must get a note from their doctor to be absent for more than a week.
The period includes weekends and bank holidays.
However, SNP MP Philippa Whitford pointed out in the Commons that the isolation period for those feared to be suffering coronavirus was a fortnight.
‘We do not want people turning up at a GP surgery halfway through that period,’ she said.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock said in the Commons today that the government was looking at whether the current self-certification period should be doubled
Mr Hancock replied: ‘She makes the point about seven-day certification. That is indeed the sort of reason that we are holding this area under review.
‘There is work ongoing, including on the points she raises.’
The move emerged after the government published its 28-page ‘battle plan’ in the ‘likely’ event that coronavirus spreads more widely in the UK.
It warned that up to a fifth of the population could be off work at the peak of a potential outbreak.
Police could ignore low-level crime and troops could be deployed on the streets as part of the three-month drive.
Patients not suffering from the disease could also be sent home from hospital, and local authorities will be helped with the ‘challenge’ of dealing with increasing numbers of deaths among the elderly and vulnerable.
Boris Johnson warned at a press conference that it was now ‘highly likely’ there would be a major outbreak of coronavirus in the UK. The threat was underlined this afternoon as it emerged the number of confirmed cases has jumped from 39 to 51 in the past day.
The PM said the government would take all ‘necessary and reasonable steps’, but appealed for the public to keep ‘going about our business as usual’.
Asked whether he thought the UK still had the ‘bulldog spirit’ to combat the virus, the premier said: ‘I do think that this is a national challenge. The potential is there for this to be something that our country has to get through.
‘But I have absolutely no doubt that we have the resources, we have the health service to get through it.’
The report stresses that the response is still in the ‘containment’ phase, with just 39 confirmed cases in this country so far. But expert fear that they will have to shift to ‘delay’ tactics – effectively damage limitation – within days or weeks after a rising infections across Europe.
A reasonable ‘worst case scenario’ would see 80 per cent of the UK population contract the virus, with up to a fifth of employees unable to work in ‘peak weeks’. Such an outbreak could take hold within weeks, and it would be three months before its highest point was reached.
Scientists are still hoping that if rapid spread can be staved off until the summer warmer weather will help, but are becoming increasingly pessimistic about the prospects of avoiding a major outbreak in the UK.
At a press conference today, Boris Johnson said the government would take all ‘necessary and reasonable steps’ to curb the impact of coronavirus