Latest updates: PM to make statement to MPs as defence review will lift cap on number of nuclear warheads
A total of 2,105 deaths registered in England and Wales in the week ending 5 March mentioned Covid-19 on the death certificate, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS) – the lowest number since the week ending November 6. As PA Media reports, the figure is down 28% on the previous week’s total.
Good morning. A year ago today Boris Johnson announced the “soft” lockdown, telling people to avoid non-essential contact and to work from home. The proper lockdown was announced a week later, on 23 March. To mark the anniversary, the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg has published an excellent long read revealing new details about how complacent and unprepared the government was in the very early days of the crisis. (More on that soon.) Today Johnson is publishing his long-awaited integrated review of defence and foreign policy and one of its functions is to ensure that, as the country faces other threats in the future, this time the government will be better prepared.
As my colleague Aubrey Allegretti reports, the review says another novel pandemic is a “realistic possibility”.
The Integrated Review warns COVID might not be the only pandemic this decade:
“Infectious disease outbreaks are likely to be more frequent to 2030. Many will be zoonoses… Another novel pandemic remains a realistic possibility.”
Infectious disease outbreaks are likely to be more frequent to 2030. Many will be zoonoses – diseases caused by viruses, bacteria or parasites that – spread from animals to humans – as population growth drives the intensification of agriculture and as the loss of habitats increases interaction between humans and animals. Another novel pandemic remains a realistic possibility. On current trends, global deaths related to antimicrobial resistance will rise from 700,000 to 20 million per year by 2050.
