Our Reporter
BRITAIN is working on emergency laws to tackle coronavirus after the outbreak claimed its first British life on Friday.
The new measures will be unveiled later this week to keep public services and the transport network running should the crisis worsen, according to the Mail of London.
They include laws to suspend maximum class sizes to allow teachers to take on pupils when colleagues are off sick. Lessons could take place outside schools.
Ministers are also considering suspending laws that limit lorry drivers to 56 hours a week to stop supply chains collapsing if sickness levels rise. In a ‘worst case scenario’, military doctors could help in NHS hospitals.
As the crisis showed no sign of slowing yesterday, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said coronavirus was now the Government’s ‘top priority’, while plans were drawn up for a new morgue in tents in London’s Hyde Park in the case of a major epidemic.
Besides, more than 1,000 workers at the London offices of law firm Baker McKenzie were sent home after an employee returning from Italy fell ill.
Johnson has already taken personal on Thursday night to discuss contingency plans and will chair a meeting of the Government’s emergency Cobra committee tomorrow.
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