A laboratory technician uses a pipette device to process samples to test the new Covid-19 coronavirus, at the Biogroup Laboratory in west London, on January 21, 2021.
JUSTIN TALLIS | AFP | Getty Images
LONDON – The UK has set out plans to set up a new national health safety agency to plan, prevent and respond to “future external threats to health, such as infectious diseases”.
“The UK Health Security Agency” must lead protection against future threats to health and “ensure that the nation can respond quickly and on a larger scale to deal with pandemics and future threats,” the government announced on Wednesday. .
The agency will be run by Dr Jenny Harries, an official who has become a familiar face to the British public during the coronavirus pandemic as England’s deputy director general. Harries has often participated in televised briefings alongside government officials during the pandemic.
The UK reflected on a tough year of coronavirus blockages and losses on Tuesday, a year after the first blockade was imposed on March 23, 2020. Since then, more than 4.3 million people have contracted the virus. nationwide, with more than 125,000 dead, making it one of the most affected countries in the world.
A highlight has been the rapid launch of vaccinations in the country, which began in December. To date, more than 28.3 million adults in the UK have had the first dose of coronavirus vaccine. Last Saturday, 844,285 doses of record vaccines were delivered in a single day.
Health officials point out that there is no room for complacency despite the planned reduction in new restrictions on public life. More infectious variants of the virus are spreading around the world and the UK’s continental neighbors in continental Europe are also experiencing a third wave of infections.
As elsewhere, there is a consensus among UK officials that the country needs to be better prepared to deal with any future pandemic and what it will call “external” health threats.
UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock said he wants “everyone at UKHSA, at all levels, to wake up every day with a zeal to plan the next pandemic”. Covid-19, he said, had “demonstrated that the challenges of protecting the nation’s health change at an unprecedented rate, as new types of threats emerge.”
The government said the new body, which will come into force in April, replacing the National Institutes of Health Protection, will be “the British leader in health security, which will provide intellectual, scientific and operational leadership. at the national and local levels, as well as on the global stage. “
The UKHSA’s main goal in its early stages will be the continued fight against the coronavirus pandemic, the government said. It will also continue to bring together agencies and experience that have been deployed during the coronavirus crisis, such as the UK’s respected genomic surveillance capabilities and its contact tracking network.