BBC News
Published
Nearly 20 major healthcare bodies are appealing to the PM for better personal protection against coronavirus.
They say at least 930 health and care workers have died of Covid-19 and more are experiencing long-term effects.
In a letter, they say measures to stop airborne spreading are inadequate and call for urgent improvement in masks and other defences against variants.
The government said it was monitoring evidence on airborne transmission and would update advice where necessary .
The organisations involved represent a wide range of health professionals, from doctors and nurses to dieticians and physiotherapists.
With health and care workers at three to four times greater risk of becoming infected than the general public, the plea to Boris Johnson is to make an urgent intervention to prevent further loss of life .
At the risk of sounding insufferably smug, I have to admit that lockdown, spent with my partner Catherine at our farmhouse in rural Northamptonshire, was a pleasure.
I enjoyed the pottering, the leisurely breakfasts; the sense that there was nothing pressing in my diary to propel me out of bed before the civilised hour of 9 am.
Actually, although Catherine may demur, it was a pleasure to see more of her.
I also started to think about the future, about encroaching old age when you re 76, it s a slow descent through twinges and aches until things start dropping off and about what I really wanted to do.