Журнал. World association for medical law. The COVID-19 pandemic. Volume 39 2

354 Medicine and Law This paper will consider the initial steps taken by the UK government to slow down the spread of the disease; it will then evaluate the quickly drafted Coronavirus Act 2020 and finish with an evaluation of the system’s failures and successes that have been revealed by the pandemic, in particular, challenges in the protection of healthcare workers, the vulnerabilities of non- hospital based healthcare provision and the potentially discriminatory nature of the legislation and its implementation. A National Emergency and the Ethics of Pandemics Public health rests on a moral mandate. 2 In the UK, as of the 11 th May 2020, there were 220,449 cases with 32,065 deaths. 3 Testing has proven problematic with many keyworkers and those reporting some symptoms of the virus not being tested. The above figures therefore reflect confirmed cases only and it is thought that the number of those suffering from the virus may be significantly higher. 4 The UK is currently struggling with the demands placed upon it to test for the virus, only managing to test around 10,000 people a day. If the UK cannot improve its testing capability, it will be very difficult to identify and contain the virus. It will also be impossible to effectively know when people can return to their normal lives, to go back to work and school and to jump- start the economy once again. The public health crisis has placed all countries in the challenging position of having to balance the rights of all to protection from risk while also 2 Thomas, J. Sage, M., Dillenberg, J., Guillory, V.J. (2002) A Code of Ethics for Public Health. American Journal of Public Health. 92(7) 1057–1059. doi: 10.2105/ajph.92.7.1057 DO, MPH 3 Department of Health and Social Care, (2020). Coronavirus (COVID-19) in the UK. Available at: https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/?_ga=2.114658565.344234040.1587538123- 761343013.1587538123 (Accessed: 11/05/2020) 4 Data on UK death rates are problematic. The data only include deaths that occurred within hospital and where there was a positive COVID-19 test at the time of death. These figures do not include deaths outside hospital, for example, those that occur in care homes. However, the daily death toll from Covid-19 in care homes began to be issued daily from the 29 th April. Interpretation of the figures should also take into account the fact that confirmation of COVID-19 diagnosis, death notification and reporting in central figures can take up to several days and the hospitals providing the data are under significant operational pressure. This approach makes it impossible to compile deaths data on a daily basis using up-to- date figures. See, https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/COVID-19- daily-deaths/ (Accessed: 10/05/2020)