LONDON – Worried lawmakers believe that the 19th-century British parliamentary palace, its grand offices and wood-panelled meeting rooms are ill-equipped to deal with coronavirus.
Efforts are being made by the government to contain coronavirus spread; however, the current infected count in the country stands at 85.
On Tuesday, Britain elaborated on an action plan on how the country intends on coping with a widespread outbreak of the coronavirus.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson advised the citizens to wash their hands more often.
Lawmakers have expressed their concerns regarding the greater risks that the dilapidated facilities in the parliament posed, making even following basic prevention advice difficult.
“Parliament seems hopelessly ill-prepared. There are toilets where the towels ran out days ago, toilets with no soap or sanitizer, one men’s toilet where one of the two sinks has not worked for a decade.”
– Chris Bryant, lawmaker working in the British Parliament
The ornate debating chamber in the Parliament with lush green leather benches masks the wider estate coping to the demands of the thousand or more employees working daily there- lawmakers, researchers, journalists, cooks and cleaners.
A multi-billion pound renovation is due- the toilets are out of order most of the time, temperamental heating is commonplace in the offices and most of the doors in the building’s oldest part can only be opened on pressing a button or twisting a metallic doorknob.
A staff member was spotted wearing rubber gloves and cleaning door handles.
PREVENTION IS BETTER
On Wednesday, a lawmaker asked Prime Minister Boris Johnson if the parliament was thinking od introducing conference calls and electronic voting if the situation gets worse.
“We are still at the containment stage … when we come to the ‘delay’ phase she will be hearing a lot more detail about what we propose to do with large gatherings and places such as parliament.”
– Boris Johnson
When questioned on if there was a specific contingency plan in place, Johnson’s spokesman stated that ongoing discussions were happening with parliamentary authorities and medical experts.
Public Health England’s guidance was to be continued to be followed and the situation was under close monitoring.
A few hand-sanitiser points had been installed around the parliament. However, lawmaker Geraint Davies was concerned about how the number of places where the gel was available seemed to be insufficient.
“There’s lots of people walking through the corridors all the time, touching the same doors and shaking hands – there should be hand-sanitizers all along those corridors. The nature of parliamentarians is that we arrive every week, converging from every corner of the country, we all mix together with lots of other people and then we disperse back to our constituencies and meet lots of other people. There’s a particular responsibility for parliamentarians to take some leadership.”
– Geraint Davies, lawmaker working in the British Parliament
(Photos syndicated via Reuters)
This story has been edited by BH staff and is published from a syndicated field.