Face masks during the Covid pandemic (Image: Getty)
Thousands of health workers, police and local officials across the UK will take part in a massive nationwide exercise to prepare for another -style pandemic.
And 87 million people phones will get a test emergency message as the UK prepares for another crisis
The Government says it is determined to be ready if a health disaster hits a second time. Pat McFadden, the Cabinet Minister in charge, said: “We must learn lessons from the pandemic as we cannot afford to make the same mistakes again.”
England, Scotland and Wales will all be involved, including the devolved adminsitrations and local councils. The exercise will be led by senior government ministers and take place on different days over several months in the Autumn.
The aim is to identify what is working well and what needs to be improved, as reccomended by the official inquiry which is still ongoing.
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Mr McFadden said: “We will plan in a way that recognises the next crisis may not be the same as the last.
“We agree with the Inquiry that more needs to be done and are announcing measures to make sure that we are as prepared as possible for future pandemics.
“These changes will improve our resilience and preparedness and help to safeguard our citizens.”
In addition, the Government is will train 4,000 people in emergency and “resilience” roles, such as people involved in the energy industry or public transport, to ensure they are ready for a range of crises including a new pandemic.
And there will be anoyther national test of the Emergency Alert System later in 2025 – which means people willl receive a test emergency message on mobile phones.
While the system has been deployed successfully four times since launching in 2023, the national test will ensure the system is functioning correctly, should it need to be deployed in an emergency. Regular testing will ensure the UK remains in line with other countries that test similar systems on a regular basis.
The exact date of the test will be announced latyer and will see every phone in the country, approximately 87 million devices, receive a test message similar to the previous test in April 2023. The test will be advertised widely in advance.
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Shadow cabinet office minister Richard Holden said the Government’s pandemic preparedness exercise needs to “acknowledge the risks we will face going forwards will be dynamic”.
He told MPs: “The Government has identified a number of overarching implementations from the module recommendations, we are broadly supportive of the Government’s direction.
“It is, as the inquiry report notes, important to strengthen both cross governmental communication and data sharing, and also communication and coordination between devolved administrations.”
He added: “I appreciate the Government is planning a full pandemic exercise for this year, but also acknowledge the risks we will face going forwards will be dynamic, and that’s an important point that we need to recognise, because we do not know what the future will hold.
“So I hope that the pandemic exercise will involve cross cutting segments of microbial resistance and technology infrastructure as well, which we know are going to be some of the key challenges that continue to grow in importance for the future.”
Cabinet Office minister Pat McFadden replied: “(Mr Holden) is right to say that the future may not be the same as the past, and that’s why flexibility has to be built into all of this.”