Coronavirus: UK Health Secretary says NHS to cancel, delay non-emergency operations

The UK NHS is calling off all non-emergency perorations to free up resources to tackle the coronavirus pandemic, UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock said. Photo / 123RF

The UK NHS is calling off all non-emergency operations to free up resources to tackle the coronavirus pandemic, UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock said.

Making a statement in the Commons on the coronavirus outbreak, Matt Hancock said the pandemic is "the most serious public health emergency that our nation has faced for a generation".

The UK NHS is calling off all non-emergency perorations to free up resources to tackle the coronavirus pandemic, UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock said. Photo / 123RF

"We will be cancelling or postponing non-time-sensitive elective surgery and the NHS will make a statement about this later today."

He added that the Government "absolutely will" publish the science and the modelling.

"We are reliant on those who work in the NHS and thanks to the NHS we are as well prepared as any nation can be and by some measures the best prepared for this stage of the spread of a virus," he added.

"So we are increasing the number of ventilators. We've been buying ventilators for several weeks now but we also need to manufacture more and as we've discussed in the House.

"As he knows we have ensured that we can use all hospital capabilities in this country, public or private and bring that to the task."

He also announced that 53 people have died in England.

Meanwhile, there has been one death in Wales and one in Scotland, bringing the total death toll to 55.

The total number of cases in the UK is 1543.

"The measures that I've just outlined are unprecedented in peacetime," he said.

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"We will fight this virus with everything we've got.

"We are in a war against an invisible killer and we've got to do everything we can to stop it."