Coronavirus: Government Thanks Broadband Providers, As 563 Died In One Day

Tom Jowitt,
coronavirus Image credit: World Health Organisation

During daily Coronavirus briefing, government thanks the business community for its response, as 563 die in a single day from Covid-19

The British Government’s daily briefing on the Coronavirus pandemic has revealed that 563 people have died from Covid-19 as of 1 April 2020.

The deaths include a “healthy” 13 year old boy, and a retired doctor, who had returned to help the NHS fight the pandemic. Total deaths in the UK as of Wednesday is 2,352 people.

Business secretary Alok Sharma during the opportunity during the briefing to thank the business community for their response to the pandemic.

Novel coronavirus. Image credit: CDCC
Image credit: CDCC

Tech help

He cited formula one teams such as Mercedes building a breathing aid for Coronavirus patients.

Last week the Government ordered 10,000 ventilators from Dyson, providing their design passes the suitable testing.

But Sharma also took the opportunity to thanks broadband providers in the UK for lifting data caps whilst people self-isolate at home.

Earlier this week data caps for home fixed-line broadband packages were removed, after an agreement was reached with many of the UK’s leading Internet Service Providers (ISPs).

That removal came as the Prime Minister Boris Johnson ordered a lock-down in the UK on 22 March, initially lasting for three weeks, in order to get people to stay at home to halt the spread of the Coronavirus pandemic.

Bandwidth worries

Last week Openreach declared a ‘Matter Beyond Our Reasonable Control’ (MBORC) on all products, effective 24th March.

This means that its engineers will avoid entering customer premises for new broadband connections, and will now prioritise only the essential work to maintain the network.

The move comes amid concerns about bandwidth during the Coronavirus pandemic.

This has led to major streaming platforms including Netflix, Amazon, YouTube, Facebook and Disney to lower the quality of their video content to ease bandwidth concerns expressed by some officials.

Since the public emergency caused by the pandemic, BT has maintained that there is plenty of capacity in the UK’s networks.

Meanwhile BT chief executive Philip Jansen recently confirmed he had been diagnosed with Covid-19 (Coronavirus) and has gone into self-isolation.broadba

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