Evening summary
- More than 20,000 people have now died in UK hospitals after testing positive for coronavirus, making the country the fifth in the world to pass that grim milestone. Following a rise of 813 deaths since the number announced on Friday, the total now stands at 20,319, almost six weeks after the chief scientific adviser, Sir Patrick Vallance, said on 17 March that keeping the toll under 20,000 would be “a good outcome in terms of where we would hope to get”.
- The government is not going to give a date for schools reopening or more general relaxing of lockdown rules until the five tests are met, Priti Patel said. The home secretary said it would be “irresponsible” to get people’s hopes up as this is still a dangerous time for the country, and tests including a decline in the death rate and not risking a second surge in infections. The tests, previously laid out by the foreign secretary, Dominic Raab, and the education secretary, Gavin Williamson, are: to protect the NHS’s ability to cope with coronavirus cases, to see a consistent fall in the daily death rate, to produce reliable data on infection and death rates, to be confident that testing and PPE are being managed properly, and to not risk a second peak of infections.
- Test slots and testing kits for key workers and their households ran out for a second day in a row in England and Wales. The BBC reported that home testing kits ran out within 15 minutes and test slots were fully booked by 10am. A spokesman for the Department of Health and Social Care said more would be available by 8am on Sunday.
- A campaign was launched in England to urge people seriously ill with non-coronavirus conditions to seek medical help if they need it. Sir Simon Stevens, chief executive of NHS England, stressed that the health service is still there for patients without coronavirus who needed urgent and emergency services for stroke, heart attack, and other often fatal conditions. The campaign urges people to contact their GP or NHS 111 as they normally would, or to dial 999 in an emergency.
As ever, thank you to everybody who got in touch throughout the day with tips and suggestions. That’s it for today from us on the UK side, but you can continue to follow the Guardian’s coverage of the pandemic over on the global live blog.
Updated
As UK universities face huge losses due to the coronavirus pandemic, experts have warned they need to spend hundreds of millions of pounds to shift their degrees online.
Only around 20 universities are in a position to provide a good range of high-quality online courses by the new academic year in September, according to Prof Sir Tim O’Shea, the former vice-chancellor of Edinburgh University. Some of the country’s top-ranked Russell Group institutions, including Oxford and Cambridge, were not in that category, he added.
The warning comes as the sector seeks to attract and retain students already deterred from starting or continuing degrees next year, with physical distancing likely to mean lecture theatres and campus bars are closed.
Most universities would face costs of at least £10m to create five or six new online degrees in different faculties, said O’Shea, a leading expert on computer-based learning. This would total well over £1bn across the sector.
Durham University this week retracted controversial plans to deliver online-only degrees after protests by students and lecturers. Meanwhile, the vice-chancellor of Manchester University said it was preparing to expand its online courses to offset a predicted £270m loss next year.
Updated
It would be irresponsible to give a date for relaxing restrictions – Patel
Q. Parents are trying to juggle childcare with work as schools are closed and the economy has to keep running, do you sympathise with them?
Priti Patel says these are very difficult and unusual times. She pays tribute to schools, especially teachers and headteachers, staying open for children of key workers.
The five tests will have to be met before schools can reopen, she adds. The tests, previously laid out by Dominic Raab and Gavin Williamson, are: to protect the NHS’s ability to cope with coronavirus cases, to see a consistent fall in the daily death rate, to produce reliable data on infection and death rates, to be confident that testing and PPE are being managed properly, and to not risk a second peak of infections.
Q. There was much debate about the timing of entering the lockdown. What was the point of delaying it if it’s going to go on and on?
Patel says this isn’t a binary choice. We can’t just remove restrictions and move back to how things were, she says.
She says she cannot give a date for when it will end and when schools and businesses can reopen. That would be irresponsible and get hopes up, she says.
Prof Stephen Powis says the timing was a really difficult decision, particularly regarding economic harm as a result of a lockdown.
And that’s the end of today’s press conference.
Updated
Q. The Royal College of Surgeons says the backlog of cancelled operations could take five years to clear – is that the timescale you’re working on and how many lives do you estimate these delays will cost?
Priti Patel says decisions about prioritisation of treatments will be based on resources and capacity in the NHS.
Prof Stephen Powis adds that elective surgery had to be stepped down in order to cope in the surge in patients with coronavirus. As soon as we can, we want to step that back up again, he says.
Q. When Dominic Cummings attended Sage, did he ever say anything and if so, what?
Prof Stephen Powis says he has been participating since towards the end of February. His experience of Sage is that it has been about scientists and science, with experts from a variety of disciplines.
It is a scientific discussion between scientific advisers in his experience, he says. The contributions and advice goes from the scientific experts in that group to the government.
He does not comment on Cummings.
Updated
Q. Regarding the rise in motor vehicle use, is the government sending out mixed messages by telling people to stay at home while also allowing non-essential work to take place?
Prit Patel says that if you can’t work from home, you can go to work as long as physical distancing is practised.
She says she understands it is frustrating being at home for five weeks, but physical distancing will continue to be vital in the future.
Q. Why can’t households be extended to a small group rather than just people living under the same roof?
Prof Stephen Powis says the virus can spread from household to household, so the purpose of the lockdown was to disrupt that chain of transmission.
I think we’d all be disappointed if we forfeited those gains by allowing chains of transmission to start to be re-established, because then we would start going backwards.
Updated
Q. When do you expect the peak to come in care homes?
Prof Stephen Powis says that all along they have tried to resist predicting when the peak will come.
With care homes, Public Health England is assisting when outbreaks occur and the government is increasing testing.
Q. Doctors and nurses coming into the country have to pay a surcharge for themselves and their families – isn’t it time to scrap it?
Priti Patel says a range of measures are under review.
Updated
They are taking questions from the media now.
Q. You said weeks ago the UK will have done well if the death rate stayed below 20,000. We have passed that number now – does this mean the strategy should have been different?
Prof Stephen Powis says every death is tragic and his heart goes out to their loved ones.
This is a once-in-a-century global crisis, he says, and there were bound to be challenges. Even countries who got on top of it early on are starting to see new infections. This will continue to be something we work through in the months ahead – a sprint not a marathon, he adds.
Moving past this milestone shows it is still absolutely critical to follow physical distancing guidelines, he says, because we are seeing benefits and this will only continue if we keep doing that.
Priti Patel adds that we are not out of the woods yet, despite the fact we’re making progress.
This is a deeply tragic and moving moment.
Q. Are you able to envisage relaxing any of the lockdown measures now?
Patel says it isn’t optional that the five tests have to be met, so the science can judge when we can revise the measures.
It is not now, she says. We need people to continue.
Updated
Prof Stephen Powis says the number of new cases diagnosed by testing is reasonably stable. With the number of tests expanding, we can expect to see a rise in new cases, but it is fairly stable for now.
There is a sustained reduction in the number of people being treated in hospitals, particularly in London and beginning in other parts of the country, he says.
He says the number of patients in critical care is starting to decline, although that will lag behind the overall number of admissions to hospitals.
A new line for Northern Ireland has been introduced, showing new data that is not currently comparable with the other data as it is cumulative rather than daily, he adds.
The number of deaths is showing a trend towards a decline, which will occur later than the trend in hospital admissions and critical care.
If we continue to adhere to physical distancing we will begin to see a decline in deaths, he says.
Updated
Powis says transport use continues to fall across public transport and roads. There is concern that motor vehicle use is starting to rise again.
Data from Apple Maps shows a decrease since lockdown in requests for walking, driving or public transport directions.
He says it’s tempting to go out in warm, sunny weather, but he can’t emphasise enough that we are not through this yet and it’s critical people continue to comply with physical distancing measures.
It would be foolish and not right if we lost the benefits we’ve gained over the last four weeks, which have been hard for everybody.
Prof Stephen Powis is speaking now.
The NHS has not been overwhelmed and has capacity to cope, he says.
He reminds people the NHS is still available for treatment of conditions that are not related to coronavirus, including sick children, pregnant women, and those who fear they may be suffering from stroke or heart conditions.
Call 111, contact your GP or dial 999 in a real emergency, he reminds everyone.
Fast diagnosis and treatment is absolutely crucial, he says, so do not delay. The NHS is still there for you.
Updated
Lynne Owens says thinkyouknow.co.uk has materials and details to help protect children online.
Fraudsters target members of the public by phone, text and email with scams relating to fake prescription drugs, she says.
She urges the public to exercise caution and report anything suspicious to your bank and to Action Fraud.
Updated
Lynne Owens is speaking now.
Criminals have adapted to this situation but so has law enforcement, she says.
Serious and organised criminals are looking to take advantage of these unprecedented times – they are “amoral, corrupt and exploitative”, she says.
Offenders are trying to avoid lockdown rules to continue illicit activities, she says.
More than 2,000 scams relating to coronavirus have been taken down online, including fake shops, phishing scams, and the selling of fake testing kits and PPE, she says.
Updated
Priti Patel says staying at home for almost five weeks has been tough for many.
Every single person across the UK has given up a great deal, she says.
Our efforts are working and your sacrifices are saving lives, she says.
It’s imperative that people continue to follow the rules designed to protect their loved ones, she adds. We all want to return to normal as soon and as safely as we can, Patel says.
The five tests must first be met, she says. These five conditions under which the lockdown might be eased were set out by Dominic Raab earlier this month.
Updated
Patel says criminals will not be allowed to take advantage of these unprecedented times.
Crime has fallen compared to the same period last year.
However, she says criminals continue to capitalise on this crisis. Law enforcement is on to you, she tells them.
Updated
Priti Patel says the entire nation is grieving as the UK passes another significant milestone.
She pays tribute to frontline workers whose exceptional public service and sacrifice, she says, will not be forgotten.
Updated
The home secretary is speaking now.
As of 9am, 640,792 tests have now been carried out in the UK, including 28,760 yesterday.
148,377 people have tested positive, an increase of 4,913 cases since yesterday.
16,411 people are currently in hospital with coronavirus, down from 17,049 yesterday.
Of those in hospital, 20,319 have died, an increase of 813 fatalities since yesterday.
Updated
Priti Patel's press conference
The government’s daily coronavirus news briefing is due to start shortly and will be led for the second time by the home secretary, Priti Patel.
She will be joined by Prof Stephen Powis, the national medical director for NHS England, and Lynne Owens, the director-general of the National Crime Agency.
Updated
Here is some much-needed joy.
A six-month-old “miracle baby” born with a heart condition has recovered from coronavirus. Nurses clapped and cheered through tears as baby Erin was moved out of isolation at Alder Hey hospital having tested positive two weeks ago.
She remains in the Merseyside hospital for treatment for other ongoing conditions but is doing well, staff said.
The Liverpool Echo has the story.
6 month old Erin 👶 was recently diagnosed with #COVID19 and was in an isolation room here for 14 days with mum Emma whilst being treated 🏥 Today, Erin beat COVID-19 & received a guard of honour by the treating team on our HDU as she was moved out of isolation 👏👏👏 pic.twitter.com/hiYQFEaLmF
— 🏥 Alder Hey 🌳 (@AlderHey) April 24, 2020
Erin’s mum said of our staff; 🗣 “Thank you so much to each and every one of them, we couldn’t have got through it without them. They are all truly amazing and we will be forever grateful” ❤️❤️ Erin is still being treated for other conditions here, but is making good progress ✅
— 🏥 Alder Hey 🌳 (@AlderHey) April 24, 2020
Updated
More than 20,000 people have now died in UK hospitals with coronavirus
A further 813 people have died in hospital after testing positive for Covid-19, taking the UK total to 20,319.
It comes almost six weeks after the chief scientific adviser Patrick Vallance said on 17 March that keeping the toll under 20,000 would be “a good outcome in terms of where we would hope to get”.
As of 9am 25 April, 640,792 tests have concluded, with 28,760 tests on 24 April.
— Department of Health and Social Care (@DHSCgovuk) April 25, 2020
517,836 people have been tested of which 148,377 tested positive.
As of 5pm on 24 April, of those hospitalised in the UK who tested positive for coronavirus, 20,319 have sadly died. pic.twitter.com/5HLhOFWdlu
Updated
Another 16 patients die in Northern Ireland taking total to 294
Northern Ireland has confirmed a further 16 patients have died after testing positive for Covid-19, taking the total there to 294.
Another 104 patients have tested positive, taking the total number of positive cases to 3,226.
UPDATE on coronavirus (#COVID19) in NI. pic.twitter.com/IKO9wTdtoa
— Department of Health (@healthdpt) April 25, 2020
Updated
The public in Wales are getting used to stricter regulations about leaving their homes as they spend their fifth weekend under lockdown.
Revised restrictions which came into force on Saturday across Wales tell people they must exercise “as close as possible” to home.
While parts of the country enjoyed the warm weather, police were continuing to carry out patrols to enforce the stay-at-home rules.
Dyfed-Powys police said there had been reports of an increase in traffic in Montgomeryshire and checks would be carried out throughout the weekend.
In Gwent, officers described it is “unacceptable” that people drove nearly 12 miles from Newport to the blue lagoon at Pantygasseg.
Police in Swansea also questioned whether it was necessary to queue up to enter the B&Q store at the Morfa retail park.
Cyclists are being told they should travel no farther than a “reasonable walking distance from home”.
The legal guidance states people should not drive to exercise unless absolutely necessary but people with disabilities can exercise more than once a day.
The changes were announced by the Welsh government alongside a three-phase “traffic light” system to lift Wales out of lockdown. The first minister Mark Drakeford denied his government’s plan means Wales is moving away from an all-UK approach to ending the lockdown.
Updated
England records another 711 hospital deaths as total rises to 18,084
NHS England has announced a further 711 deaths in hospital of people who tested positive for Covid-19, bringing the total to 18,084.
Of the 711 new deaths announced today, 105 occurred on 24 April, 236 on 23 April and 66 on 22 April.
The figures also show that 235 of the new deaths took place between 1 and 21 April while the remaining 69 deaths occurred in March, with the earliest new death taking place on 11 March.
NHS England releases updated figures each day showing the dates of every coronavirus-related death in hospitals in England, often including previously uncounted deaths that took place several days or even weeks ago. This is because of the time it takes for deaths to be confirmed as testing positive for Covid-19, for postmortem examinations to be processed and for data from the tests to be validated.
The figures published by NHS England show 8 April continues to have the highest number for the most hospital deaths occurring on a single day, with a current total of 855.
Updated
Deaths in Scotland rise by 47 to 1,231
A total of 1,231 patients have died in Scotland after testing positive for Covid-19, a rise of 47 from 1,184 on Friday, the Scottish government has confirmed.
The number of people who have tested positive is 10,051, up 354 from Friday’s figure of 9,697.
The figures published on the government’s website confirmed 1,748 patients were in hospital with confirmed or suspected Covid-19, a rise of 38 from 1,710 the previous day, 140 of whom were in intensive care, down one.
Updated
Further 23 deaths in Wales bring total to 774
A further 23 people have died after testing positive for coronavirus in Wales, taking the total to 774, health officials said.
Public Health Wales said following data cleaning, 22 previously reported deaths which did not have a positive test result have been removed.
A further 299 people have tested positive for Covid-19, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to 8,900.
Dr Chris Williams of Public Health Wales, said:
Based on the new case numbers there is emerging evidence suggesting a levelling-off in the number of new cases of Covid-19 in Wales, which may be an indication of the effectiveness of lockdown measures.
However, it is still too early to tell for sure, and it is too soon to end the current social distancing rules.
Public Health Wales continues to fully support the extension of lockdown measures, which is essential to avoid reversing the gains we have made in slowing the spread of this virus, protecting our NHS and saving lives.
(1/2) The latest number of confirmed cases of Coronavirus in Wales have been updated.
— Public Health Wales (@PublicHealthW) April 25, 2020
Data dashboard:
💻https://t.co/RwgHDufHE7
📱https://t.co/P6UF1MTOwc
Find out how we are working with our partners to respond to the spread of the virus here: https://t.co/1Lza9meaTL pic.twitter.com/x6DcJxIbBq
(2/2) Please note that following data cleaning, we have today (25 April 2020) removed 22 previously reported deaths which do not have a positive test result.
— Public Health Wales (@PublicHealthW) April 25, 2020
Updated
The mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has urged the government to advise the public to wear “non-medical face coverings” in environments where it is difficult to maintain a safe distance from others.
Evidence suggests that wearing face coverings helps slow the spread of #COVID19.
— Mayor of London (gov.uk/coronavirus) (@MayorofLondon) April 25, 2020
It’s clear to me what needs to happen now. The Government should advise the public to wear non-medical face coverings when it's hard to keep a safe distance from others. https://t.co/Jx2Ff4ngZV
Updated
The former Brexit secretary David Davis has said no political appointee should attend Sage meetings to ensure there are no outside influence on the formulation of scientific advice.
Labour urged the government earlier this morning to bar the prime minister’s chief political adviser, Dominic Cummings, from meetings of the secret scientific group advising on the coronavirus pandemic over concerns that its independence has been compromised.
"I don't think any political appointee should be there."
— SkyNews (@SkyNews) April 25, 2020
David Davis says Dominic Cummings, Boris Johnson's chief adviser, should not be attending SAGE meetings with senior scientists advising the government on the #coronavirus outbreak.
Read more: https://t.co/vZVKe16oW8 pic.twitter.com/wmQTrQXXI7
Updated
The president of the Dutch football association has cast doubt on the feasibility of the Premier League playing matches behind closed doors in June after the government suggested it might be possible for some sports to resume within a few weeks.
Just Spee’s intervention comes after the Dutch Eredivisie became the first major European football league to cancel its season in response to the coronavirus crisis. For the first time since 1944-45, the Dutch top flight will not have a champion and there will be no relegation or promotion either from the 18-team division. He said:
The UK will hold on to a sliver of hope as long as it is there, but in reality the chances of completing the Premier League season are slim.
The English season will need a number of weeks to complete and I doubt there will be enough time. Seeing what is happening with things getting postponed week by week it is probably not realistic.
Updated
The public has been told to stay at home as forecasters predict warm and sunny weather across most of the country for the UK’s fifth weekend under lockdown.
The long spell of high temperatures is prompting concerns that people may defy lockdown rules, which came into force on 23 March.
The transport secretary, Grant Shapps, urged people on Friday to continue to adhere to the restrictions despite some encouraging signs that the coronavirus crisis is beginning to ease.
The country has done incredibly well in adhering to social distancing and there is a danger as we go into yet another warm sunny weekend that people think that perhaps these graphs are showing that the peak is over.
It isn’t over, we’re riding perhaps, we hope, a downward trend but it is by no means, no means established yet.
Chelsea Football Club have announced they will not furlough any full-time staff and that they continue to be paid 100% of their wages.
In a statement, several weeks after Liverpool reversed a controversial decision to put around 200 non-playing staff on furlough, Chelsea – thought to be one of the 10 richest football clubs in the world – said they were not planning to make any staff redundant and that match day staff employed directly would be “compensated as if we had been operating as normal”.
Liverpool sparked outrage after they announced they would follow Newcastle, Tottenham, Norwich and Bournemouth in using the coronavirus job retention scheme to cover 80% of wages due to staff whose work has stopped since the football calendar was suspended on 13 March.
The Premier League leaders had confirmed they would pay the remaining 20% to those on furlough, with almost 90 of those affected working in the club stores, and would consider reimbursing monies received at a later date.
Updated
Low-cost airline Wizz Air has announced plans to resume flights from Luton Airport on 1 May.
The airline said it would implement measures to encourage physical distancing, as well as enhancing cleanliness on board. Destinations will include Budapest, Lisbon and Tenerife.
Owain Jones, managing director of Wizz Air UK, said:
As we restart selected Luton flights to provide an essential service to passengers who need to travel, our primary concern is the health, safety and well-being of our customers and crew.
The protective measures that we are implementing will ensure the most sanitary conditions possible. We encourage our customers to watch our new video on how to stay safe when travelling, as well as for more details on our new health and safety measures.
This week, the Ryanair chief executive, Michael O’Leary, said that its planes would not return to the sky if the airline had to leave middle seats empty. He told the Financial Times:
We can’t make money on 66% load factors. Even if you do that, the middle seat doesn’t deliver any social distancing, so it’s kind of an idiotic idea that doesn’t achieve anything anyway.
Updated
Downing Street has removed China from a list of nations from which it draws international comparisons over the spread of coronavirus amid concerns about the accuracy of the country’s figures, according to the Times.
Tom Tugendhat, the Conservative chair of the foreign affairs select committee, said:
This data is used to judge the effectiveness of our own response, whether good or bad. It’s important we are comparing like with like, otherwise our own responses could be distorted leading to more deaths in the UK. Clearly No 10 believes the same as the rest of the world — that China’s data is unreliable and possibly false.
A government spokeswoman said:
The data on China has been removed from the daily press conference slide used to compare the number of deaths from coronavirus internationally. This is because a significant revision to China’s data on April 17 means we are unable to compare their daily death rates with other countries, as we do not know when deaths occurred.
Although not a major revision, an additional 40 previously unreported coronavirus deaths occurred in England and Wales in March, according to official backdated figures that suggested almost one in five coronavirus deaths are occurring outside hospitals.
It has also been reported that people who have died in the UK and had Covid-19 mentioned on their death certificates have been underreported.
Updated
In case you missed it, here is the exclusive story from the Guardian’s environment editor Damian Carrington that coronavirus has been detected on particles of air pollution by scientists investigating whether this could enable infections at longer distances.
The research is still in its infancy but other research has indicated correlations between increased Covid-19 deaths and higher levels of air pollution before the pandemic. And long-term exposure to dirty air is known to damage lung health, which could make people more vulnerable to Covid-19.
Matt Hancock has shared a picture of himself taking part in the clinical trial to establish if plasma from the blood of recovered patients could help treat others who have contracted the coronavirus.
The health secretary recovered after testing positive for Covid-19 in late March and urged people to take part in the trial if asked, adding: “It’s painless.”
This hugely important clinical trial will help our NHS treat #coronavirus patients using plasma. If you're asked, please take part. It's painless: https://t.co/mTXZElyg2j pic.twitter.com/W1oLlJN2i9
— Matt Hancock (@MattHancock) April 25, 2020
Updated
An NHS trust is to offer maternity care at Aston Villa’s home ground, following the success of a similar tie-up with West Bromwich Albion.
The Sandwell and West Birmingham trust said Villa Park’s North Stand would host weekday clinics for expectant mothers and new parents from Monday.
Postnatal and antenatal care by midwives is already being hosted at Albion’s Hawthorns ground, including health visitors holding appointments for new parents, as well as newborn hearing screening tests.
The service at Villa Park will be staffed by 10 midwives and two support workers, with two health visitors taking appointments.
Thanks to @AVFCFoundation & @AVFCOfficial for hosting maternity and health visiting clinics @ Villa Park! Read all about it here https://t.co/LAHNIR7vpJ#AVFC #COVID19 #maternity #NHS pic.twitter.com/9u5IByJT5s
— SWBH NHS Trust (@SWBHnhs) April 24, 2020
The trust’s deputy director of midwifery Louise Wilde, who is also a Villa fan, said:
I decided to approach our local football teams because they are in a perfect position to help us deliver these clinics.
There are no matches being played and geographically they are both in the right place for our patients.
It also provides an alternative to a hospital setting, which some of our women felt anxious about coming to.
We’ve already been getting some great feedback from those attending the Hawthorns, home of the Baggies.
Guy Rippon, head of foundation and community partnerships at Aston Villa, said:
We are delighted to be able to help out our local NHS hospitals by opening up Villa Park as a temporary maternity clinic.
Aston Villa have linked up with @SWBHNHS to deliver maternity care at Villa Park... #AVFC
— Aston Villa (@AVFCOfficial) April 24, 2020
Updated
UK nears grim milestone of 20,000 hospital deaths
The UK could hit the grim milestone of 20,000 Covid-19 deaths later today, when the daily count is added to the current toll of 19,506 people who tested positive for the new coronavirus and died in hospital.
The death toll from Covid-19 in hospitals across the country increased on Friday by 684 in 24 hours to 19,506.
Passing the 20,000 mark will be an uncomfortable moment for the government, whose chief scientific adviser Patrick Vallance said on 17 March that keeping the toll under that number would be “a good outcome in terms of where we would hope to get”.
The UK has the fifth highest official coronavirus death toll in the world, after the United States, Italy, Spain and France. Scientists have said that the death rate will start to decline quickly only in another couple of weeks.
The total number of fatalities is likely to be thousands higher once more comprehensive but lagging figures that include deaths in nursing homes are added. As of 10 April, the hospital toll underestimated deaths by around 40%.
Updated
Burberry said it has donated more than 100,000 pieces of PPE while it has also transformed its Yorkshire trench coat factory to produce protective equipment for hospital staff.
The fashion giant said it had donated PPE, including masks the company has sourced, and has transformed its Castleford factory to manufacture non-surgical gowns and supply them to the NHS.
It added that it will maintain its base pay for employees who have been unable to work due to closures and senior bosses announced they will take a 20% pay cut from April to June.
Meanwhile, rival fashion brand Mulberry said it has switched its handbag factory in Somerset to making 8,000 gowns for NHS workers in Bristol.
Updated
Test slots and testing kits for key workers run out for second day in a row
Coronavirus tests for key workers through the government’s new booking website have run out in England and Wales for a second day in a row.
More than 10 million key workers and their households are now eligible for Covid-19 tests as officials race to hit their 100,000-a-day testing target by next Thursday.
However, home testing kits were listed as “unavailable” on the government’s booking website just 15 minutes after it reopened on Saturday morning, according to the BBC.
It was also not possible to book tests at drive-through regional sites in England, Wales and Northern Ireland by 10am.
According to the site, tests at a drive-through regional site in Scotland are still available.
A spokesman for the Department of Health and Social Care said more would be made available from Sunday morning at 8am.
Coronavirus test website slots unavailable within hour of site reopening https://t.co/7et9PDMzjD
— BBC News (UK) (@BBCNews) April 25, 2020
Updated
Killing Eve writer Luke Jennings, actor Robert Webb and Booker prize winner Bernardine Evaristo are to take part in a virtual book festival to be broadcast over three days during the first bank holiday weekend in May.
The Big Book Weekend will during 8-10 May “bring together the best of the cancelled UK literary festivals”, organisers said. It will feature video interviews, panel discussions and “in conversation” sessions.
Former hostage Terry Waite will talk about how to cope with solitude, and it will also feature Alexander McCall Smith, Maggie O’Farrell, Marian Keyes, Neil Gaiman and Michael Morpurgo, while Sir Tim Rice discusses his life and career.
The festival is part of BBC Arts’ Culture In Quarantine, “bringing the very best arts and culture to the homes of everyone in the UK”, and is supported by BBC Arts and Arts Council England.
Author Kit de Waal, who co-founded the festival with Molly Flatt, said:
It has been a joy working with so many of the literary festivals around the UK in bringing some of their events to an online audience.
I’m particularly excited by our opening event on Friday, with Maggie O’Farrell in conversation with Damian Barr on why books festivals are so important, particularly at a time like this.
You can find more information here.
The full #BigBookWeekend programme is here! Watch @arobertwebb, @BernardineEvari, @neilhimself, @MarianKeyes, @SirTimRice, @McCallSmith, @AdamJKucharski & more, brought to you by the UK's amazing literary festivals. Sign up now to watch on 8-10 May 🙌📚🎙 https://t.co/WFpwMgv0pv pic.twitter.com/k48ErhyZKh
— bigbookweekend (@bigbookweekend) April 25, 2020
Updated
Updated
England campaign urges people with serious non-Covid conditions to seek medical help
A government campaign has been launched to encourage people seriously ill with non-coronavirus conditions such as heart attacks to seek help amid concerns some are avoiding hospitals, my colleagues Sarah Marsh and Nazia Parveen report.
The campaign, which will be rolled out next week, aims to encourage people to use vital services – such as contacting their GP, dialling 111 for urgent care needs or 999 in an emergency, cancer screening and care, maternity appointments and mental health support – as they usually would.
The NHS chief executive, Sir Simon Stevens, said delays in getting treatment posed a long-term risk to people’s health, and stressed that the NHS was still there for patients without coronavirus who needed urgent and emergency services for stroke, heart attack, and other often fatal conditions.
Council chiefs have been praised after heeding the communities secretary’s call to reopen parks and cemeteries to allow the public open space to exercise in during the lockdown, ITV News reports.
As the UK enters its fifth weekend of lockdown, 340 parks and green spaces across the country have been reopened. The government has also updated its guidance to make it clear that burial grounds and cemeteries, grounds surrounding crematoria and gardens of remembrance may remain open. Robert Jenrick said:
We know that the lockdown is much harder for people who don’t have a lot of living space, a garden, or anywhere for their children to run around. People need parks.
📢THREAD📢
— Robert Jenrick (@RobertJenrick) April 25, 2020
1. I'm delighted that 340 parks and green spaces have now reopened following my request last weekend.#Peopleneedparks at this difficult time, and some short time outside can make a real difference to people’s mental and physical wellbeing.https://t.co/GUVqkFETzC
Updated
Here are a range of reactions to the Cummings story that came in last night:
From Sir David King, the former chief scientific adviser
I don't say this lightly but if this report from @PaulLewis et al in the @guardian is accurate (which I have no reason to doubt) it marries with all of my worst fears. This is simply unimaginable, an egregious abuse SAGE membership the govt must answer https://t.co/m0QjA7IrOC
— Sir David King (@Sir_David_King) April 24, 2020
From the shadow health secretary, Jonathan Ashworth
Why are politically appointed special advisors taking part in what should be independent SAGE deliberations?
— Jonathan Ashworth (@JonAshworth) April 24, 2020
Ministers have repeatedly claimed timing of lockdown was based on science.
We need answers & total transparency tonight. https://t.co/A8s0himbfu
A thread from BBC Newsnight’s Lewis Goodall
Remarkable story from The Guardian. Cummings' place on SAGE must considerably lessen the authority of Downing St "guided by the science" line, given we now know, that to some extent at least, that scientific advice has been influenced by well, Downing St. https://t.co/XgwJQpyWCv
— Lewis Goodall (@lewis_goodall) April 24, 2020
From HuffPost’s Paul Waugh
Key issue tho: was he merely asking questions (as ministers legitimately do, and he may have been doing on behalf of PM) or proposing his own ideas/takes on the science? https://t.co/D0cIOSg9aG
— Paul Waugh (@paulwaugh) April 24, 2020
And from the Conservative MP and former first secretary of state Damian Green
This is garbage. Under any previous PM in these circumstances someone senior from No 10 would have been at the SAGE meetings to hear the debate. https://t.co/8qr0Jdnk1o
— Damian Green MP (@DamianGreen) April 24, 2020
Updated
The Conservative former chancellor Philip Hammond has called on the government to begin easing the lockdown and focus on restarting the economy while accepting life alongside coronavirus.
He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme the country could not afford to wait until a vaccine had become available before resuming more normal economic activity.
The reality is that we have to start reopening the economy. But we have to do it living with Covid. We can’t wait until a vaccine is developed, produced in sufficient quantity and rolled out across the population. The economy won’t survive that long.
But we are going to have to do it alongside the measures that are in place to protect the population from Covid. That’s going to be a much more complex phase of this crisis than the initial acute phase.
Locking everything down and keeping everything locked down is relatively straightforward.
The challenge of how to carefully, progressively, methodically reopen protecting both health and jobs is much, much more challenging and calls for a really skilful political leadership.
The Times (paywall) reports that the Treasury is drawing up measures to allow non-essential businesses to reopen and “get Britain back to work”. To achieve this in a “safe and practical way”, the measures include telling businesses to put up signs instructing workers to keep two metres apart and for staff to be sent home if they have coronavirus symptoms.
Companies will also be told to close “communal spaces” like canteens if people can’t physically distance and ensure widespread availability of hand-washing facilities and hand gel.
Updated
Good morning. The Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) has been thrust into the limelight after the Guardian revealed that the prime minister’s chief political adviser, Dominic Cummings, has been taking part in meetings of the senior scientists advising the upper echelons of government on its response to the coronavirus crisis. It’s left the government facing ever growing calls for the scientific advice given to ministers on the pandemic to be published and for Sage’s secret membership to be disclosed.
Guardian front page, Saturday 25 April 2020: Revealed: Cummings sits on secret science advisory group pic.twitter.com/5saRNPGszx
— The Guardian (@guardian) April 24, 2020
Elsewhere, the NHS is launching a new campaign to make sure people seek urgent care during a medical emergency after visits to A&E dropped by almost 50% this month. Prof Stephen Powis, the national medical director for England, told BBC Breakfast he was concerned that lives were being lost because fewer people were presenting themselves to doctors. He said:
What we absolutely want people to do is if you do have a condition, particularly an emergency that is not coronavirus, you should not be afraid of accessing healthcare services.
And, as the UK heads into its fifth weekend of lockdown, the public is being urged to stay at home and not be tempted by the warm, sunny weather.
Please feel free to get in touch with me throughout the day to share news tips and suggestions. You can email me at lucy.campbell@theguardian.com or contact me via Twitter, I’m on @lucy_campbell_.
