Summary
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The medical director for Public Health England defended the PHE guidance last week advising NHS staff to wear aprons in some circumstances instead of full-length gowns when the right equipment was not available. Prof Yvonne Doyle said this was a “precautionary set of advice”, based on guidance that already existed and in line with WHO advice covering exceptional circumstances.
- More than 140,000 firms have today applied for help from the government’s coronavirus job retention scheme. The Resolution Foundation says these applications alone could cost the government £4.2bn.
- The numbers of people testing positive for coronavirus has stabilised. Prof Dame Angela McLean, the government’s deputy chief scientific adviser, said the figures were “pretty much stable and flat”.
- UK coronavirus hospital deaths total rises by 449 to 16,509. As of 5pm on 19 April, 16,509 people in hospital who tested positive for coronavirus and died, up by 449 from the day before.
- Former prime minister Tony Blair’s thinktank has published a potential exit plan from lockdown. Blair told Sky News that an exit strategy was essential because the lockdown would do crippling damage to the economy, government revenues and people’s lives if it were allowed to continue for too long. Here’s the report (pdf)
- Virgin boss Richard Branson says airline survival depends on government loan. “This would be in the form of a commercial loan - it wouldn’t be free money and the airline would pay it back,” The Virgin Group boss said in a blogpost.
- Boris Johnson ‘against lifting lockdown over second wave fears’. The prime minister is reported to be cautious about easing the lockdown for fear of sparking a second wave of coronavirus infections. The culture secretary, Oliver Dowden, confirmed that the government was reluctant to lift the lockdown for fear of sparking a second wave of infections.
Scotland’s first minister and interim chief medical officer have appeared to rule out the resumption of football matches behind closed doors, a move which will increase anxiety at the country’s professional clubs.
The vast majority of the Scottish Professional Football League’s sides – including Celtic and Rangers – have used the government’s job retention scheme or implemented pay cuts or deferrals for players and staff. The 2019-20 campaign for the lower three tiers has already been abandoned and the Premiership is heading for the same outcome upon receipt of Uefa approval.
The SPFL has been anxious to be in position to start its new season on the first weekend in August as per details of a new broadcasting deal with Sky Sports, worth a record £160m, and season tickets for the 2020-21 season are already widely on sale. The Scottish Football Association even hopes to open a new campaign with its cup semi-finals, which would ordinarily attract an aggregate of at least 80,000 spectators.
Both options are now seriously remote, with Nicola Sturgeon also suggesting matches with no spectators would not be viable unless there is a major coronavirus breakthrough.
Foster carers across the UK are calling for sick pay during coronavirus pandemic, warning they are currently being forced to chose between their own health, the wellbeing of the foster child, and the need to pay their bills.
Foster care workers are as self-employed and have no entitlement to sick pay. A union said that foster carers who develop symptoms risk losing their income if children are therefore not assigned to their care.
Jane Wright, chair of the IWGB foster care workers branch, says:
Our work is not only more challenging but also more important now than ever. In a pandemic, denial of sick pay threatens to plunge even more of us into poverty.
With a six week wait for universal credit, any unwell foster care worker forced to self-isolate risks destitution. They may be unable to pay bills and if they lose their house, their fostered child has nowhere to come home to.
One foster care worker, who wished to remain anonymous, said:
The government needs to do something. My rent didn’t go down because I was sick. My job didn’t get any easier because I was sick. They took the money right out of my bank account.
They treat us like we’re nothing, but who’s feeding this baby? Who’s buying wet wipes and nappies and heating and rent to keep him safe and warm? I’m looking after a vulnerable child. Who’s looking after us?
Rishi Sunak's press conference - Summary
Here are the main points from Rishi Sunak’s press conference.
- Sunak, the chancellor, refused to accept that it might have been a mistake to allow a Champions League match involving Liverpool and Atlético Madrid to go ahead on 11 March – even though a government scientist appeared to concede at the same press conference that the event may have contributed to the spread of coronavirus in the UK. Some 3,000 Atlético fans travelled to Merseyside for the match, at a time when some lockdown measures were already in force in Spain. The mayor of Madrid, José Luis Martínez-Almedia, has said that allowing the fixture to go ahead was a mistake. At the press conference Prof Dame Angela McLean, the government’s deputy chief scientific adviser, was asked if the match should have been cancelled. She appeared to defend the decision to allow it, saying that in normal circumstances a match like that would not be a risk. But then she went on to concede that it might have contributed to the coronavirus spread. She said:
However, when you get to the situation of our strange lives as we live them now where we spend all our time basically at home, of course you wouldn’t add on an extra risk of lots and lots of people going off to the same place at the same time.
I think it will be very interesting to see in the future when all the science is done what relationship there is between the virus that has circulated in Liverpool and the virus that has circulated in Spain. That’s certainly an interesting hypothesis you raise there.
Her comment surprised journalists. For example, this is from ITV’s political editor Robert Peston.
That was a "wow" moment. The deputy chief scientific adviser Angela McLean said suggestion from Liam Thorp of Liverpool Echo that allowing Athletic Madrid to play in Liverpool may have increased spread of illness in Liverpool was "an interesting hypothesis". Not exactly a denial
— Robert Peston (@Peston) April 20, 2020
And this is from the Good Morning Britain presenter Piers Morgan.
Dep Chief Scientific Adviser Angela McLean says idea that allowing Liverpool/Atletico game to proceed may have increased spread of #coronavirus is an 'interesting hypothesis.'
— Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) April 20, 2020
Sorry, WHAT?
It obviously did.
It probably cost lives.
Yet this is the first time she's thought of it?
But after McLean gave her answer, Sunak was pressed by the Liverpool Echo’s Liam Thorp on whether the government should have allowed the match to go ahead. Sunak refused to accept the decision to allow it might have been a mistake. He said:
At every stage in this crisis we’ve been guided by the scientific advice and have been making the right decision at the right time ...
Of course, This is an unprecedented situation we’re all dealing with, I’m sure there are all things that we will learn from this.
But in terms of the guidance that we put in place, I believe that it was the right guidance at the right time, based on the scientific advice that we were provided with.
It would not have been hard to say that, although that decision was based on scientific advice at the time, in retrospect maybe it wasn’t so wise after all. But that would have taken Sunak into “admitting error” territory, somewhere no politician is comfortable venturing to.
- Prof Yvonne Doyle, the medical director for Public Health England, defended the PHE decision to issue guidance last week advising NHS staff to wear aprons in some circumstances instead of full-length gowns when the right equipment was not available. She said this was a “precautionary set of advice”, based on guidance that already existed and in line with WHO advice covering exceptional circumstances. She said:
The guidance remains exactly the same. What has happened over the weekend is to cover people really and give them some security in exceptional circumstances, advice has been produced jointly with the NHS about how to be safe in circumstances where supplies may be at risk.
And that is a very precautionary set of advice - it’s quite the opposite to putting people at risk because there aren’t enough supplies.
It’s trying to ensure that people are well secured and safe when there may not be enough supplies, and it also stresses how important it is not to take risks and when it is not right to do certain things and practices with the PPE.
Doyle said it would be for staff to decide what was safe and what wasn’t. She explained:
Certainly people have to make their decisions based on whether they are in a risky situation or not. It is very difficult to legislate for all of that from a distance here. But the guidance is very clear on what is safe and not safe to do.
- Doyle said a lack of PPE (personal protective equipment) was “a concern” but insisted officials were “working very hard” to improve the situation. Sunak said the government was doing everything it could to address the shortage. He said:
We’re improving our sourcing internationally and domestically to make sure we can get the PPE we need in what is a very challenging international context.
But people on the frontline can rest assured that we’re doing absolutely everything we can and straining everything we can to get the equipment they need.
- Sunak said more than 140,000 firms had today applied for help from the government’s coronavirus job retention scheme. The Resolution Foundation says these applications alone could cost the government £4.2bn. (See 5.45pm.)
- McLean said the numbers of people testing positive for coronavirus had stabilised. The figures were “pretty much stable and flat”, she said.
- Doyle said the number of people dying from coronavirus was “undoubtedly” higher than the hospital figures implied. The daily global death rate chart released by the government has now been updated to reflect this. (See 5.14pm.) She said 90% of coronavirus deaths were in hospital.
- Sunak said he did not favour moving from a system where the government backed 80% of coronavirus loans to businesses to one where it backed 100% of those loans. The former chancellor George Osborne is among those who have been pushing for this change, for certain categories of loan.
Updated
The number of prison staff who have tested positive for Covid-19 rose 40% in three days, a daily update from the Ministry of Justice shows.
As at 5pm on Sunday, 194 prison staff across 53 prisons were confirmed to have contracted the coronavirus, compared with 138 in the last available figures for Thursday.
The number of prisoners who had tested positive for Covid-19 increased 9% in the same period to 278 inmates across 64 prisons. There are around 81,500 prisoners in England and Wales, in 117 prisons.
A total of 13 prisoners are known to have contracted Covid-19 and died, including one inmate who died within prison walls.
The government recently announced an extension of testing to prison and probation staff.
The Prison Service is to temporarily release up to 4,000 inmates who are within two months of their release date, as well as build 500 cells within the existing prison estate to increase single-cell occupancy.
Updated
This is from Dan Tomlinson, an economist at the Resolution Foundation thinktank, commenting on what Rishi Sunak said at the press conference about the take-up of the furlough scheme that opened today. (See 5.05pm.) Tomlinson said:
The sheer scale of applications for the government’s job retention scheme on its opening day shows just how badly the scheme is needed. Without firms having the option to furlough staff, Britain could be facing the prospect of totally unprecedented numbers of people being unemployed. The claims made today alone are set to cost at least £4.2bn if staff are furloughed for three months.
The demand today also indicates that the new IT system has managed to cope with significant claims. The next challenge is to make sure the payments to firms get made as swiftly as possible, as the scheme is very much on the frontline of protecting both firms and family incomes amid a huge economic crisis.
Sunak is now wrapping up. As is normal at these events, he ends by repeating the government’s stay at home, protect the NHS and save lives message. And, quoting what Dominic Raab said last week, he says:
There is light at the end of the tunnel, but we are not there yet.
I’ll post a summary soon.
Q: Is this new approach, where you are taking equity in start-ups, something that you will want to maintain long term?
Sunak says this is an unprecedented approach. The UK is a European start-ups success story, he says. In the past the government has not needed to do something like this. He says they will keep this policy under review.
Q: Do you have any modelling that suggests how people might behave when the lockdown measures are relaxed?
That is a good question, says McLean.
She says the behavioural scientists who advise the government are careful. If they were here, they would probably say it was difficult to predict.
For example, who much will people go back to work when allowed? That is very hard to predict, she says.
Updated
Q: Was the government too slow to ban major sports events?
Sunak says that at every stage the government has followed the scientific advice, and by the need to make the right decisions at the right time.
But it has been an unprecedented situation, he says.
He says he believes that was the right guidance at the right time.
Updated
Q: On 11 March Liverpool hosted a match against Atletico Madrid. Subsequently mass gatherings were banned. The mayor of Madrid says now it was a mistake to allow that match to go ahead. Do you agree?
McLean says this has to be considered in the context of what the situation was at the time. Normally a football match is not a big risk. But of course you would not allow that now.
Q: Can you promise councils that they get a fair funding settlement?
Sunak says he used to be a local government minister. Of course he wants to support local government, he says.
Updated
Q: Some self-employed people are not getting help. Do you see why people back a universal income? And shouldn’t universal credit be more generous?
Sunak says the UK’s scheme to help the self-employed is more generous than comparable schemes in other countries.
On universal credit, he says people can get advance payments from day one.
Updated
Q: Tony Blair says he is terrified about the long-term consequences of the lockdown. Do you share that feeling? And is it correct that the Treasury analysis of the impact of the lockdown says there could be long-term damage to the economy, unlike the OBR’s, which was more optimistic?
Sunak says any responsible chancellor would have plans in place for a range of scenarios.
He says this will be a challenging period. He will not be able to save every job. But he wants to get back to normal as soon as possible.
Updated
Q: Would you support health staff refusing to work without the proper equipment?
Doyle says the guidance is very clear. People have to make a judgment about how to interpret it. But the guidance says what is safe and what is not.
Q: Some medical organisations are very worried about the new guidance for PPE issued last Friday. They think these new guidelines are based on equipment availability, not safety?
Doyle says the advice is precautionary. She says it is based on guidance that already exists, and on what the WHO says should be done in exceptional circumstances.
Q: Do you have an estimate of the cost and the take-up for the furlough scheme?
Sunak says the Treasury has not produced its own estimate. The OBR published one last week, he said.
(The OBR said the scheme might cost £42bn.)
Updated
Q: There are suggestions that your death figures understate coronavirus deaths by 40%. Is that accurate?
Doyle says the hospital data does not tell the whole story.
She says 90% of deaths occur in hospital.
But the pattern is different in different parts of the country.
Q: The governor of the Bank of England does seem to favour 100% loan guarantees. Why don’t you agree?
Sunak says the governor said he wanted money to get to firms quickly. He says the level of support he has introduced is higher than in almost any other country.
Q: The PM seems to be making it clear that he won’t relax the lockdown any time soon. Is that right?
Sunak says they have been clear that they will follow the scientific advice.
Updated
In response to a question about the business loan scheme, Sunak says he is not persuaded by arguments saying he should provide a 100% loan guarantee, instead of an 80% loan guarantee.
Doyle says it is a “concern” that health workers feel they do not have the PPE they need.
McLean is now presenting the daily slides.
Here is the transport use one.
Here is the chart for new cases.
Here are the figures for coronavirus cases in hospital.
And here are the global comparison figures.
The government has now put two lines for the UK on this chart: a hospital coronavirus death figures line, and a total deaths line.
The data for total deaths is not so up to date, which is why that line does not extend so far.
Sunak ends by reading out the latest figures for new cases and deaths.
And he thanks people for following the guidelines.
Sunak says he has launched a £500m investment fund for high-growth businesses, part of an innovation package worth £1.25bn.
Updated
Sunak says the government is not just protecting businesses now. It is sowing the seeds for recovery.
Rishi Sunak's press conference
Rishi Sunak, the chancellor, is speaking now at the government press conference. He is appearing with Prof Dame Angela McLean, the deputy chief scientific adviser, and Prof Yvonne Doyle, the medical director for Public Health England.
He says a month ago he promised to set up a scheme to protect jobs. Today the coronavirus job retention scheme has opened for business, and by 4pm more than 140,000 firms had applied.
Updated
Stormont health minister Robin Swann has announced another 13 deaths in Northern Ireland.
Forty people were in hospital intensive care units earlier today, while hospitals yesterday recorded 88 Covid-19 admissions.
In its rebuttal of yesterday’s Sunday Times Insight article mentioned earlier (see 10.39am) the government quoted the Lancet editor Richard Horton in its defence.
Today Horton claims his views were quoted out of context. He has posted a Twitter thread on this starting here.
Just for the record: the UK government is deliberately rewriting history in its ongoing COVID-19 disinformation campaign. My Jan 24 tweet called for caution in UK media reporting. It was followed by a series of tweets drawing attention to the dangers of this new disease. pic.twitter.com/vMozGriWw2
— richard horton (@richardhorton1) April 20, 2020
UK coronavirus hospital deaths total rises by 449 to 16,509
As of 5pm on 19 April, 16,509 people in hospital who tested positive for coronavirus and died, up by 449 from the day before. The full figures are here.
A total of 386,044 people have been tested, of whom 124,743 have tested positive.
Updated
Blair publishes potential exit plan from lockdown
Downing Street won’t discuss what its plan for easing the lockdown might look like, but the former prime minister Tony Blair is keen to explore the mechanics of how this might be achieved and his thinktank has published a report (pdf) on this topic which is well worth reading if you are at all curious about what the future might look like.
Blair does not have a “magic bullet” solution (until a vaccine arrives, no one does), but he has a useful summary of the options.
Here are three charts that summarise his argument.
This shows how hard it would be to relax the various measures in place without R, the reproduction number (the rate at new people get infected by every person with coronavirus), rising above 1. It puts the current rate at 0.7 and, based on Imperial College calculations, it says that it would be impossible to lift the main measures currently in place (except school closures) with R rising above 1.
The report argues that what is needed is a twin strategy of containment and shielding.
This chart uses a traffic-light analysis to assess the merits of eight policy options.
And this chart suggests how the UK could move out of the hard lockdown, via a “soft lockdown” towards “soft open”, as and when various new cases/testing/tracing/shielding thresholds are hit.
In an interview on Sky this morning Blair said that an exit strategy was essential because the lockdown would do crippling damage to the economy, government revenues and people’s lives if it were allowed to continue for too long. He said:
If we don’t start to get our economy back to some type of normal, then I’m terrified about the longterm economic and social damage in this.
Only 17 out of a potential 70 inmates who are either pregnant or held in a mother and baby unit (MBU) have been released from prison since the government announced the emergency measure three weeks ago, MPs and peers have heard.
The Ministry of Justice announced on 31 March it would temporarily release pregnant women in custody and women held in MBUs who do not pose a high risk of harm “within days” to protect them from coronavirus.
There were 35 pregnant women in prison and 34 MBU inmates as of 6pm on 30 March. The justice secretary, Robert Buckland, told the Joint Committee on Human Rights that only 17 had been released so far.
He said:
You’re going to say to me well that doesn’t sound very many. That’s because I want to make sure each of them has a package of support so they’re not merely released to the community because some of them will sadly have come from abusive relationships and can’t go back to the former family home.
I want to make sure they have the accommodation, and the support generally not just for them but either for the unborn child or the very young child whose rights are really important and underpin the approach I’ve taken with regards to seeking to safeguard this vulnerable cohort.
Updated
A new emergency hospital in Glasgow may not be needed because the coronavirus outbreak in Scotland appears to be plateauing thanks to high levels of public adherence to the lockdown, the hospital’s chief executive has confirmed.
The Louisa Jordan hospital opened at the Scottish Events Campus for its first patients on Monday, with a potential capacity of 1,036 beds. Jill Young, its chief executive, said it would open beds 40 at a time, basing its occupancy on normal hospital ward numbers.
They have 100 staff on standby for the first patients but Young said there was no call yet on its facilities, which are due initially to remain at the SEC for five months but will remain there for as long as needed.
The number of Covid-19 patients in Scottish hospitals and in intensive care beds has begun to fall. There were more than 200 people in ITU units in mid-April, but only 169 this morning.
Young said:
The reason the hospitals and health boards out there are coping so well, we have to give credit and thanks to the Scottish population. The compliance with the guidance they’ve been given is just tremendous.
It has given us hope, as you’ve heard from the first minister and cabinet secretary [the health secretary, Jeane Freeman], that the numbers are not increasing as fast as we imagined they would and in fact they look like they’re plateauing. But it’s far too early to take any final predictions on that, so we have to stand ready at any point in time to open.
At the moment, the numbers look like we will not be required to open, certainly within the next few days, and we’re receiving a daily update on that.
Young added that much of the equipment and furniture installed there would be reused within the NHS if the hospital was not required. Its construction and installation costs totalled £43m, with local businesses donating around £1m in supplies, including free concrete and steel.
Updated
What it's like to work on the coronavirus frontline - a photo essay
From emergency arrivals to critical care, the Guardian was given extraordinary access to UHCW hospital in Coventry to document the Covid-19 pandemic. This photo essay by Jonny Weeks captures the contributions of those who save our lives
Updated
The justice secretary, Robert Buckland, has told MPs any tracing app designed to mitigate the spread of Covid-19 would be “functionally limited” to prevent a “mission creep” that would change the relationship between the individual and the state.
The NHSX – the health service’s digital transformation arm – is developing an app that alerts users when they have been in contact with someone with coronavirus.
But experts have warned that digital contact tracing will fail unless governments build the technology in a way that respects user privacy.
Quizzed by the SNP MP Joanna Cherry QC on the risks to privacy, Buckland, the cabinet minister responsible for human rights, said so far he had seen a “proper prioritisation of privacy and indeed security”.
Buckland told a remote session of the Joint Committee on Human Rights:
On every occasion that government or its agencies seek to create a device or mechanism that has potential of infringing rights or other fundamental civil liberties then the greatest care has to be taken.
The lead will be Department of Health and Social Care, and the work of the NHS itself, who are developing a contact-tracing app.
Thus far, I’m seeing a proper prioritisation of the need for privacy and indeed for security when it comes to the data that might be contained in such a tracing device.
Clearly speed is of the essence, because of the situation we’re in, but the need for an ethical approach and legal approach is very much at the heart of what the NHS is doing.
Buckland said consultation had taken place with the Information Commissioner, the National Data Guardians Panel, and the Centre for Data Ethics and Innovation.
He said:
The issues of patient data, that are familiar to us in an offline form because they’ve been around for a number of years, are being fully reflected in the development of a tracing app.
We’re not there in terms of the finalised design. The source code will be provided so there will be independent scrutiny of that, so the transparency element is going to be at the heart of the development.
Buckland said the app would be compliant with the GDPR, the Human Rights Act, and the Equality Act. “This is not an app that’s being designed for enforcement. That’s a very important point when considering the potential ramifications of this.
The chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, Michael Gove, told the Andrew Marr show on Sunday, that the app was in beta-testing phase.
Updated
Ofcom has ruled that London Live broke broadcasting rules and posed “significant harm to viewers in London during the pandemic” by broadcasting an 80-minute interview with David Icke.
The media regulator imposed a sanction on ESTV, which owns London Live, following the interview in which Icke suggested the coronavirus pandemic was part of a plot by governments to destroy the economy and conduct mass surveillance.
“Our investigation found David Icke expressed views which had the potential to cause significant harm to viewers in London during the pandemic,” Ofcom said in a statement.
Updated
According to Sky News, three RAF aircraft which are due to fly to Turkey to collect consignments of PPE (personal protective equipment) that the NHS was expecting today have yet to take off because they have not received confirmation that the packages are ready.
The government has announced that mortuaries will be expanded by 30,000 spaces during the coronavirus pandemic.
The BBC reports that this is a precautionary measure rather than a prediction of how many people will die.
Local government minister Simon Clarke said: “We all hope these contingencies will not be needed ... that requires everyone to play their part in the national effort.”
He added: “We’re trying to strike an appropriate balance.”
Updated
England death toll rises by 429
NHS England has announced 429 new deaths of people who tested positive for Covid-19, bringing the total number of confirmed reported deaths in hospitals in England to 14,829.
Of the 429 new deaths announced today: 85 occurred on 19 April, 210 occurred on 18 April, and 53 occurred on 17 April.
The figures also show 77 of the deaths happened between 1 April and 16 April, and the remaining four deaths occurred in March, with the earliest new death thappening on 21 March.
The full details of the figures are here (pdf).
Updated
Plaid Cymru has called the Welsh government’s dropping of coronavirus testing targets “a scandal”.
The party’s shadow health minister Rhun ap Iorwerth said: “Testing has to be a priority. The World Health Organization said testing is the backbone of the war on coronavirus. Except in Wales, it seems – or does Welsh government know something the WHO doesn’t?”
The Welsh first minister, Mark Drakeford, has confirmed the Welsh government will not meet the target it has set of carrying out 9,000 tests a day by the end of the month, blaming in part deliveries of equipment and reagents from abroad. He said no new target would be set but the government would report on the number of tests it had carried out weekly.
Updated
The justice secretary, Robert Buckland, has told MPs that of 13 prisoners to have contracted Covid-19 and lost their lives, one has died within prison walls.
Appearing before a remote session of the joint committee on human rights, Buckland said the individual died in a palliative care unit within a prison and a doctor was in attendance.
Twelve other prisoners have tested positive for the coronavirus and died in hospital.
The most recently available figures revealed that as of 5pm on Thursday, there were 255 infected prisoners across 62 prisons. There are 81,500 prisoners in England and Wales across 117 prisons.
An update for figures as of Sunday is expected later.
There have been 296 Jewish funerals where the person who died contracted the coronavirus, as of and including 19 April. The latest figure is an increase of 40 from 16 April, when the last figures were reported.
“We wish their families a long life, and pray that the memory of their loved ones should be for a blessing,” the Board of Deputies of British Jews said in a statement.
The organisation has been liaising with six of the largest denominational burial boards and the Orthodox burial boards in Manchester to collate an indicator of deaths where Covid-19 was a factor. It covers both deaths in hospitals and in the wider community.
Updated
Nicola Sturgeon has admitted that virus testing rates in Scotland are running at little over half the NHS’s full laboratory capacity, amid continuing controversy over failures to test care workers.
Scottish government data shows that since the start of April, the NHS has conducted 22,605 tests, an average of 1,190 coronavirus tests per day; over the last 10 days, the average daily rate fell to 1,096 tests.
The first minister confirmed during her daily coronavirus briefing that the NHS in Scotland now had the capacity to run around 2,000 tests a day, and planned to expand that to more than 3,500 by the end of April.
Since the start of the outbreak, 39,612 tests have been conducted by NHS labs in Scotland. Over the weekend a care home in Prestwick, Ayrshire reported it now had 20 suspected deaths from the virus.
NHS laboratories report they are still not running at capacity. And Sturgeon said the NHS laboratories total did not include the UK government’s drive-through testing hubs at Glasgow, Edinburgh and Aberdeen airports.
She did not directly answer a question on why NHS facilities were not being used to their fullest extent but said more details should be released on who is being tested, and how capacity is being used in a few days. She said:
There is still work that is being done and needs to be done to make sure we are using that capacity to the maximum. That has focused not exclusively but largely on making sure we are testing NHS and care workers and their families where that is appropriate.
There’s more than 12,000 NHS and care workers and their families had been tested. We are trying to get many more care workers through testing given the severity and urgency of the issues in the care sector; surveillance testing as we go through this next phase to inform decisions that we’re taking will be a key part of that.
Gary Smith, from the GMB Scotland trade union, which represents care workers, said:
It is simply not credible at this stage in the crisis for us to be testing this kind of number. They are badly letting down frontline workers, many of them on poverty wages, in the care industry. Testing is absolutely crucial in getting this virus under control. People should be incandescent that old people in care homes can’t get tested and workers can’t get tested, while they turn these homes into morgues.
Updated
The Hackney Gazette has published a tribute to the two nurses at Homerton hospital in east London who died after contracting coronavirus.
Sophie Fagan, 78, died on Sunday morning in the hospital she had spent years working in. She arrived in the UK from India aged 16 to begin her nursing training and went on to work in healthcare in Hackney for more than 50 years.
Michael Allieu, 53, had worked as an acute care nurse at the hospital since 2007. Allieu, who was described as a “vibrant, larger than life character”, died on 18 April after contracting the virus.
The Homerton university hospital NHS foundation trust said Sophie was “part of the healthcare fabric in Hackney” and Michael was a “member of the Homerton family”.
Its not been a good weekend at @NHSHomerton first Michael, then Sophie
— Grahame Dick (@grahamedick) April 19, 2020
Sophie started working as a nurse when i was 2 years old and was still giving her all 54 years later, still loving it
A Homerton legend, always part of the familly
We will miss her
RIP Michael & Sophie x
Updated
There is a delay in the publication of the UK-wide figures. The Department of Health and Social Care tweeted they would be published later this afternoon.
UPDATE on #COVIDー19 testing in the UK:
— Department of Health and Social Care (@DHSCgovuk) April 20, 2020
Today's figures will be published later this afternoon.
We are working hard to provide you with the latest information and will tweet this out as soon as possible.
Updated
Wales death toll rises to 584
Nine people have died from the coronavirus in Wales, bringing the total number of deaths to 584, according to Public Health Wales.
There were 276 new confirmed cases of coronavirus, bringing the total in Wales to 7,546.
The full summary of today’s figures for Wales is here.
Updated
Some social distancing measures to stay 'for some time to come', says Sturgeon
At her daily news conference Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland’s first minister, said the Scottish government would set out “towards the end of this week” a framework that would guide its lifting of lockdown measures. But she stressed that it would not amount to a firm timetable. She said:
I want to be clear, however, that the initial version of this work will not set out what measures will be lifted and when. We are simply not yet in the position to take those decisions in a properly informed way.
Sturgeon also stressed that she would not rush to remove lockdown as this could risk a resurgence of the virus, overwhelming the NHS and putting many more lives at risk. She added:
It will also be clear in the work we set out later in the week that living with this virus, as we will need to learn to do, is likely to mean some restrictions on everyday life in the form of social distancing for some time to come.
Updated
Coronavirus lockdown fines have been issued after a police helicopter was scrambled to deal with submerged boaters, PA Media reports. Hinckley police in Leicestershire said officers were called to reports of a break-in at a boat house at 9.30pm on Saturday. The force said it found no signs of a break-in at Thornton Reservoir but spotted two men making their way across the water in a boat without a paddle. In a Facebook post, police said a helicopter was scrambled and spotted the men completely submerged in the water. After the helicopter guided officers to where the men were hidden, an ambulance was sent to the scene to “help warm the two individuals up”. The pair were subsequently issued fixed-penalty notices for breaching coronavirus legislation.
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Students could be hired to help coronavirus contact tracing in Wales, says first minister
University students could be recruited to help carry out Covid-19 surveillance in Wales once the lockdown is lifted, the Welsh first minister has said.
Mark Drakeford said that after the lockdown ends it is inevitable there will be flare-ups of the virus and plans are being drawn up to carry out surveillance in the community.
Drakeford said public health officials and council officers would be used but it was clear it would need to recruit people such as students to help out.
He confirmed the Welsh government would not meet the target it has set of carrying out 9,000 tests a day by the end of the month, blaming in part deliveries of equipment and reagents from abroad. He said no new target would be set but military planners were now helping streamline the system.
The first minister has written to Michael Gove asking for a regular cycle of meetings between the UK government and the devolved administrations between now and the end of the current lockdown period. He said:
What I don’t want is us meeting the day before the three weeks are up ... because I think those decisions are going to be more complicated and more contentious than simply a decision to extend the lockdown.
The first minister is keen on a four-nation plan on the next phase.
My own view is that moving together across the UK is the best way of doing things for Wales. If we can’t secure it and we need to make decisions for ourselves, that is what we will do.
He also suggested that the lockdown restrictions around second homes may be tightened later this week.
Updated
An “extremely well-liked and valued” NHS nurse has died after contracting Covid-19, PA Media reports. The University Hospitals of North Midlands NHS trust (UHNM) said Patrick McManus worked as a nurse for over 40 years in Staffordshire. The 60-year-old, described as “an exceptional leader” and a “loveable character”, had worked at both Staffordshire Royal Infirmary and, most recently, the County hospital in Stafford. Paying tribute to McManus, Tracy Bullock, the UHNM chief executive, said:
We are deeply saddened to confirm that a member of staff has passed away due to Covid-19. Patrick McManus was an extremely well-liked and valued member of the nursing team at County Hospital, Stafford ... Our deepest sympathies are with his family at this very sad time.
We're so sad to hear that nurse Patrick McManus has died & we extend our deepest sympathies on behalf of @theRCN to his family, friends & colleagues @UHNM_NHS. Rest in peace, Patrick, and thank you for dedicating so much of your life to caring for others. https://t.co/Ga5LDbrxU3
— RCN West Midlands (@RCNWestMids) April 20, 2020
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Downing Street lobby briefing - Summary
Here is a summary of the main points from the Downing Street lobby briefing.
- The prime minister’s spokesman said that avoiding a second peak of infections was the “big concern” as ministers approached the decision about easing the lockdown. (See 12.58pm.)
- The spokesman said that Boris Johnson is getting daily written updates on coronavirus policy as he recuperates at Chequers, but that he was not engaged in government work. The spokesman said:
The prime minister is continuing his recovery at Chequers. He isn’t doing government work. He has been receiving updates on the coronavirus response, and he has spoken with the first secretary of state [Dominic Raab], as well as senior members of his Number 10 team.
The spokesman said the PM would be “guided by the advice of his medical team” as to when to return to work and that Raab was deputising in his absence. Asked about the PM’s meeting with Raab and others on Friday, the spokesman said that this was a chance to update the PM, and not a decision-making meeting.
- The spokesman refused to elaborate on what options for the easing of the lockdown were being considered, or over what timescale they might be implemented.
- The spokesman said the government now has the capacity to carry out 36,000 coronavirus tests per day. But the latest daily figure for the number of tests carried out, in the 24 hours up to 9am yesterday, was just 21,626. More than 16,000 of those tests were carried out in NHS laboratories, and the rest by commercial partners in drive-through centres. More than 88,000 NHS and social care staff and their relatives have now been tested, the spokesman said, up from 66,000 at the end of last week.
- Rishi Sunak, the chancellor, will hold this afternoon’s press conference, the spokesman said. Prof Dame Angela McLean, the government’s deputy chief scientific adviser, will also be attending.
- Downing Street supports the idea of a minute’s silence for NHS workers who have died from coronavirus, the spokesman said.
- The spokesman confirmed that Dominic Raab is due to deputise for Johnson at PMQs this week. But the exact details of how PMQs will work remain to be decided, he said.
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The spokesman said there had been no change from last week when ministers were saying they had no plans to follow their New Zealand counterparts, who have taken a 20% pay cut.
No 10 says priority is avoiding second peak of infections when it considers easing lockdown
The daily Downing Street lobby briefing has just finished. And while the prime minister’s spokesman claimed (not entirely convincingly) that Boris Johnson is not doing any government work while he continues to recuperate at Chequers, he confirmed that the government’s priority is now to avoid a second peak - a line that Johnson reportedly stressed when he discussed the coronavirus crisis with Dominic Raab and his closest aides at the end of last week. (See 9.07am.) The spokesman said:
The big concern is a second peak. That is what ultimately will do the most damage to health and the most damage to the economy. If you move too quickly, then the virus could begin to spread exponentially again. The public will expect us to do everything we can to stop the spread of the virus and protect life.
The spokesman also reminded journalists that Raab, the foreign secretary and first secretary of state, said last week that a second peak of infections would be damaging not just for people’s health, but for the economy too.
For an illustration as to what a second peak might look like, here is a graph from a paper (pdf) produced by Sage, the scientific advisory group for emergencies, for the government last month.
I will post more from the briefing shortly.
Updated
Here is a Guardian video explaining how coronavirus testing works.
Scotland death toll rises by 12 to 915
As my colleague Severin Carrell reports, Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland’s first minister, has been giving the latest coronavirus case numbers and death figures for Scotland.
@NicolaSturgeon says 12 more people recorded to have died in last 24 hours from #Covid19, taking total fatalities to 915, with 169 people in intensive care #coronavirusuk
— Severin Carrell (@severincarrell) April 20, 2020
The number of positive cases from testing rose by 263 to a total of 8450 since the #coronavirusuk epidemic began; there are 1809 people in hospital with proven or suspected #Covid19
— Severin Carrell (@severincarrell) April 20, 2020
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Sir Keir Starmer, the Labour leader, has restated his call for the government to give more details about its coronavirus exit strategy. He made that point in a briefing with Dominic Raab, the foreign secretary, this morning also involving other opposition leaders. After it was over a spokesperson for Starmer said:
This morning Keir Starmer and other opposition leaders were briefed over the phone by the foreign secretary and senior government officials about the coronavirus pandemic. The call was constructive.
During the call, the Labour Leader raised his concerns about the availability of PPE to key workers and asked how the government would address the current shortages of supply. He also asked how confident the government was on hitting the target of 100,000 tests a day by the end of the month.
Keir Starmer reiterated his support for the government’s decision to extend the lockdown, but asked what planning was being put in place for when the restrictions are lifted.
All sides agreed to further briefings in the weeks ahead.
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The Duke of Edinburgh, 98, has issued a rare public message to pay tribute to all those carrying out “vital and urgent” work in the coronavirus pandemic. Prince Philip, who along with the Queen, is being shielded at Windsor Castle, retired from public life in 2017, and has lived privately since. In his statement he said:
As we approach world immunisation week, I wanted to recognise the vital and urgent work being done by so many to tackle the pandemic; by those in the medical and scientific professions, at universities and research institutions, all united in working to protect us from Covid-19.
On behalf of those of us who remain safe and at home, I also wanted to thank all key workers who ensure the infrastructure of our life continues; the staff and volunteers working on food production and distribution, those keeping postal and delivery services going, and those ensuring the rubbish continues to be collected.
Philip is affiliated to more than 750 organisations , including scientific and technological research, healthcare and infrastructure sectors which have been responding to the outbreak.
The Duke of Edinburgh has written a message to everyone who is helping to tackle the pandemic and keep essential services running. Read the message in full at: https://t.co/91oQHns3ZN pic.twitter.com/UNcomwRSWU
— The Royal Family (@RoyalFamily) April 20, 2020
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The Dragon’s Heart hospital, an emergency hospital set up at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff, is opening today, WalesOnline reports.
The Dragon's Heart Hospital in Cardiff will be officially opened today as it prepares to treat coronavirus patients @CV_UHBhttps://t.co/zBnFYFEfZV pic.twitter.com/73ZcrpLCb6
— Cardiff Online (@cardiffonline) April 20, 2020
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Firms should only be using government furlough scheme if they can't afford to pay staff themselves, says Dowden
Oliver Dowden, the culture secretary, told ITV’s Good Morning Britain this morning that firms should only use the government’s coronavirus job retention scheme - the furlough initiative, which opened for business this morning - if they could not afford to keep paying staff themselves. He made the point when asked about a story saying Victoria Beckham is using the scheme for staff at her fashion company. Dowden would not comment on the Beckham story, but speaking generally he said:
We are facing an unprecedented global health crisis and in response to that we have taken unprecedented measures which are clearly having a big effect on the economy.
I think each person and each company should ask themselves: do they have to rely on the taxpayer? Because this scheme is meant to be for, if you are about to make someone redundant and you haven’t got the money to continue to employ them, then you can rely on the government to stop people being made redundant.
I don’t know the details of her [Beckham’s] fashion business. I’m not going to comment on each one in turn, but the clear principle is: you should only be using it if you have to.
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Muslims are being told to “pray at home and share Ramadan digitally” because of the coronavirus pandemic. The Muslim Council of Britain has published guidance showing how this can be done ahead of the holy month, which begins on Thursday (April 23).
Dexter Blackstock, the former Queens Park Rangers and Nottingham Forest striker, now runs a medical technology firm that is involved in a project enabling people to donate to help provide more PPE (personal protective equipment) for NHS staff, my colleague Jacob Steinberg reports.
A list of essential workers has been published by the Stormont administration, PA Media reports. They include food and personal protective equipment producers in Northern Ireland. Utilities, water and waste treatment and construction supporting the health service and food industry are also permitted to continue.
The list was drawn up in consultation with a forum including the Chamber of Commerce, CBI, trade unions and Northern Ireland’s Public Health Agency (PHA). The economy minister, Diane Dodds, said:
The list is published for advisory purposes to allow companies to make their own decisions. If a company can work within the social distancing guidelines, then it should do so. The safety guidance will have practical application in the workplace.
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Boris Johnson and those five missed Cobra meetings - Who's right, government or Sunday Times?
Yesterday the Sunday Times (paywall) said that Boris Johnson missed five meetings of the government’s Cobra emergency committee and that this was unusual because Cobra meets “at moments of great peril” and it “normally chaired by the prime minister”. In its rebuttal the government said that this was wrong and that it was normal for Cobra to be chaired by a relevant secretary of state.
The matters because the “five missed Cobra meetings” anecdote encapsulates a much wider argument - that Johnson was negligent in his early handling of coronavirus because he did not take it seriously enough. No 10 is working on the basis that, if it can discredit this anecdote, it might stop the wider narrative gaining credence.
On the very narrow point about whether it is normal for Cobra to be chaired by the PM, Tony Blair seemed to back up the Sunday Times’ claim. (See 10.03am.) Gordon Brown has not commented, but Damian McBride, his communications chief, has in tweets that argue that, if Cobra was convened, the PM should have been in the chair.
During the Foot & Mouth crisis in 2007, GB didn’t just attend every COBRA meeting, he chaired them all. There were no 'experts' telling him when to tune in. If that's what we got from a PM for a disease that didn't even threaten human life, was it too much to ask for Coronavirus? pic.twitter.com/pFirda9BX0
— Damian McBride (@DPMcBride) April 19, 2020
I’m enjoying the folks simultaneously missing and proving my point, by saying the 2007 Foot & Mouth crisis was no big deal compared to the disastrous outbreak in 2001. As I’ve written previously, the very first thing GB did in 2007 was immerse himself in those lessons from 2001. pic.twitter.com/OWkZgOaFga
— Damian McBride (@DPMcBride) April 19, 2020
However, what these interventions from the Blair/Brown years miss is the extent to which there seems to have been Cobra-inflation over recent years. Partly because of what happened in the New Labour years, governments discovered that if they wanted to persuade the media they were taking a crisis serious, they had to convene Cobra, journalists started expected Cobra meetings to take place as a matter of course and over time less-urgent Cobra meetings, chaired by officials or ministers, because more common. Richard Benyon, a former junior environment minister under David Cameron, made this point on Twitter yesterday.
I’m astonished by @thesundaytimes reporting that PM didn’t attend every Cobra meeting. I attended several none of which were chaired by PM. As the lowest form of ministerial life I even chaired one. A ridiculous piece of journalism
— Richard Benyon (@RichardHRBenyon) April 19, 2020
So the government is correct in saying it is not unusual for the PM not to chair Cobra.
But one of the paradoxes of journalism is that it is not unusual for a story to be wrong on a narrow point of detail or interpretation but nevertheless accurate in that it conveys a broader truth. And the Sunday Times Insight report is probably a good example. On 5 March, in an interview about coronavirus, Johnson was still arguing it should be “business as usual for the overwhelming majority of people in this country”. The evidence that Johnson (like many others, including some government scientists) was slow to grasp the seriousness of the coronavirus threat is strong.
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Virgin boss Richard Branson says airline survival depends on government loan
Sir Richard Branson has warned that the survival of airline Virgin Atlantic depends on it receiving government support.
The Virgin Group boss wrote in a blog post:
Together with the team at Virgin Atlantic, we will do everything we can to keep the airline going - but we will need government support to achieve that in the face of the severe uncertainty surrounding travel today and not knowing how long the planes will be grounded for.
This would be in the form of a commercial loan - it wouldn’t be free money and the airline would pay it back (as easyJet will do for the 600 million loan the government recently gave them).
The reality of this unprecedented crisis is that many airlines around the world need government support and many have already received it.
Without it there won’t be any competition left and hundreds of thousands more jobs will be lost, along with critical connectivity and huge economic value.
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Government 'somewhat behind the curve' at start of coronavirus crisis, says Blair
Tony Blair, the former Labour prime minister, has been giving interviews this morning to promote a report on how to ease the lockdown written by his thinktank, the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change. Broadly he has been trying to avoid criticising the government, but in an interview with the BBC’s Victoria Derbyshire he got sucked into the argument about whether Boris Johnson was at fault for missing five meetings of the Cobra emergency committee on coronavirus in the early weeks of the crisis.
This was the central allegation in a Sunday Times Insight investigation published yesterday (paywall). That prompted the government to publish a 2,000-word rebuttal last night that said, among other things, that the Sunday Times was wrong to say Cobra was normally chaired by the PM.
Asked if Johnson should have attended those Cobra meetings, Blair largely avoided the invitation to criticise the PM - although he did insinuate that Johnson might have been somewhat negligent. Blair said:
I just don’t want to be in that game because I know how difficult it is for all of them.
People ask me: were there any Cobra meetings you missed? The frank answer is I can’t remember at this distance of time. Obviously if you have Cobra it’s because it is a serious emergency.
I’m sure the people in government have been doing everything they possibly can. I think the most important thing is not who’s doing their job well and who’s doing it badly, it’s whether you have the right combination of skill at the centre of government to handle some of these things.
But Derbyshire came back to the topic towards the end of what was a long interview, and this time she did get Blair to come out with a more direct criticism. He said:
If you talk to people in government themselves, I think what they would say is in the period of the initial start of the disease, in the period in other words between the start of the disease and the suppression, I think most people would accept the government was somewhat behind the curve. It is easy to say that with hindsight, but I think people probably accept that, even in government.
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Scotland’s emergency hospital for Covid-19 patients, the NHS Louisa Jordan, will be ready to receive patients from today after construction on the £43m facility was finished.
The facility was built in around 18 days in exhibition halls at the Scottish Events Campus in Glasgow, and will initially offer 300 beds with the potential to expand capacity to 1,036 beds.
Although the majority of emergency coronavirus hospitals in the UK are named after Florence Nightingale, a pioneer of professional nursing who ran field hospitals in the Crimean War, the Scottish site is named after a nurse who died treating troops in Serbia in 1915, during a typhus outbreak.
Its completion comes amid growing confidence the facility will not be needed as the number of critical cases in Scotland shows signs of plateauing.
Although weekend data does not cover all fatalities, it emerged yesterday that 10 more people had died in hospital in Scotland from Covid-19, bringing the death toll to 903.
There has been a further drop in the numbers being treated in intensive care, down by eight, to a total yesterday of 174. In all, 1,797 people are in Scottish hospital with confirmed or suspected Covid-19, a rise of four.
Non-British essential workers should be offered citizenship, says Plaid Cymru
Non-British key workers who are on the coronavirus frontline in the NHS and elsewhere should be granted British citizenship, Plaid Cymru is proposing. In a letter to the home secretary, the Plaid MP Hywel Williams said:
Despite their valiant efforts, many key workers who do not hold British citizenship, from doctors to hospital cleaners and from nursing home aides to paramedics, are still living in perpetual uncertainty about whether they can stay in the UK permanently. To add insult to injury, they also face exorbitant application fees.
This pandemic has shown that immigrants are a vital part of our society and our economy. It is therefore crucial that the UK government recognises the scale of sacrifice and commitment that key workers are making.
The UK government granted the Gurkhas British citizenship rights for their great skill, courage and dignity during some of the most difficult times in history.
The coronavirus pandemic is no different. I hope that you will consider this request carefully and give immediate, free citizenship to all key workers who have applied, thereby granting them the honour and recognition they deserve.
Williams also pointed out that 25% of UK hospital staff were born overseas.
A ‘good news’ tweet from NHS England
A lovely moment yesterday as staff cheer and clap the first patients leaving @NightingaleLDN to continue their recovery. Well done team! 👏👏👏 #ThankYouNHS https://t.co/AGaV8BdJ3F pic.twitter.com/5qGyT6vG7j
— NHS England and NHS Improvement (@NHSEngland) April 20, 2020
At yesterday’s government press conference Jenny Harries, the deputy chief medical officer for England, urged journalists to have “a more adult, and more detailed conversation” about shortages of PPE (personal protective equipment). The government was facing an unprecedented challenge, she said, and much had been achieved.
Her comments have angered the Doctors’ Association UK, a trade association for doctors. Its chair, Dr Rinesh Parmar said:
Doctors have indeed been having both ‘adult and detailed conversations’ about the sheer lack of personal protective equipment for months, all of which have fallen on deaf ears. Since late February the Doctors’ Association UK and frontline doctors have been sounding the alarm about potential shortages, which have been met with misplaced reassurances that the UK has sufficient supplies.
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Johnson 'very concerned' about second wave of infections if lockdown lifted too soon, says No 10 source
Good morning. I’m Andrew Sparrow, taking over from Matthew Weaver.
Boris Johnson is not back at work yet but, as we have reported already (see 7.26am), it is already clear that he is starting to exert a firm grip on the government’s handling of coronavirus. On Saturday the Daily Telegraph ran a story (paywall) quoting an unnamed cabinet minister saying pressure for the lockdown was coming from the public, not from ministers. It said:
A third cabinet source said: “There’s no exit plan at the moment because they don’t want to do anything without the boss’s say so. “Not a huge amount is going on in these cabinet meetings.”
The source added: “They are waiting for the public to change their minds.
“We didn’t want to go down this route in the first place – public and media pressure pushed the lockdown, we went with the science.
“The lockdown will only start coming loose when the public wants it to – not ministers.”
Today Steven Swinford in the Times (paywall) says that when Johnson had a meeting with Dominic Raab, the foreign secretary, and aides at Chequers on Friday (Raab and some advisers were there in person; other officials participated by video conference), the prime minister expressed extreme caution about the idea of lifting the lockdown. Swinford reports:
Mr Johnson said that his priority was to help Britain to recover and return to what aides have described as a “new normal” after the pandemic had passed its peak. He raised concerns that lifting restrictions too soon could result in a “second peak” and bring another lockdown, with a significant cost to health and the economy.
“The idea that we will be rushing to lift measures is a non-starter,” a government source said. “If the transmission rate rises significantly we will have to do a harder lockdown again” ...
“It’s a question of how comfortable you are with the virus circulating in the community,” a source said. “Everyone wants the rate of transmission to be below 1 [when one person infects, on average, less than one other person]. But the question is how much lower it should be.”
Mr Johnson is concerned that relatively little is known about the effect that easing individual restrictions could have on the transmission rate.
Asked about the Times report, Oliver Dowden, the culture secretary, effectively confirmed it on the BBC this morning. (See 8.17am.) Downing Street is also giving the story the thumbs up. Asked about this this morning, a No 10 source said:
The PM is very concerned about a second peak if we lift the restrictions too soon.
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The Scottish government is urging Boris Johnson to extend the Brexit transition period by the maximum possible period of two years.
Michael Russell, Scotland’s cabinet secretary for Europe, said prolonging the transition until the end of 2022 would allow time to rethink the future relationship with the EU. In a statement he said:
The benefits of coordinated European action have never been clearer. An extended transition will keep the UK as close as possible to the EU and provide an opportunity to re-think the future relationship.
He also accused the UK government of pushing ahead in talks with the EU without involving the devolved government at Edinburgh.
The joint ministerial committee on EU negotiations, which is composed of representatives from the four nations of the UK, has not met since January, Russell said.
The voices of all four UK nations must be heard and I am therefore calling for an urgent meeting of the joint ministerial committee (European negotiations) which has the task of overseeing negotiations. Clearly if it does not meet, it cannot oversee.
His intervention came as EU and UK negotiators prepared to hold their first-ever negotiations via video link on Monday. This week’s four-day round of talks is only the second set of negotiations on a post-Brexit future. Coronavirus has led to the cancellation of two previous rounds, squeezing an already tight timetable to forge a wide-ranging deal on trade and security by the end of the year.
Updated
Dowden also defended Boris Johnson’s failure to attend five Cobra meetings about coronavirus at the start of the outbreak.
Asked whether the prime minister’s attendance didn’t matter, Dowden told Today:
Bluntly, no, it didn’t because he was he was engaged personally, as the prime minister is through Downing Street with the outcome of those committee meetings.
He was constantly being briefed on it. It’s perfectly normal for the prime minister to delegate to the health secretary, or whoever the relevant secretary of state is to chair Cobras. It has been the case in relation to floods and other things in the past and indeed, has happened on the previous governments. This is the normal, proper course of government.
Updated
Dowden has now rowed back on his earlier suggestion that the delayed PPE shipment will arrive today. Speaking on the Today programme he said the government was only “hopeful” that the flight would take off today.
He said:
The latest information I have is that we are hopeful that the flight will take place this afternoon. But obviously I want to be very cautious about making promises on this that that can’t be kept.
There’s some challenges at the Turkish end in terms of getting the relevant paperwork and other related issues but we are very hopeful that later today, we will get that flight from Turkey.
Updated
Easing lockdown prematurely would be 'worst thing' to do, says culture secretary
Dowden also confirmed that the government wais reluctant to lift the lockdown for fear of sparking a second wave of infections.
He told BBC Breakfast:
The worst thing we could possibly do would be to prematurely ease the restrictions, and then find a second peak and have to go right back to square one again, potentially with even more draconian measures.
Asked when the government might allow mass gathering again, Dowden suggested ministers are considering a staggering an easing of the restrictions. He said:
You wouldn’t expect us to permit mass gatherings at a first stage. But I don’t again, I think it’s not going to be helpful to speculate as to what we might do for the simple reason that the evidence is continuing to evolve.
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NHS boss says he has 'relatively low confidence' Turkish PPE consignment will arrive today
Chris Hopson, chief executive of NHS Providers, has cast doubt on the government’s claim that the delayed PPE shipment form Turkey will arrive today.
Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, he said:
As of an hour ago, there is relatively low confidence that will it will arrive today. If it is going to arrive today, it’ll probably arrive very late on in the day. It just illustrates that we need to be careful about focusing on individual consignments.
Bitter experience over the last few weeks has shown than until a consignment of gowns has actually landed, that the boxes have been checked and the equipment’s been tested, the NHS simply can’t count on the gowns being available at the front line.
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Minute's silence to be held for NHS workers killed by coronavirus
Dowden also backed Labour and union call for a minute’s silence to honour the NHS workers who have died from coronavirus.
Dowden, who as culture minister has responsibility for such ceremonies, suggested the government would soon announce that an official minute’s silence will be held. He said:
I think it is a very good idea and we are looking into it. As culture secretary I have responsibility for ceremonials and things like minute’s silence. And we are actively looking into that.
Asked if it would be an official minute’s silence, Dowden said: “Yes I think it could be, but we will make an announcement on that at an appropriate time.”
The Labour leader Keir Starmer, responding to the call by Unison, the Royal College of Nursing and Royal College of Midwives for a minute’s silence to honour all workers who have died from coronavirus, said:
Our key workers are literally putting their lives on the line in the fight against the coronavirus. They represent the best of us. That is why Labour wholeheartedly supports the call for a minute’s silence in honour of all those on the frontline who have died from coronavirus.
Updated
The government has said the delayed delivery of PPE from Turkey is due to arrive later today. The culture secretary, Oliver Dowden, said he expected the flight to take off this afternoon.
Speaking to BBC Breakfast, he said he did not want to make further promises after his cabinet colleague Robert Jenrick said the shipment would arrive on Sunday. But Dowden added that it was his understanding the delivery would be made later on Monday.
Jenrick promised the shipment would consist of 84 tonnes of PPE, including 400,000 much-needed surgical gowns.
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Boris Johnson 'against lifting lockdown over second wave fears'
Welcome to our UK coronavirus live blog.
Boris Johnson is reported to be cautious about easing the lockdown for fear of sparking a second wave of coronavirus infections.
According to the Times, the prime minister held a two-hour meeting on Friday with key figures in the government at which he said lifting restrictions too soon could result in a “second peak” and lead to another lockdown.
Meanwhile, hospital leaders have directly attacked the government for the first time during crisis over the shortage of personal protective amid increasing frustration at delays to a promise shipment of PPE from Turkey.
And the government’s chief scientific adviser, Sir Patrick Vallance, has warned that vaccines are “long shots” in the immediate fight against coronavirus.
Writing in the Guardian, he said:
All new vaccines that come into development are long shots; only some end up being successful, and the whole process requires experimentation.
Coronavirus will be no different and presents new challenges for vaccine development. This will take time, and we should be clear it is not a certainty.
Updated
