That’s it from me, Nadeem Badshah. To continue following our coronavirus coverage, you can check out our global liveblog
Updated
Summary of today's developments:
- NHS England announced 327 further deaths of people who tested positive for Covid-19, bringing the total number of reported deaths in hospitals in England to 21,180.
- A further 14 people have died after testing positive in Wales, taking the total number of deaths to 983. In Scotland, a further 12 people have died which brings the total to 1,571. There have been a further five confirmed deaths of patients who tested positive for Covid-19 in Northern Ireland, bringing the total deaths in the region to 381. The total UK death toll now stands at 28,446.
- Cabinet Office Minister Michael Gove reveals 76,496 coronavirus tests were carried out in the 24 hours to 9am this morning, which is substantially below the 100,000 target it had set. He said the government has pledged an additional £1.6 billion to councils across England to support their “essential frontline services” including adult social care.
- Gove also suggested the easing of lockdown restrictions will be “staged” and will not be a “flick of the switch”. He added that 90% of rough sleepers known to councils have been given an offer of accommodation since the end of March.
- Professor Stephen Powis, the national medical director of NHS England, insisted the new NHS Nightingale hospitals were “absolutely 100% not” built in error, adding it would have been “foolish” not to plan for extra capacity.
- Fewer people would have died from coronavirus in the UK if the country had greater testing capacity sooner, transport secretary Grant Shapps said. Asked whether fewer people would have died if testing capacity had been greater sooner, he told BBC One’s The Andrew Marr Show: “Yes. If we had had 100,000 test capacity before this thing started and the knowledge that we now have retrospectively I’m sure many things could be different.”
- Three rail unions have written to Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Nicola Sturgeon, the First Minister of Scotland, Mark Drakeford, the First Minister of Wales, and Sadiq Khan, the Mayor of London, saying this is not the time to lift the lockdown and run more trains. The joint letter – signed by the heads of ASLEF, RMT and the TSSA– says it is “completely unacceptable” to put the lives of passengers and rail staff at risk.
Police have arrested 13 people and issued 11 more with fines after breaking up two parties in Liverpool.
Three officers were assaulted after attending one of the house parties in Garmoyle Road, Wavertree.
Eleven people, most of whom had travelled from Greater Manchester, were issued with fixed penalty notices for breaching Covid-19 legislation yesterday.
A 20-year-old woman, from Hyde in Greater Manchester, was arrested on suspicion of breach of Covid-19 legislation and three counts of assaulting constables after becoming aggressive when officers attended.
Police were called to Duke Street, in the city centre, in the early hours after suspicions a group had forced entry to a property and were holding a party.
Officers arrested four people in the car on suspicion of burglary.
Eight more people were arrested on suspicion of burglary after officers attended the property, a police spokesman said.
Updated
Dr Bharat Pankhania, senior clinical lecturer at University of Exeter Medical School, on the tracing app.
No one asks at the Downing St. press conference why the UK has chosen to develop a application which collects data centrally. People may not use it if data is collected centrally by the Gov.
— Dr Bharat Pankhania (@doctorshaib) May 3, 2020
Gove said the NHS is developing the app. I understand it is a private enterprise.
Gove was also challenged about the role of Trevor Phillips in the inquiry over BAME patients, which has been the subject of controversy for his previous remarks about Muslims and his suspension from Labour.
He said Phillips, when he was chair of the Equalities and Human Rights Committee, was always “driven by the data”.
Gove described Phillips as a “distinguished” public servant.
Updated
The daily press briefing from Downing Street has now concluded.
Gove is asked about the inquiry into the disproportionate impact of coronavirus on BAME people.
He replies there “appears to be a significant number of deaths” in the BAME community.
He added there may be a greater prevalence of conditions such as diabetes in some communities but another factor may be inequality.
But he said he does not want to “prejudge” the inquiry.
Prof Powis said the R -rate is around 0.7 but the figure has yet to be finalised.
Is @michaelgove coming close there to saying there will be a public inquiry into this mess at the end of it?
— ALASTAIR CAMPBELL (@campbellclaret) May 3, 2020
Gove is asked how many prisoners have been released due to the coronavirus outbreak.
He replies the early release of prisons was “just one part” of reducing the number of cases in prisons in order to protect the NHS. Gove says pregnant women were at the front of the queue for release. He added at least 33 people had been released but the number is higher now.
When asked about his confidence in models predicting what may happen with any change in lockdown rules, Prof Powis said “the reality will always be different from the model, it will not exactly replicate the model” and “there are some unknowns”.
He said the public had been “really excellent at complying” with the rules, and thus far trends have tended to follow the models produced.
He added: “It’s followed it pretty much in the shape of what we’ve seen so that does give me some confidence that going forward models are a reasonable way of predicting what we might see.
“They do predict that over the next month or so we will continue to see a decline in the number of patients in hospital with Covid-19, the number of people in critical care and indeed the number of deaths.”
He added: “They will never be an absolute perfect prediction of reality but I have confidence that going forward they will give us a very good guide of what we are likely to see.”
Prof Powis has insisted the new NHS Nightingale hospitals were “absolutely 100% not” built in error after reported emerged of a low capacity of patients.
He said it would have been “foolish” not to plan for extra capacity in the NHS, and it is “good news” that the Nightingales’ capacity has not been reached. Prof Powis says there is still a possibility they could yet be needed. He suggests the peak of the virus in the UK was around mid-April.
Gove says the government plans a “staged” return with ministers working with employers and unions to help workers understand safety guidance and public servants will be offered protective equipment varying “from setting to setting”.
He also says it is possible restrictions could be reimposed in a “localised way” but does not go into the specifics.
Gove praised health secretary Matt Hancock’s “amazing success in increasing testing”, which he said means the public will have “greater confidence” in the government as they move into the next phase of lockdown.
“The British public have shown amazing stoicism and understanding of the need for the lockdown measures,” he said.
“Quite rightly they want to make sure that if and when they are eased, they’re eased in way that makes sure the British people’s sacrifice has been worthwhile, and that we continue to operate in a way that means public health comes first.
“And that’s why it’s so important that we consult with employers and trade unions, to make sure that people understand the guidance about working safely.”
He said the government will pursue a “phased approach” to removing lockdown restrictions rather than a sudden return to “the old normal”.
The phrase a “new normal” has again been used.
Gove says there will be a time when the virus is under control when “deep and probing questions” about the government’s handling of the crisis can be posed.
“Undoubtedly this government, like all governments, will have made mistakes,” he admitted.
Further bemused reaction to those daily testing numbers falling below the 100,000 target.
Michael Gove puts the dip in testing numbers down to fewer people going to work over the weekend.
— Mikey Smith (@mikeysmith) May 3, 2020
Odd that a similar dip didn’t appear on previous Sundays.
If anything, the (slight) dips have previously been on Fridays. pic.twitter.com/bl1mSoL8Ti
Professor Stephen Powis has praised the resilience and professionalism of NHS staff.
He said: “What I learned is that the NHS and the great staff of the NHS, when given that challenge, can very, very rapidly put in place the extra capacity that is required.
“And they have done that magnificently, and at no point during the surge of cases in April was the NHS in a position where it was not able to give the treatment to patients with Covid-19 that they needed.
“That is a great testament to how well the NHS has been able to cope.
“And I think then the lesson going forward is one, that we can do that, but two, we need to keep that capacity in place.
“But we need to keep it in place at the same time as standing up all the other services that the NHS is providing.
“They’re the ones we’ve always provided, the emergency services, but some of the services that we’ve had to stand down during April, so elective surgery for instance.
“So my lesson is that the NHS is incredibly flexible. It can respond to this challenge, and it will respond to the challenge going forward into the months ahead.”
Gove says there are around 80,000 households on the Isle of Wight, where the NHS contact-tracing app is being trialled, and they want more than half of them to download it.
He added the dip in the number of coronavirus tests over the weekend is due to the fact it is the weekend and fewer people are at work.
More from Gove on what lessons have been learned for future waves of the virus and how the government will ensure there are enough PPE and ventilators in the future.
He said: “We’re learning lessons all the time, as indeed the world is.
“This is a new virus and scientists are working internationally to determine what the best means is of dealing with it.
“And that’s why we are piloting treatments which can prevent the virus, once people have been infected, becoming more dangerous for them.
“It’s also why we’re working internationally to seek to secure a vaccine, though of course we expect that may be some time away.
“But one of the things that we have learned is how to improve our testing capacity.
“We also now have increased domestic ventilator production and Lord Deighton is increasing domestic PPE production as well.
“And I think the lessons that we’re learning in the UK are similar to the lessons that other countries are learning as well.”
Michael Gove
— Paul Johnson (@paul__johnson) May 3, 2020
-What he said:
Total death toll now 28,446
-What he didn’t say:
UK now v close to worst toll in Europe -Italy 28,710
-What he said:
There were 76,496 test y’day
-What he didn’t say:
That’s nowhere near 100k target#COVID19 pic.twitter.com/kKhRpgFoYp
Gove is asked how the government will persuade people, when the lockdown is eventually eased, that it is safe to leave their homes.
He replies that Britons have displayed “stoicism” in the face of the lockdown.
He added that the lifting of the lockdown will be “staged” and not a “flick of the switch”, while he highlights how the right supplies of PPE will be necessary.
Gove also notes how the “amazing” increase in the level of testing will give people greater confidence when the lockdown is eased.
Updated
Gove said that 90% of rough sleepers known to councils have been given an offer of accommodation since the end of March.
Providing an update on work that was being done to help vulnerable people, he said the Government was nearing delivering its one millionth parcel of essential food.
In terms of NHS volunteers, he told the briefing that more than 600,000 people have been verified “and are helping with the daily errands that make such a significant difference”.
He added that officials were “working with supermarkets to make sure that a greater number of delivery slots are made available to those most in need”.
On how the government is finding a balance between the other impacts of lockdown compared to the impact of coronavirus infections, Gove said the government’s five tests for lifting the lockdown are an “appropriate” way to measure that balance.
Prof Powis said the harm that might be done as a direct effect due to the virus has to be balanced against the harms to health as a result of the lockdown, adding the NHS is “very aware” of this.
Dr Stephen Powis, national medical director, speaking alongside Michael Gove, says this is "a little bit of a dip in the weekend but we anticipate that that testing capacity will continue to increase". But doesn't seem to have been anything like that fall in previous weekends
— Jon Stone (@joncstone) May 3, 2020
On PPE, Gove said: “From February 25 to May 2 we had delivered over 1.08 billion items of PPE across the health and social care system within England.
“And tens of millions more have been distributed by our colleagues in the devolved administrations.
“This overall figure includes 149 million masks, 173 million aprons, two million gowns and 614 million gloves.
“On May 2 alone we delivered an additional 20 million items of PPE within England.”
He said there is “much more to do”.
Gove said the government has committed 100 million for remote learning for “those who need it most” and 180 video lessons per week were being supplied through the newly launched Oak National Academy.
“We’re particularly keen to help vulnerable and disadvantaged children to carry on with their education during the pandemic,” he said.
Gove added the government has ordered laptops for disadvantaged children sitting exams next year and for children with social workers to help them stay in touch with vital services.
He said free internet routers and free school meal vouchers are being provided for those who need them.
In response to a question about what lessons the government has learned to prepare the NHS for future waves of coronavirus infections, Gove says the UK has learned how to improve testing capacity, PPE production and the production of ventilators.
Prof Powis says, if the R rate of reproduction of the virus is kept below 1, the UK should be protected from future waves of infections. He added the NHS has been found to be “incredibly agile” in terms of increasing capacity when it is needed.
Prof Stephen Powis said the peak of hospital admissions has now passed, particularly in London.
Gove now hands over to Professor Stephen Powis, the national medical director of NHS England.
Prof Powis says Britons are continuing to respond to social distancing measures and have done so “magnificently”. He admits there has been a “dip” in the number of coronavirus tests conducted over the weekend, but says the testing level is expected to increase over the coming days. It’s “evident” the rate of coronavirus transmission in the community is decreasing despite the increase in testing which would show up more cases. He added: “The trend now is downwards” as he displays a graph of the number of deaths in the UK.
Prof Powis confirms the UK is through the peak of deaths.
Gove says the government wants a greater number of children classified as vulnerable to go to school. Currently only around one in ten are attending.
He added that 15,500 schools have asked to turn free school meals into food vouchers, with £35 million worth of vouchers claimed.
Gove pledges additional funding for councils
Gove says the government has pledged an additional £1.6 billion to councils across England to support their “essential frontline services” including adult social care.
Gove said “before we can ease the existing restrictions we must ensure the government’s five tests are met - that the number of cases are falling, that death rates are declining, that the NHS has what it needs, and that measures are in place to stop a second peak overwhelming the NHS.”
He said he is “particularly conscious” that those in the frontline of our public services will need “clear guidance on safe working”.
The minister added: “They’ll need the right personal protective equipment and appropriate access to testing if we are to make all the progress that we want in the weeks ahead.
“We’re consulting with employers and unions, professionals and public health experts, to establish how we can ensure that we have the safest possible working environments, and the Prime Minister will be saying more later this week.”
Gove said more than 200,000 key workers and their families had been tested for coronavirus.
He said criteria for testing had been extended beyond key workers to anyone over 65 displaying symptoms and anyone who has to travel to get to work.
Gove also confirmed that this week the government will be piloting new “test, track and trace procedures” on the Isle of Wight with a view to having them in place more widely later this month.
Reaction to Gove’s admission on the testing numbers.
Gove speaks very fast but he just admitted the government produced 76,496 tests yesterday, you don't need to be Einstein to know this is below the 100,000 target
— Jim Pickard (@PickardJE) May 3, 2020
Gove paid tribute to Muslims celebrating Ramadan during lockdown who are mourning the loss of a loved one.
He said: “For those experiencing the first Ramadan without a loved one, this will be a particularly painful time.
“As with Christians who could not celebrate Easter together in church, and the Jewish community whose Passover rituals were affected by social distancing, our thoughts are with Muslim neighbours who cannot break their fast together and must adapt their religious and cultural practices because of the crisis.”
The Cabinet Minister said: “The prime minister’s comprehensive plan will explain how we can get our economy moving, how we can get our children back to school, how we can travel to work more safely and how we can make life in the workplace safer.”
He added that over the Easter holidays, 60% of schools remained open for the children of key workers.
Government misses daily testing target
Gove reveals 76,496 coronavirus tests were carried out in the 24 hours to 9am this morning, which is below the 100,000 target it had previously set.
Updated
Gove says the prime minister will say more this week about how people will be allowed to go back to work when the UK’s lockdown is eased.
Cabinet Office Minister Michael Gove begins the briefing by confirming that 76,496 coronavirus tests were carried out in the 24 hours to 9am this morning.
And he announces 28,446 people have now died with coronavirus in the UK, up by 315 from 28,131 the day before.
Updated
The government’s 4pm briefing has been delayed and is expected to start within the next 20 minutes.
Updated
The Welsh government does “not see the science” in recent extensions to England’s testing policy, according to Wales’ health minister Vaughan Gething.
He also raised doubts about the benefits and validity of England’s 100,000 tests-per-day target and defended his own country’s decision not to extend testing to all care homes regardless of whether there is an outbreak.
Speaking to BBC Radio Wales, Gething said: “England have gone out and created lots of capacity very quickly and they’ve then gone out and used that capacity.
“The challenge is though, that from a policy point of view there is clearly a difference, but that’s partly because England decided that having set a big target they needed to go out and use all the tests.
“Now, other people will tell you about how many of those tests are actual tests, or tests that have been sent out.
“But part of the difficulty we’ve had is that the scientific underpinning for how and why you extend that policy isn’t something where there has been a fully informed debate in advance, and we don’t see that the science supports all of the differences in policy and the testing reach in England.”
Asked if Wales could increase its number of tests available, Gething said: “That capacity is being increased each week.
“For the current purpose of keeping people safe, in particular key workers, on understanding people in our healthcare system actually have coronavirus, we do have enough capacity.
“But the continued build-up of capacity here is being driven at what happens for us to be able to get out of lockdown.”
He also criticised the UK Government for including a testing centre in Cardiff on its test-booking website, despite it being under the control of the Welsh Government, and as such tells users that testing is “unavailable” in Wales.
Cabinet Office Minister Michael Gove is scheduled to lead the government’s press conference in around five minutes.
Joining him for the Downing Street briefing will be Professor Stephen Powis, the medical director for NHS England.
Airline UK, which represents British Airways, Easyjet, Virgin Atlantic, Ryanair and other UK-based airlines, has warned that a 14-day quarantine period “would effectively kill air travel”.
Transport secretary Grant Shapps today told the BBC a compulsory 14-day quarantine could be imposed on anyone arriving in the country so when infection rates in the country are under control “we’re not importing”.
Tim Alderslade, Airline UK chief executive, said a quarantine would “completely shut off the UK from the rest of the world when other countries are opening up their economies” and described the possible quarantine measure as a “blunt tool”.
Updated
A paramedic has died in hospital after contracting Covid-19.
He has been named locally as Robert Black from Campbeltown in Scotland. He died in a Glasgow hospital on Saturday.
Pauline Howie, chief executive of the Scottish Ambulance Service (SAS), who did not name Black, said the service had been “greatly saddened” by the loss of a “dear colleague”.
On behalf of the SAS, she offered her “heart-felt condolences and deepest sympathies” to his family.
Howie added: “I would also like to thank our NHS Scotland colleagues for the compassionate care they have shown our friend during their illness.”
Radio station Argyll FM, where Black worked, said on its Facebook page that he was “a much loved member” of the team and would be “sorely missed”.
Updated
At the Scottish government’s daily briefing, health secretary Jeane Freeman announced that outreach workers supplying emergency Naloxone, the life-saving overdose reversal drug, will not be prosecuted.
Whilst it might seem peculiar that anyone attempting to save a life would be at risk of breaking the law, remember that drug laws are reserved to Westminster, there are particular legal restrictions around who can supply this particular drug and this change will allow drug treatment services to offer the life-saving kits without any concerns.
Freeman said that the Lord Advocate has agreed that “it would not be in the public interest, for the duration of the current crisis, for any individual working for a service registered with the Scottish government to be prosecuted for supplying naloxone in an emergency to save a life”.
She also announced extra funding for two specialist organisations helping people with autism, acknowledging that changes to routine and stress are especially difficult for those who are autistic, as well as more support for young people and families – funding to develop digital resources on mental well-being for teens and funding for a helpline that specialises in help for those experiencing relationship difficulties.
Earlier on Sunday, first minister Nicola Sturgeon backed up the Welsh government on Twitter as regards who will make decisions about children returning to school. Both Welsh and Scottish governments have stressed that they would prefer a four nations approach to lifting lockdown, but the differences in tone between devolved administrations and Westminster are becoming ever more apparent.
Same for Scotland. @scotgov - in discussion with local authorities - will decide safe timetable for re-opening schools. And we will keep pupils, parents and the public properly informed along the way. https://t.co/dyI2Htny4r
— Nicola Sturgeon (@NicolaSturgeon) May 3, 2020
Professor Sir John Bell, Regius Professor of Medicine at Oxford University, has spoken about the prospect of a vaccine in the next year.
He told NBC “the prospects are pretty good, I certainly wouldn’t put the possibility at 80 percent”. Sir Bell said: “People who have dedicated their careers to this kind of a problem have a tendency to get excited about the prospects because the prospects are pretty good.
“I certainly wouldn’t put the possibility at 80% -- that’s a pretty big number. But we are gradually reeling it in bit by bit and as every day goes by, the likelihood of success goes up.”
He added: “We’ve already started clinical trials, so we’ve already given the vaccine to about a thousand people and we’re going to grow that pretty rapidly.
“We’ve consolidated the phase one and two programs because we are pretty confident that the vector itself is safe because it’s been used in about 5,000 people already up to now.
“So that’s allowed us to really accelerate the phase one program and we hope that there would be enough disease that we would get evidence that the vaccine has efficacy by the beginning of June.”
Of the 21,180 reported coronavirus deaths so far in hospitals in England, 11,090 (52%) have been people aged 80 and over while 8,238 (39%) were 60-79.
A further 1,691 (8%) were aged 40-59, with 150 (1%) aged 20-39 and 11 (0.05%) aged 0-19, according to NHS England.
The number of deaths announced so far by University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust has reached 778, the highest number for any trust in England.
London North West University Healthcare NHS Trust has announced 520 deaths.
Three trusts have announced between 400 and 500 deaths: the Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust (446), King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust (432) and Barts Health NHS Trust (412).
A further seven trusts have announced between 300 and 400 deaths.
Further 14 coronavirus deaths reported in Wales
A further 14 people have died after testing positive for coronavirus in Wales, taking the total number of deaths to 983, Public Health Wales said.
Another 174 people have tested positive for Covid-19, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to 10,329.
Further 12 coronavirus deaths reported in Scotland
As of 2pm today, 12,097 people positive for coronavirus in Scotland while 1,571 patients have sadly died, an increase of 12.
Some 60,295 people in Scotland have been tested for the virus.
Updated
Further five Covid-19 deaths reported in Northern Ireland
There have been a further five confirmed deaths of patients who tested positive for Covid-19 in Northern Ireland, according to the Department of Health, bringing the total deaths in the region to 381.
Updated
Further 327 Covid-19 deaths announced in England
NHS England has announced 327 new deaths of people who tested positive for Covid-19, bringing the total number of confirmed reported deaths in hospitals in England to 21,180.
Of the 327 new deaths announced today:
- 56 occurred on May 2
- 125 occurred on May 1
- 43 occurred on April 30
The data also show 95 of the new deaths took place between April 1 and April 29 while the remaining eight deaths occurred in March, with the earliest new death taking place on March 28.
The figures published today by NHS England show April 8 remains the day with the highest number for the most hospital deaths occurring with a total of 867.
A “doomsday” management exercise in which Tesco, the UK’s biggest supermarket chain imagined its head office would have to shut down completely, helped the company to cope with the impact of the pandemic.
Sarah Butler has written an interesting piece, based on an interview with Tesco’s chief executive, Dave Lewis.
In January, Tesco’s first concerns about the coronavirus were focused on ensuring its non-food ranges were not affected by the impact of the outbreak in China.
But by the end of that month the supermarket had spied big potential problems looming, and had a crisis response group in place which was holding daily meetings.
Rail unions wan against lifting lockdown to run more trains
Three rail unions have written to Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Nicola Sturgeon, the First Minister of Scotland, Mark Drakeford, the First Minister of Wales, and Sadiq Khan, the Mayor of London, saying this is not the time to lift the lockdown and run more trains.
The joint letter – signed by the heads of ASLEF, RMT and the TSSA– says it is ‘completely unacceptable’ to put the lives of passengers and rail staff at risk.
They warn:
We have severe concerns over attempts by operators to increase service levels. First, it sends out a mixed message that it is okay to travel by train – despite official advice suggesting otherwise. This mixed messaging could be dangerous and lead to the public flouting the rules on travel and work.
Second, there is no agreement on how actually services can be increased whilst protecting workers and passengers. This includes protections through social distancing, adequate and appropriate PPE, and determination of essential and non-essential tasks.
Deborah Buchanan, a woman in Northern Ireland who shared a final photo of her dying mum in hospital in a bid to get people to wake up to the realities of coronavirus, wrote about it on Facebook.
“We had to watch her gasp her last breaths and slip away in agony. My dad says this is the worst thing he has ever felt in his life, he fears going to sleep incase he doesn’t wake up. They hadn’t left the house in weeks but still picked this up and both took very unwell,” she wrote.
The BBC declined the opportunity today to respond publicly to the letter from culture minister Oliver Dowden, but a spokesperson did that they the broadcaster wanted to highlight comments by the prime minister earlier in the week in relation to personal protective equipment (PPE).
Speaking at the No 10 briefing for the first time since recovering from the virus, he said:
I’m not going to minimise the logistical problems we’ve faced in getting the right protective gear to the right people in the right place, both in the NHS and care homes.
The BBC has stood by its defence of a Panorama investigation exposing shortages of personal protective equipment (PPE) among healthcare workers, after a formal complaint from the culture secretary.
Oliver Dowden, in a letter to the BBC director general, Tony Hall, claimed the corporation was at risk of losing the public’s confidence amid accusations of political bias.
Last week Panorama reported that gowns, visors, swabs and body bags were left out of the government’s stockpile when it was set up in 2009. Some of the items are now in short supply.
Since the programme aired, a number of NHS workers who were interviewed for it were reported to be either longstanding members or supporters of the Labour party.
Dowden also referred to another recent incident in which the BBC admitted it had made a mistake by reporting that a boss of an NHS trust had contacted the broadcaster with concerns about the provision of gowns for staff during the coronavirus crisis.
“I am sure you will agree that it is vital that public confidence is maintained in the BBC’s longstanding reputation for fair and balanced reporting, and that any damage to that would be deeply concerning,” Dowden wrote in the letter, excerpts of which have been published by the Mail on Sunday.
A spokesperson for the BBC confirmed on Sunday that it had received Dowden’s letter, adding it would respond in due course. It referred to a statement issued last week that said sources for its PPE revelations were not the doctors who appeared on the show.
There’s a moving story in Northern Ireland’s Sunday Life newspaper about a woman who shared a final photo of her dying mum in hospital in a bid to get people to wake up to the realities of coronavirus.
Deborah Buchanan, from Antrim, posted the image just hours after mum Joan Wright (75) died from Covid-19 on Thursday.
“This is the reality of coronavirus. Wake up and wise up,” said Deborah, from Newtownabbey, as she urged people to stay at home.
Updated
A view on the UK from a Chinese village which isolated itself during the worst days of the pandemic there, courtesy of a Financial Times reporter in China.
View on Europe from a resident of a village in Zhejiang, population roughly 250, which cut itself off from outside for a month due to the coronavirus epidemic. "In the UK, people follow capitalists. Here we follow the government. And the virus doesn't care about money," he said
— Tom Hancock (@hancocktom) May 3, 2020
A woman has had to bury her daughter and husband within days of each other after both died from coronavirus.
Tributes were paid to former police officer and Red Cross director David Whincup, 79, and his daughter Joanne Rennison, 52, who both passed away after contracting the disease.
MP David Davis described Whincup, from Cottingham in east Yorkshire, as an “utterly decent man”. “David was the kindest, most thoughtful and utterly decent man I have ever had the privilege to meet. He had a fantastic commitment to selfless public service. We shall all miss him greatly,” he added.
Whincup, who lived with his wife, Margaret, their daughter Joanne and granddaughter Alice, said his greatest achievement was his family. He worked as a director for the Red Cross and prior to that he was a Humberside police officer for more than 30 years.
His charity work raised thousands of pounds for causes in Hull and East Yorkshire and he supported many other charities as a founder member of Haltemprice Lions club in 1973, serving as president four times and as secretary.
This evening’s Downing St briefing at 4pm will be fronted by Michael Gove, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, and Stephen Powis, National Medical Director of NHS England.
This is Ben Quinn picking up the blog again now while Nadeem takes a break.
More details on the smartphone app to trace the spread of coronavirus which will be trialled on the Isle of Wight this week before being rolled out more widely later this month.
Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said around 50% to 60% of people will need to use the software for it to be effective as he described it as the “best possible way to help the NHS”.
The NHSX app is part of the government’s test, track and trace strategy and will be central to its efforts in slowing the spread of coronavirus.
Contact tracing has been used extensively in South Korea, Hong Kong and Germany, where outbreaks have been contained more quickly.
The government intends to use the app and a phone team to carry out the tracing.
It will be downloaded on to smartphones and use bluetooth technology to work out when other app users are in close enough proximity to potentially spread the virus.
The data is recorded under an anonymous ID, rather than by the person’s name.
If someone starts showing symptoms, or tests positive for Covid-19, they are able to share that on the app.
The app then sends a notification warning of possible infection to all those phone users to have come in requisite proximity recently.
Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London, has posted this video on Twitter to thank Londoners for observing the lockdown rules.
By staying at home, we are protecting our NHS and saving lives.
— Sadiq Khan (@SadiqKhan) May 3, 2020
Thank you London. #LondonTogether pic.twitter.com/lf3LGXZJtR
On a lighter note, actor Eddie Marsan has tackled the challenge of appearing in a new television series while in lockdown by recruiting his family as film crew and performers.
Marsan and his wife Janine juggled home-schooling their four children while capturing his scenes for ITV’s Isolation Stories, a four-part drama about families during the coronavirus pandemic.
Covid-19 outbreak restrictions saw Janine step behind the camera for the first time to help capture her husband’s performance while two of their children joined in the acting.
On his wife’s directorial debut, Marsan told the BBC Andrew Marr show on Sunday: “She was fantastic, she really took it on.
“She was moving the cameras, moving the lights, doing the sounds, cooking the lunches, everything.”
Janine explained she was given technical support by director David Blair and others via the video conferencing platform Zoom but does not think she would start a new film career.
The daily Downing Street briefing will be at 4pm today and will be led by Michael Gove and Stephen Powis, National Medical Director of NHS England.
The press conference for David King’s alternative scientific advisory group is tomorrow at 4pm.
A passenger plane has landed in the UK with 10 million pairs of surgical gloves for the NHS.
The Airbus A340 9H-EAL, with “Thank You NHS” written on its fuselage, arrived at Bournemouth Airport after picking up the supplies from Kuala Lumpur.
The aircraft, owned by Bournemouth-based European Aviation Group, touched down at around 8.15am today with the boxes of gloves then passed to NHS supplier Crest Medical, based in Warrington, which commissioned the delivery.
Paul Stoddart, European Aviation’s chairman, told the PA news agency: “Today’s flight was a total success. Twenty million gloves, that’s 10 million pairs of gloves, delivered to Crest Medical and on their way to the NHS.
“Well done everyone.”
The flight is the second to land at the airport with NHS supplies, after 120,000 surgical gowns were brought from Tianjin, northeastern China, on Tuesday.
Several more flights are scheduled to depart from Bournemouth over the next few weeks to bring back PPE.
Baroness Ros Altmann, a former minister, believes a ban on older people leaving their homes as the rest of the country surfaces from lockdown would be “age discrimination”.
She said using age-based criteria to lift restrictions would send a message that older people’s lives “don’t count in the same way as others”.
NHS England’s national medical director Professor Stephen Powis said on Friday that officials are considering whether stricter measures will still apply to the elderly when lockdown is eased.
Speaking to Sky’s Sophy Ridge On Sunday, Baroness Altmann said: “I think using an age-based criteria is fundamentally wrong and would potentially cost the lives of many people, and risk social unrest.”
The life peer said many elderly people have only accepted lockdown conditions “because everyone else has got to do it,” and “lots of them” have said they would “risk going to prison” rather than continue isolating. She added “nobody would dream” of applying restrictions on the basis of skin colour, despite a higher death rate among BAME people.
“It’s not OK to discriminate on grounds of gender, or obesity, or colour of skin, but everybody is saying, let’s think about somehow discriminating on the basis of age.”
Comedian Sir Michael Palin agreed in a BBC interview that age restrictions would be “very difficult and very wrong and very unfair”.
Maria Van Kerkhove, the World Health Organisation’s technical lead on Covid-19, said that many people remain susceptible to the virus, even where transmission has been suppressed.
Asked if a second wave of infection could be likely in countries that have started to ease their lockdowns, she said: “It’s certainly possible. What we’re seeing in a number of countries that have been successful in suppressing transmission is that many more people remain susceptible.”
She added: “All countries must remain on alert for the possibility of additional transmission even if they have been successful in suppressing transmission in the first round.”
Following comments by Prime Minister Boris Johnson that face masks will be “useful” as part of measures to come out of lockdown, Dr Van Kerkhove said that masks are recommended for those who are feeling unwell.
She told the BBC’s Andrew Marr programme: “We do recommend the use of masks for people who are feeling unwell, but masks alone will not solve the problem, they cannot solve the problem, and especially if you’re thinking about lockdowns and you’re thinking of lifting lockdowns.
“There has to be a number of measures that have to be put in place before lockdowns can be released and it must be done in a slow and staggered approach.”
Health secretary Matt Hancock has tweeted a link to advice to different groups who are more susceptible to Covid-19.
It comes after he responded to a Sunday Times article about people aged over 70 in lockdown by saying the “clinically vulnerable, who are advised to stay in lockdown for 12 weeks, emphatically DO NOT include all over 70s.”
On the subject of advice to the over 70s, this helpful post sets out very clearly the different advice to different groups who are more vulnerable to coronavirus.
— Matt Hancock (@MattHancock) May 3, 2020
Please share widely so people get the accurate information: https://t.co/DqVolRtfhc
There is a “great deal of logic” in targeting the nation’s youngest children to return to school first when the coronavirus lockdown lifts, the head of Ofsted has said.
Amanda Spielman said younger pupils need “routine” and, from parents’ perspectives, are those who need the most “care and oversight”.
She also said it is in all children’s best interests that they return to the classroom “as soon as possible”, but there is no single “no-brainer answer” on how to do so.
“There’s a great deal of logic in targeting younger children,” she told Sky News’s Sophy Ridge on Sunday programme.
“We know that making normality for children is really important, the younger the children, the more they need that simple structured routine where they understand what’s happening.
“It’s hard for them to go to school one day and then not for another two weeks. So I entirely recognise and see the logic of this.
“I also think there’s a logic from the point of view of parents. The youngest children are the ones who need the greatest care and oversight.
“It’s hardest for parents to work and do all the other things they need to do if they’re also looking after perhaps several young children at the same time and trying to make sure they work through schoolwork remotely.
“If you look at the interests of children, it’s very clear that their interests are best served, in the vast majority of cases, by being back at school as soon as possible.”
Spielman said it is in the “hands of the health experts” to say what is safe and how education could be organised, and she “wouldn’t want to second guess that for one moment”.
More from First Minister Mark Drakeford who has defended the decision not to extend coronavirus testing to all care homes in Wales regardless of whether there is a confirmed case or not.
He told The Andrew Marr Programme: “The advice we have from our chief medical officer is that if there is no coronavirus at all, in a care home, then testing all residents and staff would not be the best use of the tests that we have available.”
Asked if it had been a mistake for Wales to abandon its 5,000 tests-a-day in April, he added: “No, it wasn’t a mistake.
“The feeling I had and the feeling reported to me from people in the front line is that the number itself was a distraction.
“Carrying out tests, without a purpose or a point is not a good use of the limited resources that we have.”
Grant Shapps said he was “actively looking at” quarantining people travelling to the UK from abroad to keep coronavirus infection rates under control.
“I think it is important that as we are seeing the numbers decrease and the R rate we hope decrease... that we do ensure that the sacrifices in a sense - social distancing - that we are asking the British people to make are matched by anybody who comes to this country.
“I am actively looking at these issues right now so that when we have infection rates within the country under control we are not importing,” he told The Andrew Marr programme.
The number of people who have tested positive for Covid-19 in the UK stood at 182,260 yesterday.
Shapps: 'Greater testing capacity would have led to fewer deaths'
Fewer people would have died from coronavirus in the UK if the country had greater testing capacity sooner, transport secretary Grant Shapps said.
Asked whether fewer people would have died if testing capacity had been greater sooner, he told BBC One’s The Andrew Marr Show: “Yes. If we had had 100,000 test capacity before this thing started and the knowledge that we now have retrospectively I’m sure many things could be different.
“The fact of the matter is this is not a country that had - although we’re very big in pharmaceuticals as a country - we’re not a country that had very large test capacity.”
Shapps added the UK may have had a high death rate compared to some other countries because of “density of population”. He said Britain has “denser cities” compared to other countries and the number of deaths are high because the figures are a “product of excellent statisticians counting in a way that other countries don’t”. On the issue of infection rates in care homes, he said: “Infections in care homes are now falling, not rising.” He added that patients and residents of care homes can now be tested.
Wales devising plans to ease lockdown
First Minister Mark Drakeford has spoken about plans to reopen schools and workplaces in Wales, with the possibility of schools opening by June.
Asked for an indication about when pupils could return, he told the BBC’s Andew Marr Show: “Our advice from the trade unions and from the local education authorities is that you will need three weeks as a minimum from the point that we decide to do that, to when schools can reopen, so we are talking about the beginning of June.”
Drakeford said some groups could return earlier than others, citing the examples of year-six children who are due to move up to secondary school and Welsh medium pupils who may not have had opportunities to use the language at home during lockdown.
He added: “You certainly can’t have schools reopen as they did before and sustain social distancing, and you need it for public health reasons, but you also need it in order to persuade parents and teachers that you are asking young people to come back into an environment that is safe for them.”
On testing in care homes, he said Wales is testing all care home staff and care home residents in care homes where there is a case of coronavirus.
Updated
A former government chief scientific adviser has assembled a group of experts to look at how the UK could work its way out of coronavirus lockdown.
Sir David King, who worked under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, created the board “in response to concerns over the lack of transparency coming from the UK Government’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage).
The new 12-strong committee of academics is keen to investigate seven key points, including how can successful test and trace be achieved, and what social distancing measures will be needed in the future.
The new committee’s first press conference will be held on Monday at 4pm, the same usual time as the Downing Street briefings over the weekend.
Sir David said transparency within scientific discussion was essential.
He told the Sunday Times: “I am not at all critical of the scientists who are putting advice before the government ... but because there is no transparency the government can say they are following scientific advice but we don’t know that they are.”
Updated
The future of Britain’s world-renowned science sector – and its ability to lead global research into Covid-19 – risks being fatally undermined if the UK crashes out of the EU without a trade deal by the end of this year, Toby Helm and Robin McKie report in the Observer.
The warning has been issued by leading scientists – including UK-based Nobel prize winners – as fears grow that British science could lose access to the EU’s €100bn (£85bn) research funding scheme, Horizon Europe, which will run from 2021 to 2027.
The government says it is “considering” applying to be an “associate member” (a relationship available for non-member states at the discretion of the 27 member nations) of Horizon Europe and the European Research Council (ERC), which is a component of the funding scheme.
The ERC says one of its UK-based “grantees”, Prof Cecilia Mascolo, is already working in this country on rolling out a mobile app to quickly diagnose Covid-19.
Government complains to BBC over Panorama
The government has formally complained to the BBC over a recent Panorama programme reporting on problems with the supply of personal protective equipment (PPE) to frontline NHS staff.
Oliver Dowden, the culture secretary, wrote to the corporation’s director-general, Tony Hall, warning the corporation it risks losing the public’s confidence as a result of accusation of bias.
Key items of personal protective equipment (PPE) were not included in the government’s pandemic stockpile when coronavirus reached the UK, the investigation by BBC Panorama reported
It found that gowns, visors, swabs and body bags were left out of the stockpile when it was set up in 2009. Some of the items are now in short supply.
However, there was controversy around some of the interviewees, who critics of the BBC and some news outlets described as “left-wing activists.”
In a letter, excerpts from which were published in the Mail on Sunday, Dowden says that he was sure Lord Hall “will agree that at a time of heightened risk of misinformation and disinformation, it is more important than ever that the BBC upholds the values and standards we all expect.”
‘The public should be able to turn to the BBC for transparent, unimpeachable, reliable news’.
Among those criticising Dowden’s actions today were Alan Rusbridger, formerly of this parish:
It’s really not the job of the Culture Secretary to bollock the BBC for what your govt regards as bias, @OliverDowden Leave that to @Ofcom pic.twitter.com/ApZEZrAqf9
— alan rusbridger (@arusbridger) May 3, 2020
The prime minister has been tweeting details of “five key tests” that must be satisfied before the government can adjust the current lockdown measures.
There are five key tests that we must satisfy before we can adjust the current measures. - 1/6
— Boris Johnson #StayHomeSaveLives (@BorisJohnson) May 3, 2020
The last one is: “We must make sure that any adjustments to the current measures do not risk a second spike that would overwhelm the NHS.”
Labour’s shadow home secretary Nick Thomas-Symonds meanwhile kept up pressure on testing, telling Sky News: “of course I’m pleased that testing has been ramped up. But that in itself is not a strategy.”
“Firstly, the testing has to be increased further, I mean the original target we were talking about a quarter of a million tests a day some time ago, but it has to be linked to tracing as well and it’s that testing and tracing that is going to be so important now in terms of easing the measures of the lockdown in the weeks and months ahead.”
Updated
Older people 'would rebel' against targeted lockdown
Many older people would rebel and risk going to prison if they were forced to remain locked down for a considerable period of time as younger people were treated differently, according to Baroness Ros Altmann.
The pensions expert and political campaigner on age-related issues, told Sky News: “If they are fit and healthy and need to get out for their own physical health then the idea that the government will tell them you are under house arrest while everybody else is out, and force them into solitary confinement… then I think they wouldn’t accept it.”
Speaking on the BBC’s Andrew Marr show, the broadcaster Michael Palin also said it would be “very unfair” to treat large numbers of older people differently from others and policy makers had to be “very careful.”
For more on fears among older people about an extended lockdown, here is a recent Guardian piece by my colleague Mattha Busby.
Updated
It’s too early to say how many people in Britain have had Covid-19, according to Ian Diamond, head of the Government Statistical Service, which is receiving initial results from some major surveys over the past number of weeks.
Very large numbers of people, more than 80pc, are concerned still and worried about the future not being able to make plans, he said.
He told the BBC’s Andrew Marr show that the survey backed up suggestions that adherence to the lockdown was very good.
The number of households with children going hungry has doubled since lockdown began, as millions of people struggle to afford food.
New data from the Food Foundation shared exclusively with the Observer has revealed that almost a fifth of households with children have been unable to access enough food in the past five weeks, with meals being skipped and children not getting enough to eat as already vulnerable families battle isolation and a loss of income.
The strain on larger families, single parent homes and those with disabled children has been immense.
A reported 30% of lone parents and 46% of parents with a disabled child are facing food insecurity and finding it difficult to manage basic nutritional needs at home.
With schools no longer providing a reprieve for children reliant on free breakfast clubs and school lunches, poorer families are at crisis point.
Johnson: doctors had a 'death of Stalin' scenario
Using characteristic language, Boris Johnson has described a strategy that evolved for a period of time around plans to announce his potential death from Covid-19 as a “death of Stalin-type scenario.”
It’s not entirely clear if he was taking his cue from Armando Iannucci’s (excellent) 2017 satire.
Nevertheless, speaking about his hospitalisation recently, he told the Sun on Sunday: “I was not in particularly brilliant shape and I was aware there were contingency plans in place.
“The doctors had all sorts of arrangements for what to do if things went badly wrong.
“They gave me a face mask so I got litres and litres of oxygen and for a long time I had that and the little nose jobbie.”
Johnson, 55, said it was “hard to believe” his health had deteriorated in just a few days, saying he “couldn’t understand why I wasn’t getting better”.
“They had a strategy to deal with a ‘death of Stalin’-type scenario,” he recounted.
He told the newspaper that the “indicators kept going in the wrong direction” and that he kept asking himself: “How am I going to get out of this?”
“The bad moment came when it was 50-50 whether they were going to have to put a tube down my windpipe.
“That was when it got a bit ... they were starting to think about how to handle it presentationally.”
Johnson and his partner, Carrie Symonds, have meanwhile named their son Wilfred Lawrie Nicholas Johnson, in a tribute to their grandfathers and the doctors who treated the prime minister for coronavirus.
Symonds, 32, posted a picture of her holding the newborn on Instagram on Saturday, saying she “couldn’t be happier” and that her “heart is full”.
Updated
A few developments in relation to misinformation include a call by a leading news organisation for a digital “kitemarking” system online to distinguish between quality journalism and fake content – with internet companies facing penalties if they publish inaccurate information.
ITN, the maker of news for ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5, says the coronavirus pandemic has revealed both the importance of “trustworthy and reliable information” and the dangers to democracy of fast-spreading misinformation.
Meanwhile, YouTube has deleted conspiracy theorist David Icke’s account.
The video-sharing site said the 68-year-old violated its policies on sharing information about coronavirus.
The former footballer has made controversial unproven claims about the virus on several internet platforms, including one that it is linked to the 5G mobile network.
Updated
Britain could be asking all visitors to the UK to have the NHS tracking app which is likely to be a major part of the government’s strategy.
The system is going into testing on the Isle of Wight later this week and will be rolled out to the population at large provided the tests were responsible, added Grant Shapps.
The Transport Secretary said the government needed 60 to 70 percent of people to use the app for it to be successful.
He compares it to the clapping which people do on Thursday night. It’s another way to support the NHS, according to Shapps.
There’s more on the App here:
Active transport and getting people to work “on their own steam” will be a major part of attempts to prevent overcrowding on the public transport network, added Grant Shapps.
The Transport Secretary said he would be saying more, “shortly,” in relation to measures such as the scheme which helped people to buy their own bike at a cheaper price.
Preventing overcrowding on the transport network will involve a massive logistical operation and will require the same sort of determination as the public have shown in recent weeks.
Grant Shapps was non-committal on the question of whether there could be temperature checks on public transport.
People should not be leaving home if they feel unwell, adding: “In a sense you should not be there in the first place.”
This, of course, leaves doubts about the role of people who are asymptomatic.
Pressed, he added: “Yes, it’s possible.”
Shapps says changing lockdown won't mean 'business as usual'
It’s not going to be ‘business as usual’ for the UK when the prime minister details plans for changing or lifting lockdown measures later this week, according to Transport Secretary Grant Shapps, but people do want to see a “road map”.
Shapps told Sophy Ridge on Sky News that testing, tracking and tracing would be “vital” in terms of next steps.
He added that it was no secret that the government wants children to go back to school but he was reluctant to give a date.
The Sunday Telegraph has a front page story today on a government ‘blue print’ for schools to return in June.
Updated
A failure to provide care homes with enough NHS expertise and hospital equipment has exacerbated the growing coronavirus crisis among their residents, senior care figures have warned.
Thousands of deaths within homes have come alongside spare intensive care capacity in hospitals, raising concerns in the social care sector that resources have been misallocated. It has also prompted scepticism within the sector over claims from Sir Patrick Vallance, the chief scientific adviser, that the threat to care homes had been “flagged” since the start of the pandemic.
Care home owners are now warning that the sector is still some way off a peak in cases, unlike the country as a whole. Official data next week is expected to show well over 5,000 care home deaths in total.\
However, unions are also warning that money has been stripped out of the care home sector for years in profits, leaving it underfunded and ill-prepared.
Among other things, we’ll be keeping an eye on the Sunday morning news shows. Transport Minister Grant Shapps and Shadow Home Secretary Nick Thomas-Symonds are on Sophy Ridge on Sky from 830am.
Following that World Health Organisation (WHO) Covid-19 technical lead Dr Maria Van Kerkhove and Wales’ First Minister Mark Drakeford are on the Andrew Marr show on BBC One from 9am.
Later today, a Scottish Government briefing expected is expected at 2.30pm, while a Downing Street briefing is scheduled for 4pm.
Updated
Johnson says he was given 'litres and litres of oxygen'
Good morning. It’s Ben Quinn here at the helm of the live blog to steer you through the start of the day’s coronavirus developments in the UK.
They include a revelation by the prime minister that doctors prepared to announce his death as he battled coronavirus in hospital last month.
Boris Johnson spent three nights in intensive care at St Thomas’ in London with the disease, where he said medics gave him “litres and litres of oxygen”.
In an interview with the Sun on Sunday, he described it as a “tough old moment”, adding: “They had a strategy to deal with a ‘death of Stalin’-type scenario.
“I was not in particularly brilliant shape and I was aware there were contingency plans in place.
Some suggest the experience has had a dramatic impact on what his views, otherwise, may have been when it comes to lifting Britain’s lockdown.
That’s not going to be an easy task, if new indications of public mood today are anything to go by.
Fewer than one in five of the British public believe the time is right to consider reopening schools, restaurants, pubs and stadiums. The findings, in a new poll for the Observer, suggest Boris Johnson will struggle to convince people to return their lives to normal if he tries to ease the lockdown soon.
The poll by Opinium, taken between Wednesday and Friday last week, found 17% of people think the conditions have been met to consider reopening schools, against 67% who say they have not been, and that they should stay closed.
Updated
