Evening summary
- The chancellor Rishi Sunak announced that the job retention scheme – the multi-billion coronavirus 80% wage subsidy – will be extended by one month until the end of June. The scheme is due to formally open on Monday next week, although payments will be backdated to 1 March. The extension amounts to an immense spending announcement, perhaps costing the Treasury £10bn or more. Ministers reportedly believe that keeping the scheme going through the summer and beyond would be simply unaffordable.
- The government has set up a vaccine taskforce to find a coronavirus vaccine, the business secretary Alok Sharma announced at the daily press conference. He called producing a vaccine a “colossal undertaking” that would take many months and there was no guarantee of success.
- The health secretary Matt Hancock was unable to give MPs assurance that some hospitals won’t run out of gowns this weekend. This came on the same day the Guardian learned that NHS bosses have asked doctors and nurses to work without full-length gowns when treating Covid-19 patients, as hospitals across England are set to run out of supplies within hours.
- The government will meet on Tuesday to discuss whether to recommend a change in policy on face masks. Sadiq Khan has been lobbying the government to change its advice on wearing masks to members of the public. Appearing on BBC Breakfast, the mayor of London urged the public to wear non-surgical masks when they go out, particularly on public transport and in shops where it isn’t always possible to stay 2 metres apart. He was backed by the Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer who said he thought he was “inevitable” that the government would have to start advising people to wear masks in certain circumstances, in step with changes taking places across Europe.
- Booking summer holidays at this time would be a mistake, the transport secretary Grant Shapps said, highlighting that while there are signs that the curve is flattening there has yet to be a decline.
That’s it from us today on the UK side. Thank you to everybody who got in touch throughout the day with tips and suggestions, and to all of you for reading along.
If you’d like to continue following the Guardian’s coverage of the worldwide picture, head over to our global live blog.
Updated
Alok Sharma's press conference - Summary
Here are the main points from the press conference.
- Sir Patrick Vallance, the government’s chief scientific adviser, sought to quash hopes that a vaccine could provide an early solution to the coronavirus crisis. The business secretary, Alok Sharma, used the press conference to announce that Vallance will chair a new government vaccine taskforce that will “drive forward, expedite and co-ordinate efforts to research and then produce a coronavirus vaccine and make sure one is made available to the public as quickly as possible”. Vallance did not question the importance of finding a vaccine. But he did at least twice stress that finding one might take time. He said:
First of all, we’ve got to get a vaccine. That isn’t two days away, it’s not two months away. Making a vaccine is a difficult, complicated process. It doesn’t only have to work, it has to be safe, and of course for a disease like this it has to be very safe if you are going to use it right across the population. So there is a lot to do before we’re in that position.
And later he said:
Just to put some realism on vaccine development, each single project does not have a high probability of success.
So although everyone goes out with great enthusiasm and we hope they work, it’s never the case that you know you’ve got a vaccine that’s going to work. So that’s the first thing that we need to be sure of.
The second thing is then the safety and it’s incredibly important that these vaccines are tested properly, that’s why it takes some time to get to the clinical trials and understand the potential unwanted effects of a vaccine.
And then only when that has been done can this be used widely across the population and so those are the stages we need to go through.
- Vallance said that government advisers would decide on Tuesday next week whether to recommend a change of policy on face masks. At the moment the government does not advise members of the public to wear them. Vallance said this was in line with World Health Organisation recommendations. But Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London, has said that people on public transport should be advised to wear them (see 7.53am) and Sir Keir Starmer, the Labour leader, has said he thinks a change in policy is inevitable. (See 4.29pm.) Asked about their views, Vallance said:
The evidence is quite variable around masks. It’s not easy to really get a firm position on some of it, and there aren’t really good trials of masks. We are looking at the evidence now. We’ve looked at it this week twice. We’re going to look at it again on Tuesday and hope to be able to make some advice around whether any changes are needed or not at the moment. We’re entirely in line with the WHO recommendations.
The difference between this disease and others is the pre-symptomatic and asymptomatic spread which adds an added complexity to where masks may or may not fit into this.
Updated
Sharma ends by thanking people for the sacrifices they are making.
And he repeats the message about staying at home to protect the NHS.
That’s it. The press conference is over. I’ll post a summary soon.
Q: Why are you going ahead with HS2 when money is so short?
Sharma says it is important to support the construction sector. And the government should keep the economy going where it can.
Q: There is a disproportionately high number of deaths in the West Midlands. Do you know why?
Doyle says they expected cities to be hit first.
But other factors are relevant. For example, they are looking at areas where there are lots of care homes.
Q: Will West Midlands hospitals get the PPE they need?
Sharma says he is aware of the supply problems. But there is a global supply issue.
He pays tribute to businesses that have stepped in to supply PPE.
Q: Will you commit to ensuring care workers have full sick pay?
Sharma says a whole range of support is provided.
He says the government very much values the heroes that we have.
Q: Was it a mistake for the government to dismiss essential workers as low-skilled labour?
Sharma says everyone in government wants to pay tribute to the work of NHS workers.
Q: Dominic Raab talks yesterday about possibly strengthening the lockdown in some areas. In which areas? Geographically, or by sector?
Sharma says he does not want to “muddy the waters” by speculating.
Vallance says there are a number of options. But it is too early to be talking about them.
Q: Are you considering recommending the use of face masks for people on public transport?
Sharma says Sage, the scientific advisory group for emergencies, is looking at this.
Vallance says Sage is looking at this. The evidence is variable. He says there may be a decision on Tuesday. He says at the moment the UK is in line with WHO advice.
Q: You told the CBI earlier they would have to get used to a new normal. What did you mean by that? Will some restrictions have to stay in place until there is a vaccine?
Sharma says the government is asking people to work from home if they can. But this is not always possible.
He says employers will have to adapt the way they work, so they can keep people safe.
Q: Are you saying you expect people to carry on working from home until there is a vaccine?
Sharma says the lockdown has been extended for three weeks. But there are exceptions, he says. He says he has been emphasising that, in those circumstances, employers must follow Public Health England guidance.
Updated
Q: Have there been any findings from investigations into the deaths of NHS workers from coronavirus?
Doyle says the investigations are under way.
Not all of these are workplace deaths, she says.
And she says it is important to get these investigations right.
Updated
Q: Oxford scientists have said they are so confident that their vaccine will work that they are going to manufacture 1m doses. What will you do to make sure the UK is first in the queue to buy it?
Sharma says this is a reference to the Edward Jenner Institute. He has spoken to them, and is supporting the work that they are doing.
Vallance says these researchers have done a great job. But there are over 100 vaccine projects around the world. There are at least two, or perhaps three, in the clinic.
But most vaccine trials do not work, he says.
He says you can only use vaccines when you know they are safe.
He says the vaccine can come from anywhere. The domestic effort is being supported. But it might come from somewhere else.
We just need to back lots of horses at the moment.
And we may need more than one vaccine, he says.
Q: When might businesses get back to normal? Was Nadine Dorries right to say it will only be when there is a vaccine?
Sharma says people will understand why the lockdown has been extended.
The government will always be led by the scientific advice, he says.
Updated
Q: What can you say to the tourism sector? Will there be a summer season?
Sharma says he speaks to businesses every day.
The government has given support for businesses in this sector. The furlough scheme has been extended.
But this is a tough time, he says.
Q: Some 21,000 tests were carried out yesterday. How will you get to 100,000 a day by the end of the month?
Sharma says the capacity is for 38,000 tests a day. And there are 26 drive-through testing centres. They are doing everything they can to hit this target, he says.
Prof Yvonne Doyle, medical director for Public Health England, claims they are on track to meet the target.
Q: When you get a vaccine, who will get it first?
Vallance says this is not immediate. It is not two days away, nor two months away.
When you have a vaccine, you vaccinate the most vulnerable first.
But they are not at that stage yet.
Updated
Sir Patrick Vallance, the government’s chief scientific adviser, is presenting the daily slides.
On transport use, he says there is some evidence in places where there is little coronavirus of people ignoring social distancing rules. They should not.
Here is the testing data.
Vallance says this next slide is the most important.
He says more than 5,500 people are involved in clinical trials.
The number of hospital cases are not only plateauing, but going down in some places.
That will mean fewer people going to intensive care, he says.
But he says this process will take weeks.
Here is the final slide, with death figures.
The measures being taken are making a difference, Vallance says.
Sharma says producing a vaccine will be a colossal undertaking. He says it will take any months. And there is no guarantee of success.
But he is proud of the way Britain has stepped up to the challenge.
We are a country with a rich history of pioneering science, he says.
Updated
21 new coronavirus research projects funded
Earlier the government sent out an embargoed press release with more details of the vaccine taskforce that Alok Sharma has just announced. Here is an excerpt.
The taskforce, led by Chief Scientific Adviser Sir Patrick Vallance and Deputy Chief Medical Officer Professor Jonathan van Tam, will support efforts to rapidly develop a coronavirus vaccine as soon as possible by providing industry and research institutions with the resources and support needed. This includes reviewing regulations and scaling up manufacturing, so that when a vaccine becomes available, it can be produced quickly and in mass quantities.
Representatives from government, academia and industry are coming together to form the Taskforce. Members will include government life sciences champion Sir John Bell, as well as AstraZeneca, and the Wellcome Trust.
Alongside the creation of the taskforce, the government is also announcing that 21 new coronavirus research projects will benefit from funding worth around £14m. Giving details, it says:
One new project led by the University of Oxford will trial an anti-malarial drug believed to have anti-inflammatory properties to determine whether it could diminish the effects of Covid-19 on people in high risk groups. GP surgeries across the UK have been invited to take part in this ground-breaking trial, to ascertain whether it could reduce the need for affected patients to go to hospital and speed up their recovery.
Other projects receiving vital government funding from this new pot include:
Imperial College London testing a vaccine against coronavirus that aims for the body to produce more protective antibodies;
Public Health England developing a new antibody that could offer protection against infection and disease progression of coronavirus;
Public Health England studying how Covid-19 can be transmitted from person-to-person by determining how long it can survive in the air and on different materials found in hospitals and households like fabric, plastics, metals and ceramics.
Updated
Sharma announces vaccine taskforce
Sharma says one way to defeat the virus is to find a vaccine.
We need to apply the best of British scientific endeavour to this, he says.
- Sharma says government has set up a vaccine taskforce to find a coronavirus vaccine.
He says it will back all stages of vaccine developments.
Sharma starts by summarising the government’s aims.
He reads out the latest testing and death figures.
Updated
Alok Sharma's press conference
Alok Sharma, the business secretary, has just started the press conference. He is with Sir Patrick Vallance, the government’s chief scientific adviser, and Prof Yvonne Doyle, medical director for Public Health England.
NHS staff to be asked to treat coronavirus patients without gowns
NHS bosses are preparing to ask doctors and nurses to work without full-length gowns when treating Covid-19 patients as hospitals across England are set to run out of supplies within hours, our colleague Denis Campbell reports. He says:
The guidance will be a reversal of Public Health England (PHE) guidelines stipulating that full-length waterproof surgical gowns, designed to stop coronavirus droplets getting into someone’s mouth or nose, should be worn for all high-risk hospital procedures.
In a significant U-turn, PHE is set to advise frontline staff to wear a flimsy plastic apron when gowns have run out, in a move that doctors and nurses fear may lead to more of them contracting the virus and ultimately put lives at risk.
Prof Keith Willett, who has been leading NHS England’s response to the coronavirus crisis, has helped formulate the guidance, which will be sent to all 217 trusts in England.
It will set out options for what frontline staff should do when they cannot access gowns. They will include hospitals which still have gowns lending each other batches of them, wearing coveralls – one-piece items of personal protective equipment (PPE) which cover the whole body – and using plastic aprons as alternatives.
A source with knowledge of the plan told the Guardian: “The new guidance will say ‘this is what you do if you don’t have any gowns’. Wear an apron instead – that will be the new policy for the foreseeable future, though the medical organisations will go mad about that.”
The full story is here.
Updated
Alok Sharma, the business secretary, is taking this afternoon’s government press conference. It is due to start at 5pm. Sharma will appear alongside Sir Patrick Vallance, the government’s chief scientific adviser, and Prof Yvonne Doyle, medical director for Public Health England.
Reports of domestic abuse sent to UK police forces by Crimestoppers have surged by nearly 50% during the coronavirus lockdown, and the charity is urging people to come forward if they think a friend, family member, colleague or neighbour is a victim.
Figures show Crimestoppers sent 120 domestic abuse reports to forces in the week beginning 6 April, after restriction of movement rules came into force, an increase of 49.3% from the average of 80.4 per week across a five-week period in January and February, before the lockdown.
We've seen a 49% surge in information passed on to law enforcement about #DomesticAbuse nationally since the pandemic lockdown. As Commander Williams of @metpoliceuk says, you can give info to us if you'd rather not talk to the police. Find out more: https://t.co/CfvGSJ8Zk0. pic.twitter.com/5Sg8dyPwqE
— Crimestoppers (@CrimestoppersUK) April 17, 2020
Earlier this week, the victims commissioner, Dame Vera Baird, said the Counting Dead Women project had recorded 16 suspected domestic abuse killings in the last three weeks, around five a week, up from the usual average of two.
The chair of the National Police Chiefs’ Council, Martin Hewitt, revealed police had recorded a 3% rise in domestic violence offences in England and Wales in the four weeks to 12 April, compared with the same period last year.
Commander Sue Williams, who leads on safeguarding for the Metropolitan police, said:
The Met is absolutely committed to protecting those at risk and our officers are out every day, arresting perpetrators and supporting victims.
It is more important than ever for people to look out for one another.
If you know or suspect that a friend, neighbour or relative is a victim of domestic abuse, we urge you to speak up and tell someone.
Crimestoppers is asking those with concerns to pass on information anonymously at the charity’s UK contact centre on 0800 555 111 or visit crimestoppers-uk.org.
And anyone who needs help in a domestic abuse situation, but is fearful an abuser may hear them calling, can dial 999 and then press 55, which will let the police know they need assistance.
People can also call national domestic abuse helpline on 0808 2000 247, or visit Women’s Aid.
Updated
Starmer says it's inevitable government will have to change face mask advice
Sir Keir Starmer, the Labour leader, has used an interview with the BBC to back Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London, over face masks. (See 7.53am.) Here are the main points.
- Starmer said he thought it was “inevitable” that the government would have to start advising people to wear masks in some circumstances. He said:
Across Europe I think the advice is changing on face masks and I think it’s inevitable that we will get to a stage where there will be instructions on face masks. I would like to talk to the government on that, because I don’t want to set up rival strategies or rival theories going forward. But it would be sensible. This is why we need to start talking about the exit strategy or the exit plan – so that we can have exactly that kind of discussion, challenge, agreement, if we can reach agreement.
- He criticised the government for refusing to discuss what its exit plan from the lockdown might be. He has been calling for the government to publish a plan. Ministers claim this would distract public attention from the need to follow the lockdown rules now. But Starmer dismissed that argument. He said:
In other countries across Europe governments are openly talking about the exit plan. I don’t think the British are uniquely unable to understand the difference between lockdown and what comes next …
Just parking this question, and saying we are not even going to look at it for another few weeks, I think is just fundamentally wrong.
- He said he wanted Labour to be in a position where it could support the government’s exit plan. He said:
What I really want, when I’ve seen the plan, is to come in behind it, because we want the trust of the public. I think seeing all the major political parties saying, ‘Yes, we’ll get behind that,’ just as we got behind the lockdown, that is a good thing.
Updated
Updated
The return of Premier League football is dependent on the rollout of mass coronavirus testing, clubs learned on Friday.
In a two-hour video conference, representatives of English football’s top 20 teams met with league officials to discuss various scenarios for bringing back the competition.
While the presumption is that any resumption of the 2019-20 season would happen behind closed doors, testing of everyone involved in a given event – from players, to coaching and medical staff, match officials and TV broadcast crews – would be necessary.
Here is the full story.
Updated
Job losses “may no longer be increasing”, the Resolution Foundation thinktank says in its latest analysis of the economic impact of coronavirus. It is a shred of positive news in an outlook that is otherwise predictably bleak. Here is an extract.
The scale of the damage to the labour market has become much clearer in the past week: data show that the reduction in employment is huge and unprecedented, but may not be increasing further. The number of new universal credit (UC) claimants has reached 1.4m since the crisis started. The number of new applicants fell to 220,000 in the most recent week, down from its peak of 540,000 in the final week of March. This is, however, still more than twice as bad as the worst of the financial crisis.
More encouraging is timelier data based on the frequency of web searches for unemployment-related terms which has closely matched the path of UC claims in recent weeks. Web searches have now fallen back to close to levels seen on average during 2019. This suggests new UC claimants will fall again next week. However, this data is unlikely to be capturing the majority of the people who have stopped work as their employer makes use of the government coronavirus job retention scheme.
Updated
The Ministry of Justice has defended its response to the coronavirus pandemic in prisons after two major penal reform groups threatened legal action.
The Howard League for Penal Reform and the Prison Reform Trust have written to the justice secretary, Robert Buckland, setting out a proposed judicial review of his plans for reducing the prison population (see blog post at 15.02).
So far, Buckland has proposed temporarily releasing up to 4,000 prisoners who are within two months of their release date, as well as up to 70 pregnant women or mothers. Around 500 temporary cells are being built on the grounds of the existing prison estate to increase single-cell occupancy.
The Ministry of Justice said it would respond to the letter in due course. A spokesperson said:
We have robust and flexible plans in place to keep prisoners, staff and the wider public safe based on the latest advice from Public Health England.
As part of the national plan to protect the NHS and save lives, we have already announced up to 4,000 risk-assessed prisoners who are within two months of their release date will be temporarily released from jail, along with pregnant women.
Updated
The rise in confirmed cases of Covid-19 among prison staff continues to significantly outpace the rate of infection among inmates, the latest update from the Ministry of Justice shows.
As of 5pm on Thursday, 138 prison staff had tested positive for the coronavirus across 49 prisons, a 43% increase in 24 hours. There are around 33,000 full time equivalent staff in public sector prisons in England and Wales.
Meanwhile, the number of infected prisoners stood at 255 across 62 prisons, an increase of 10% in the same period. There are around 82,000 prisoners in England and Wales across 117 prisons.
Ministers earlier this week revealed that prison staff had started accessing testing, which was expected to increase and continue in the weeks ahead.
Sunak says multi-billion coronavirus 80% wage subsidy to be extended by one month to end of June
Rishi Sunak, the chancellor, has announced that the coronavirus job retention scheme - the plan to allow firms to furlough their workers during the coronavirus crisis, with the state paying them 80% of their wages, up to a maximum of £2,500 per month - will be extended. When it was originally announced it was open for a period of three months, until the end of May.
Now it will be extended for a month. In a press notice the Treasury said this decision was being announced in the light of the decision yesterday to extend the lockdown for at least three weeks. It will now be open until the end of June, “providing businesses with the certainty they need”, the Treasury says.
In a statement Sunak said:
We’ve taken unprecedented action to support jobs and businesses through this period of uncertainty, including the UK-wide job retention scheme. With the extension of the coronavirus lockdown measures yesterday, it is the right decision to extend the furlough scheme for a month to the end of June to provide clarity.
It is vital for people’s livelihoods that the UK economy gets up and running again when it is safe to do so, and I will continue to review the scheme so it is supporting our recovery.
The scheme is due to formally open on Monday next week, although payments will be backdated to 1 March.
Even thought a one-month extension may not sound like something hugely significant, this amounts to an immense spending announcement, perhaps costing the Treasury £10bn or more. That is because the scheme itself amounts to a colossal public spending commitment. The Resolution Foundation has estimated that it will cost the government between £30bn and £40bn every three months.
This is one reason why the Treasury is so keen for the lockdown not to last too long. At this price, ministers reportedly believe that keeping the scheme going through the summer and beyond would be simply unaffordable.
Updated
The Duchess of Cornwall recorded a video message of support for the official opening of NHS Nightingale Hospital North West in Manchester.
Today the new NHS Nightingale Hospital North West was opened in Manchester.
— Clarence House (@ClarenceHouse) April 17, 2020
To mark the occasion, The Duchess of Cornwall sent a message of support from Birkhall, her home in Scotland. @NHSNW @nhsuk pic.twitter.com/PD3PP3JiGf
Speaking from Birkhall, Prince Charles’s home on the Balmoral estate, Camilla said the new field hospital was bringing “light at a dark time”. She added:
But this is not surprising, Manchester in a past master at bringing light to dark times. After all this is not the first time you have shown the world what it is to meet a great challenge with even greater resolve.
My husband and I visited Manchester in 2017, shortly after the terrible bombing, and were deeply moved and inspired by the city’s courage and unity.
She praised the NHS, military, social services, planner, builders and technicians involved in building the temporary hospital at the Manchester Central Convention Centre. She added:
We all feel the deepest admiration for the single-minded dedicated that has created the NHS Nightingale North West Hospital, and the way all efforts have been directed to one object - caring for those who contract Covid-19.
In this ace video diary, Jo, a nurse practitioner, documents her first week at one of the largest field hospitals in the world: the Nightingale at the London ExCeL centre.
The hospital was built in nine days with a capacity for up to 4,000 patients in reaction to the global coronavirus outbreak. Here is the video.
From PA’s Ian Jones.
NHS England has revised the daily hospital death toll for 23 dates, with 8 April still having the highest total.
Here are today's updated numbers for #coronavirus hospital deaths in England, by date of death.
— Ian Jones (@ian_a_jones) April 17, 2020
As has been true for the past few days, April 8 still has the highest total - and NHS England have revised it up slightly from 782 to 792. pic.twitter.com/rfMRIXIQRb
April 15 has been revised up from 151 to 471 and April 14 is up from 427 to 536.
— Ian Jones (@ian_a_jones) April 17, 2020
In all, 23 dates have had their totals revised since yesterday.
With this amount of revision going on, we need to wait longer to be certain if/when a 'peak' has occurred.
Woolwich Ferry was spotted sounding its horn and spinning in the River Thames in support of healthcare staff during the fourth weekly Clap for Carers event on Thursday evening.
Junior doctor Becky Stout, who filmed the tribute, said on Twitter: “Big thumbs up from the Woolwich Ferry for NHS workers tonight!”
The commuter ferry, which operates in south-east London, spun in a circle and honked its horn in the middle of the Thames while the applause took place.
Big thumbs up from the #woolwichferry for nhs workers tonight! ⛴ 👏 👍 #clapforNHS #ClapForOurCarers pic.twitter.com/WpfIA37BDH
— Becky Stout (@BeckyStout8) April 16, 2020
Updated
The two leading prison reform groups in the country have threatened the justice secretary, Robert Buckland, with legal action over his handling of the coronavirus pandemic in jails in England and Wales.
The Howard League for Penal Reform and the Prison Reform Trust have written to Buckland setting out a proposed judicial review of his plans for reducing the prison population.
So far, Buckland has proposed temporarily releasing up to 4,000 prisoners who are within two months of their release date, as well as up to 70 pregnant women or mothers. Around 500 temporary cells are being built on the grounds of the existing prison estate to increase single-cell occupancy.
The letter says “the rate of releases has been too slow and too limited to make any substantial difference to the prison population and the plans as we understand them are incapable of achieving what the secretary of state has publicly acknowledged is required”.
"[T]he rate of releases has been too slow and too limited to make any substantial difference to the prison population and the plans...are incapable of achieving what the SoS has publicly acknowledged is required."
— The Howard League (@TheHowardLeague) April 17, 2020
Read the letter in full here: https://t.co/SIihWO7Dz9 pic.twitter.com/RVUEY4TVhX
The “letter before action”, sent via the groups’ lawyers, Bhatt Murphy solicitors, is the first step in judicial review proceedings. Buckland has a period of time to respond. If the response is considered inadequate then the group can issue legal proceedings.
The letter suggests a range of actions that the government could take to address the problem, including expanding the scope of the temporary scheme, expediting the consideration of release of pregnant women and mothers, and considering the release of all children in custody in line with international guidance and law.
As of 5pm on Wednesday, 232 prisoners had tested positive across 60 prisons. Ninety-six prison staff, working in 38 prisons, and seven Prisoner Escort and Custody Services (PECS) staff had also tested positive. A further update will be published later today.
Updated
This afternoon the Guardian has published a superb in-depth account of Boris Johnson’s coronavirus illness. It establishes clearly that the PM’s colleagues were not being fully truthful about how ill he really was in the days before his admission to intensive care. Here is an extract.
By the weekend it was becoming clear to the few in contact with him that the prime minister was struggling to do his job. On Saturday 4 April, Johnson’s fiancee, Carrie Symonds – pregnant and self-isolating with coronavirus symptoms – grew agitated, friends said, crying down the phone. [Matt] Hancock claimed all was well, telling Sky News on Sunday morning the prime minister was “working away” and had his “hand on the tiller”.
In reality, Johnson’s breathing had deteriorated. On Sunday afternoon the plan to admit Johnson to St Thomas’ was rebooted. That evening he was driven across the Thames and taken to a private room on the 12th floor. Downing Street did not deny reports he was immediately given oxygen. Once again, his spokesman sought to downplay events, saying this was “a precautionary step”. The consultant in charge of the prime minister’s care was Dr Richard Leach, the clinical director of the hospital’s pulmonary team and a leading lung expert.
The following day, Monday 6 April, things took an almost Soviet turn. While the prime minister was gasping for breath, aides insisted at a lunchtime press briefing that he was busy working his way through red boxes.
At 5pm the foreign secretary, Dominic Raab, even claimed Johnson was in charge and “leading”. Asked when he had last spoken to him, however, Raab replied it had been Saturday.
It appeared the government was covering up, or incompetent, or both. (No 10 says when Raab spoke he was unaware of his boss’s sudden decline.)
On Monday afternoon the prime minister’s condition got significantly worse. A decision was made to transfer him to one of St Thomas’ two intensive care units. Johnson was put in a side room, on the east wing’s first floor. The development stunned Downing Street.
At 8.10pm it announced the prime minister was in critical care, saying he had asked Raab to deputise for him. The fiction of Johnson being in command had ended. World leaders and politicians sent him good wishes. His aides were knocked over, distraught.
And here is the full article, by Luke Harding, Rowena Mason, Dan Sabbagh, Mattha Busby, Denis Campbell and Owen Bowcott. It’s well worth a read.
Updated
Scotland is known as a world leader in the fight against period poverty, but lockdown means that women and girls who normally pick up their free products from schools, colleges and other community settings have to look elsewhere.
But in Perth and Kinross, all they need to do is dial up the tampon taxi.
Lori Hughes, communities manager at the PKAVS charity, has come up with the plan of a contact-free delivery service whereby women can email or text their order and the free period products will be bagged up by volunteers and dropped off by car.
Hughes has also stocked a Give and Take box in Perth city centre with free products, and is hoping to set up more roadside pick-up points.
Another addition to the Tampon Taxi scheme! Thanks to support from @InchNorth and @PerthandKinross, we are delighted to unveil our very own Give & Take box for free period products! pic.twitter.com/sHzMPSWlvI
— PKAVS Third Sector Interface (@ThirdSectorPK) April 16, 2020
Downing Street has urged people to follow social distancing guidance after the country’s most senior police officer was filmed clapping for carers on a crowded Westminster Bridge. As PA Media reports, the Metropolitan police commissioner, Dame Cressida Dick, led dozens of officers in the weekly applause for key workers at 8pm on Thursday.
A video posted to the force’s Twitter account shows her standing in front of officers, who are lined up with gaps in front of police vehicles along the bridge near parliament.
Thank you to the real heroes.
— Metropolitan Police | #StayHomeSaveLives (@metpoliceuk) April 16, 2020
Thank you London. #ClapForKeyWorkers #ClapForCarers
London is together. pic.twitter.com/ksqHZjkTxV
But the gesture drew criticism from some after another video, which has been viewed millions of times online, emerged showing groups of people, near police officers, apparently ignoring social distancing guidance, PA reports.
The scene from Westminster bridge #ClapForCarers pic.twitter.com/JpzM0YBjgH
— Damir Rafi (@d_rafi1) April 16, 2020
The prime minister’s spokesman said:
We would ask that everyone takes responsibility and adheres to social distancing rules so that we can safely show our appreciation for those who are working so hard to fight coronavirus.
We would ask that in showing their appreciation for those who are working so hard as carers, they do so in a way which adheres to the social distancing rules.
Updated
Jeremy Hunt says councils should be involved in mass contact tracing programme
In an interview on the World at One Jeremy Hunt, the Conservative former health secretary who now chairs the Commons health committee, said that when Matt Hancock, the health secretary, gave evidence to his committee this morning, he thought it was significant that Hancock had stressed more than ever before his commitment to mass community testing. (See 11.19am.)
Hunt also said he thought the government should also involve councils in contact-tracing, the process that involves contacting people who have been close to someone who has tested positive for coronavirus. He said:
One of the reasons testing took too long to ramp up is because it was all done centrally by Public Health England. The health secretary today said that he hadn’t decided whether it was going to be done centrally or with local government and I think one of the lessons we could reasonable draw from the slowness of ramping things up centrally is that this is something we should trust local government to help us with when we move out of the lockdown.
Hunt said in South Korea 1,000 people were involved in contract tracing. He went on:
This could be tested out in places like Yorkshire or Cornwall because those are parts of the country which have got relatively few Covid cases - and so we could start seeing whether it was possible to lift the lockdown by replacing it with this testing and contact tracing. So, that really has to be the next step.
Updated
UK coronavirus hospital death toll rises by 847 to 14,576
The Department for Health and Social Care has published the latest coronavirus hospital death figures for the UK. There have been 847 new deaths, taking the total to 14,576. The full details are here.
This is down slightly on yesterday’s equivalent daily figure, which was 861.
As of 9am 17 April, 438,991 tests have concluded, with 21,328 tests on 16 April.
— Department of Health and Social Care (@DHSCgovuk) April 17, 2020
341,551 people have been tested of which 108,692 tested positive.
As of 5pm on 16 April, of those hospitalised in the UK who tested positive for coronavirus, 14,576 have sadly died. pic.twitter.com/BkOC0O9EUy
Updated
And the latest coronavirus death figures for Northern Ireland are in this bulletin (pdf) from its Public Health Agency. It says there have been 18 new deaths in Northern Ireland, taking the total to 176.
According to Public Health Wales there have been 11 new reported coronavirus deaths in Wales, taking the total to 506. The latest details are here.
UPDATED STATEMENT
— Public Health Wales (@PublicHealthW) April 17, 2020
We’ve just published the latest number of confirmed cases of Novel Coronavirus on our data dashboard. We are now publishing the number of deaths reported to us daily, in addition to the cumulative total: https://t.co/RwgHDufHE7 pic.twitter.com/FuS7VMmg3O
Matt Wrack, general secretary of the Fire Brigades Union, has given a qualified welcome to Matt Hancock’s announcement that firefighters will now be included in the list of public sector workers who can get a coronavirus test. (See 11.19am.) In a statement Wrack said:
We’re pleased to see that the government has listened to the FBU and finally agreed to open up some testing to other key workers, including fire and rescue personnel. However, it is a shame it has come this late, with thousands of firefighters already self-isolating - this is something that could have been easily avoided.
We are awaiting further details but it is clear that there are questions around the functioning of the scheme that is now open to more key workers . The health secretary said fewer NHS staff were coming forward to be tested than hoped [see 11.34am], but this is surely an issue of accessibility, rather than frontline staff not wanting to be tested. Many of the testing centres are far out of town and require extended trips in a car – if this is a barrier to nursing staff, it will also be a barrier to other key workers.
Updated
The Welsh government has announced a string of initiatives it is taking as it works towards a lockdown exit.
The first minister Mark Drakeford said the Labour-led administration was looking forward “carefully and cautiously” to the future.
Drakeford said the next three weeks would be used to plan ahead to prepare for an easing of lockdown. He said:
We are planning for the day when things can change. If the data and the science tells us in three weeks time that we have suppressed the circulation of the virus to an extent where it is possible to begin to lift restrictions that is what we will look to do.
Drakeford said he favoured a UK-wide lockdown. But he added:
There may be some things at the margins that we will do differently in different parts of the UK but a UK way of doing things remains a strength.
He set out six initiatives that will be undertaken in the next three weeks:
- Establish objective measures across the UK that will inform when it is safe to ease the lockdown. Drakeford said this should be done early in this three week period.
- Put in place public health surveillance to spot localised new outbreaks after the exit.
- Further strengthen the NHS.
- Set up criteria for lifting individual restrictions: for example, can a particular easing be policed, can it be rapidly reversed if necessary?
- Continue to learn from international experience.
- Draw in expertise from outside government to challenge thinking and bring in new ideas.
Updated
Nicola Sturgeon has told reporters at her daily briefing that it may be “logical and sensible” for Scotland to move in a different direction to the rest of the UK in terms of exit strategy in certain circumstances.
Earlier on Friday the Scottish secretary, Alister Jack, warned against confusing the public message. He told BBC Radio Scotland:
I would suggest that this is not the time to muddy the message by talking about exit strategies or getting into arguments about sectors or geography or demographies or anything else.
The Labour leader, Keir Starmer, has also called for more details to be disclosed about how the UK government plans to leave the lockdown.
But this lunchtime, Sturgeon insisted that she would be transparent about her own exit plans, treating the Scottish public “like the grown-ups you are”, and added:
Where the evidence, with judgment applied, drives us in a slightly different direction – as long as that’s not for some silly political reason – then that is logical and sensible.
This virus doesn’t respect borders or boundaries, that is obvious ... that is why the Scottish government has been working so carefully and collaboratively and closely to align our thinking and decision with the Welsh, UK and Northern Irish governments.
She said that “if the evidence and the science tells us that because we are all at different stages of the infection curve we might have to do things differently”, it would be “astounding” for any leader to say they would not take account of that.
Updated
An initiative to provide NHS workers with enough food for two days of nutritious family meals – on their hospital doorstep – has been launched.
HelpNHSHeroes, set up by volunteers after critical care nurse Dawn Bilbrough’s high-profile plea on social media for shoppers not to empty supermarket shelves, aims to help all NHS hospital workers have access to food and essential supplies.
💔 A message from Dawn Bilbrough. She's a critical care nurse who couldn't do her shopping due to #panicbuying over #covid19UK.
— BBC Breakfast (@BBCBreakfast) March 20, 2020
More here: https://t.co/l9WfenQbDN#BBCBreakfast #StopHoarding pic.twitter.com/nPYQXYSrU7
The scheme enables frontline hospital staff to have the opportunity to pick up a box to feed a family of four for two days on the hospital’s doorstep. The contents include the important food groups such as protein, carbohydrates and fruit and vegetables and are sold at cost price. Food companies which have donated items for food parcels and breakfast include Meatless Farm, Kingsmill and Deli Kitchen flatbreads.
The first hospital to participate in the scheme is the Lister hospital in Stevenage, part of the East and North Hertfordshire NHS trust, where 1,600 staff have already registered. Boxes are collected daily from a pop-up shop, with over 1,000 distributed to date.
A further facility has been built at the Royal Berkshire hospital in Reading, part of the Royal Berkshire NHS foundation trust, which includes a cafe serving free breakfasts as well as accommodation for back-to-back shift workers.
The aim is to roll the scheme out nationally and the organisation says it has already had interest from over 40 hospitals throughout the UK.
Updated
Lobby briefing
From Sky’s Sam Coates
Downing Street Friday briefing
— Sam Coates Sky (@SamCoatesSky) April 17, 2020
Boris Johnson spoke to Dominic Raab yesterday but the PM isn’t doing box work
On lockdown, there will be a review by the end of the month as set out by Dominic Raab last night.
Dominic Raab, who is deputising for Boris Johnson, spoke to the prime minister on Thursday, Downing Street said.
The PM’s spokesman said Johnson was “continuing his recovery at Chequers and he is not doing government work”. Johnson has not had any calls with foreign leaders.
Downing Street also suggested summer holidays should not be booked yet as there is no certainty of when the lockdown will be lifted and travel can resume.
The PM’s spokesman was asked about the transport secretary, Grant Shapps’s comments that he has no plans to book a summer holiday yet because of the pandemic. The spokesman said:
While we are making progress in our fight against coronavirus, we are not able to say with certainty the point at which the social distancing measures can be relaxed and in terms of travelling within the UK for holidays, that is not something which the current social distancing guidelines allow for.
And secondly, in terms of travel abroad, the advice of the Foreign Office continues to be that you should go abroad for essential travel only.
As of today, it is a fact that both the guidelines and the official Foreign Office advice do not allow for people going on holidays.
Updated
The government should allow people resilient to the coronavirus – the young, fit, slim, and non-smokers – to return to work to build-up herd immunity, and save the economy, according to two leading vets.
Ministers should abandon their “financially ruinous” strategy to contain the pandemic and only keep the 40% of the population vulnerable to infection from Covid-19 under the lockdown, according to Joe Brownlie, emeritus professor of veterinary pathology at the Royal Veterinary College, and Dick Sibley, director of West Ridge veterinary practice in Devon.
The government’s aim of curtailing transmission rates to ensure the NHS is not overwhelmed with cases is “more a system of delaying deaths than saving lives”, they write in Vet Record magazine.
They dismiss this strategy as being more about making the number of fatalities “more palatable” to the media and the public, and wrecking the economy in the process.
Arguing that the government should learn lessons from how animal disease outbreaks have been managed, they write:
The young, fit, slim, non-smokers could be left to get on with creating the wealth that we are going to need to secure our futures, instead of being locked away waiting for the inevitable.
The only effective long-term control to minimise new infections will be through developing immunity, either by managed exposure or vaccination, while at the same time accepting that there will always be vulnerable individuals requiring intensive treatment and support.
Updated
Back to the health committee, and it’s the final question.
Q: Last year the joint committee on human rights said the human rights of people with autism were being restricted when they were in hospital. Hospital visits have now been limited. This has a particular impact on autistic people. What can be done about this?
Hancock says many inpatients also have a higher risk of death from Covid-19. So hospitals have taken an understandable decision to restrict visits. But he worries about the consequences of this, he says.
He says a programme to reduce the number of autistic inpatients is ongoing.
The hearing is now finished.
Labour’s Rosie Cooper says there will be cancer patients around the country surprised by what Hancock was saying. Patients are having their treatment delayed. She says there is a disconnect between what Hancock has been told, and what is actually happening on the ground.
Hancock says there are cases when there are good clinical reasons for treatment being delayed. But he asks Cooper to give him details of other cases, so that he can investigate them.
Q: Are the deaths of NHS staff being referred to the Health and Safety Executive for investigation?
Hancock says these deaths are being investigated by NHS bodies. They are the employers, and are best placed to know what happened.
Q: Should HSE be involved?
Hancock says he thinks the NHS should do this.
Q: But if someone died because of a shortage of PPE, doesn’t that investigation need to be independent?
Hancock says there is an independent process in place - introduced by Hunt when he was health secretary, he says.
Further 58 deaths in Scotland bringing total to 837
A total of 837 patients have died in Scotland after testing positive for coronavirus, up by 58 from 779 on Thursday, the first minister Nicola Sturgeon has said.
Sturgeon said 7,409 people have now tested positive for the virus in Scotland, up by 307 from 7,102 the day before.
There are 189 people in intensive care with coronavirus or coronavirus symptoms, a decrease of seven on Thursday, she added.
There are 1,799 people in hospital with confirmed or suspected Covid-19.
Hancock: cancer deaths could increase because patients with suspected cases staying away from NHS
Hunt turns to the impact of coronavirus on other aspects of treatment.
Q: Is it the case that this is having no impact on cancer treatment?
Hancock says that is the government’s policy.
He says there are some treatments that would not be safe in the current circumstances, with a deadly virus prevalent. Some cancer treatments take your immunity down to zero. So it would not be safe to use those treatments now.
He says this is not a capacity issue; it is a policy issue.
But he says there is “one area where I’m really concerned”.
There has been a drop off in “first presentations”, he says. He says this is a “really big worry”. There are “far, far fewer people coming forward”.
He says the government has spent years encouraging people with cancer symptoms to see a doctor. But that has “come to a juddering halt”.
Anyone with a lump should call the doctor. They will be seen, and seen safely.
Q: One doctor has said the delays in cancer treatment could lead to more deaths than from coronavirus. Is that right?
Hancock says he thinks that is “unlikely”.
But he says there are concerns about the impact coronavirus might have on other people needing treatment.
Updated
Border Force officers have been seen fitting face masks to people believed to be migrants at Dover on Friday.
The Border Force cutter HMC Vigilant has been active in the Channel this morning, PA Media news agency understands, and pictures taken in Dover show the suspected migrants being processed by UK personnel wearing fluorescent jackets.
The latest incidents come as the growing Covid-19 threat, a lack of food and the exodus of volunteers has left migrants in northern France in a perilous position, according to a humanitarian charity.
Nearly 400 migrants are known to have risked their lives in small boats to try to cross the Channel since lockdown measures were put in place in the UK on 23 March.
Updated
Q: Have you considered using the extra critical care capacity to intervene with patients earlier? There have been some reports of patients getting oxygen too late?
Jonathan Van-Tam, the deputy chief medical officer for England, says when patients are first admitted to hospital, they often need oxygen therapy, but not ventilation.
Q: Is national guidance being issued on what doctors must do if they need to ration care for clinicians?
Hancock says the government has not had to issue this guidance, because the capacity of the NHS has not been reached. The “overwhelming of the NHS” has been avoided, he says.
- Hancock says NHS has not had to issue guidance on how doctors should choose which patients to prioritise because intensive care capacity is not being exceeded.
Hunt says he wants to ask now about treatments.
Q: If we conclude a drug is safe, would we speed up the usual regulatory processes?
Hancock says so far there have not been any clinical trials that have proved the value of any of the drugs thought to be helpful.
But the UK is using some of them, because there is some evidence they are useful.
He says this allows some scientific verification.
Jonathan Van-Tam, the deputy chief medical officer for England, comes in at this point. He says, without randomised control trials, you cannot know what will work.
Q: So are you saying you won’t short circuit the need for these trials once you know it is safe?
Van-Tam says you need to do trials. You need to know it is safe. You need to know what type of patients it might work best on. And you need to know at what stage of treatment it should be delivered.
Q: So we are going to carry on following the normal processes?
Van-Tam says Hunt is asking about safety. But some of these drugs might worsen outcomes. That is why trials are so important.
Hunt says this amounts to a belt and braces approach.
Hancock says that is not right. He says clinical trials are being accelerated faster than usual.
Updated
Q: Do you accept the claim from the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services that the distribution of PPE nationally has been “shambolic”?
Hancock says he thinks the criticism in that letter was unfair. And he says since it was written the government has published a plan for adult social care.
Updated
Hancock says PPE does have to be certified by the Health and Safety Executive. But he says they have been working rapidly to certify PPE coming in from abroad.
Back to the health committee.
Q: Will you admit that your claim that only 15% of care homes have coronavirus looks like an understatement?
Hancock says this figure is robust. It is based on testing. But he would expect it to rise, he says.
Updated
London buses to change boarding rules in bid to protect transport workers
Bus travel in London will effectively be free from this Monday, when passengers will all start boarding through the middle door. They will not be required to “tap in” to pay, with most buses now only having Oyster or contactless card readers at the front beside the driver.
Transport for London said that a trial of the scheme on 140 buses had demonstrated that the move could allow sufficient physical distancing on buses, with numbers having dropped dramatically during the coronavirus lockdown. Passenger journeys on buses are down 85% in the capital.
The change comes after other measures to protect drivers, including installing full protective screens around the cab, sealing off seats near the front, and giving enhanced sick pay to staff to ensure any whose family show symptoms are able to self-isolate for 14 days.
Unions welcomed the move, after the deaths of 15 bus drivers and six other transport workers in London from coronavirus. Pete Kavanagh, of Unite London, said:
We have lost members of our bus family in recent days and we refuse to lose any more.
Claire Mann, TfL’s director of bus operations, said:
Even with these significant safety enhancements I would like to remind Londoners to stay at home to ensure that critical workers and London’s bus drivers can get around the city safely.
The move to middle-door boarding comes only a matter of weeks after TfL changed all buses, including New Routemasters, to front-door boarding only, ironically to prevent fare evasion, before the Covid-19 crisis.
TfL is still in discussions with the government about covering lost revenue across all modes of transport during the lockdown - especially fares from the Underground, which largely fund buses.
Updated
Back in the health committee Hancock says 11m items of PPE have been shipped from England to Scotland. That shows what a “team effort” it is, he says.
Hancock unable to give MPs firm assurance some hospitals won’t run out of gowns this weekend
Hunt turns to PPE (personal protective equipment).
Q: Are you confident that our hospitals will have enough gowns to get them through the weekend? [The question was prompted by stories like this one.]
Hancock says the challenge is considerable.
They have gone from needing relatively small numbers to huge numbers.
As of this weekend, they will have shipped 1bn items of PPE across the UK.
This is a massive undertaking. It is understandable that, with such a massive undertaking, there are challenges.
We are tight on gowns. That is the pressure point at the moment.
We have another 55,000 gowns arriving today and we’re working on the acquisition internationally of more gowns, but it is a challenge.
And this follows changing the guidance 10 days ago which increased the advice on the use of gowns but also said that they should be used for sessional use rather than for individual patient use.
And it is a big challenge delivering against that new guidance and we’re doing everything we possibly can.
He says officials are working through the day and night on this.
Q: Will you be able to get gowns to everywhere that needs them this weekend?
Hancock says that is exactly what they are aiming to do.
- Hancock unable to give MPs firm assurance that some hospitals won’t run out of gowns this weekend.
Updated
In the health committee the Labour chair of the home affairs committee, Yvette Cooper, goes next.
Q: Many countries ask people to self-isolate when they arrive in the country. Why doesn’t the UK?
Hancock says the UK does have the capacity to do this. But he says the number of people arriving in the country has collapsed. He says the epidemiologists advise that people arriving in the UK are not a significant contribution to transmission. That could change in the future, he says.
Hancock says fewer NHS staff came forward for coronavirus testing than expected
At the health committee Laura Trott asks what is being done to ensure demand matches supply for test.
Hancock says this is a problem that has cropped up this week.
At first it looked as if people were not coming forward for testing because of the bank holiday.
But now it looks as if the number of NHS staff coming forward was not as high as expected.
Within the NHS, the number of staff coming forward for testing is lower than was anticipated.
You’ll understand why we had a priority order for the use of the test where it was patients first, then NHS staff.
Frankly, the number of NHS staff coming forward wasn’t as high as expected and therefore we extended it very quickly both to residents and staff in social care.
That is why it was expanded, to cover social care staff, and other public sector staff today. (See 11.19am.)
Because capacity is going up sharply, I’m therefore able to expand it further and we’ll expand it again as soon as the capacity is there to make sure that that capacity is used up.
Updated
Around 34% of pregnant NHS workers are still working in environments where they feel unsafe due to Covid-19 exposure, a survey of 1,347 pregnant women from charity Pregnant Then Screwed has found.
Following the death of Mary Agyeiwaa Agyapong who died at eight months pregnant after contracting coronavirus, after stopping work at seven months, Pregnant Then Screwed is campaigning for all pregnant women to be removed from front line work.
Joeli Brearley, the charity’s founder, said:
Pregnant women should not be working on the frontline. The government has been explicit in telling all pregnant women, no matter their gestation, that they must socially distance. Yet the guidance from the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists makes a distinction between women who are before 28 weeks gestation and there after. This is causing huge confusion.
We have been campaigning and lobbying for more clarity since the government placed pregnant women into the vulnerable category on the 16 March, but this hasn’t come. We understand the enormous pressure on the NHS at the moment, but there shouldn’t be any more tragedies of pregnant women contracting or dying of the virus.
The law is very clear and yet every day we are hearing from pregnant women who are still being forced to work in environments which are not safe, some of whom are treating Covid-19 patients despite the well-documented lack of PPE and the high-risk to them and their unborn child.
Back at the health committee Greg Clark, the chair of the science committee, goes next.
Q: My committee has been told that 50% of those infected might be asymptomatic. Is that correct?
Hancock says, unlike other coronaviruses, Covid-19 does seem to have a large number of people being asymptomatic. He says this is something his officials are looking into.
Hancock insists the government is committed to contact tracing.
But the amount of contact tracing you need depends on how much transmission there is of the virus, he says.
Around 150,000 self-employed people are not eligible for a coronavirus income support scheme because they have worked for themselves only since after the end of the 2018/2019 tax year, according to a report from the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
The ONS said 3% of all self-employed people in the UK have become continuously self-employed since April 2019, meaning they may not be eligible for the government’s self-employment income support scheme because they would miss the threshold to prove their past income to receive wage subsidies.
Only those who have submitted a tax return for the tax year ending 2019 are eligible for government assistance. The ONS said by the end of last year there were more than five million self-employed people in the UK, up from 3.2 million in 2000.
The UK labour market has more than 5 million self-employed people, and many will have seen their working lives change radically because of the #coronavirus outbreak https://t.co/TBKZp2r8lU #COVID19 pic.twitter.com/hHsITv7fjD
— Office for National Statistics (ONS) (@ONS) April 17, 2020
Self-employment has contributed strongly to employment growth in the labour market, with self-employed people representing 15.3% of employment, up from 12% in 2000, said the report.
Of all self-employed people, 87% (4.3 million) said that they have been self-employed since before April 2018. A further 9% reported starting self-employment between April 2018 and March 2019.
Provided they have submitted a tax return for the tax year ending 2019 and other criteria are met, these people will be eligible for the scheme, although their profits may not be representative of a full year of trading, the ONS said.
The estimates will not include people who have become self-employed since the start of 2020 and might under-report the extent of newly self-employed people, the report added.
Working for yourself was the most common form of self-employment, as well as running a business or freelancing.
Research by the Association of Independent Professionals and the Self-Employed (IPSE) has highlighted that almost half of self-employed workers fear they will not have enough money to cover basic living costs during the Covid-19 outbreak.
Hancock says mass community testing is part of UK's strategy
Hunt says several officials said at one point that mass community testing was not part of the government’s strategy. Is it part of the strategy.
Yes, says Hancock. He says:
It is part of the strategy. We will be introducing it when we can.
Updated
Hancock says police, fire, prison and DWP staff now eligible for coronavirus testing
Asked if it was a mistake to give up testing everyone in the middle of March, when the government moved from the contain phase to the delay phase, Hancock says that at that stage the UK did not have the capacity to test everyone.
But testing was always being ramped up. And now he does want to be able to test everyone with symptoms, he says.
We do need to have comprehensive test, track and trace in place as soon as possible.
And we need to get the technology right, we need to have the people and we’re building that resource and obviously we need to have the testing and we’re ramping that up as well.
So we do need to have all three of those in place and we’re working incredibly hard to make sure that we are.
Hancock says today he can announced that a wider group of key workers will now be able to get tested in testing centres. He says the workers now covered include the police, firefighters, prison staff, local authority workers, the judiciary and DWP staff.
Updated
An influential group of MPs has called on the government to investigate concerns that cramped and unhygienic conditions in asylum accommodation are putting people at risk of contracting coronavirus.
The home affairs select committee has written to Chris Philp, the minister for immigration compliance and the courts, raising concerns about poor conditions in an asylum centre in West Yorkshire that reportedly breached measures to control the spread of Covid-19.
The MPs also asked Philp to confirm what steps the Home Office is taking to ensure that the private contractors which manage asylum accommodation are “enabling social distancing, proper hygiene and self-isolation” at other centres.
The select committee’s action comes after the Guardian reported that asylum seekers are being made to share cramped rooms and even beds with strangers in hostels during the coronavirus lockdown.
Yvette Cooper, who chairs the committee, called the reports “very troubling”. She said:
It is especially alarming that during the coronavirus pandemic lives are being put at risk as a result of cramped, poor conditions. That significantly increases the risk of spreading coronavirus both within accommodation centres and in the community.
There are also serious concerns about hygiene and cleanliness within accommodation. We will continue to monitor reports of conditions in asylum accommodation centres as vulnerable people should not be put at risk.
The select committee is due to hear evidence from refugee charities and migration lawyers in the next hearing of its inquiry into the Home Office’s preparations for and response to the Covid-19 pandemic on 21 April.
One of those giving evidence, Andy Hewett, head of advocacy at the Refugee Council, said the common practice of making unrelated asylum share rooms was “making it impossible to abide by social distancing rules”. He added:
The Home Office needs to put in place urgent measures to ensure appropriate accommodation is made available, so that people can live with dignity and keep themselves safe during the pandemic.
Hunt turns to testing.
Q: How many tests were conducted yesterday?
Hancock says the overall number was just over 18,000. Most of those tests were in pillar one (in NHS laboratories). Around 4,000 were in pillar two (in commercial laboratories).
Hancock says he has just been given the latest figure for Covid-19-related NHS staff absences. It is 7.1%, not 8% (see 10.53am), he says.
Government considered London-only lockdown, but decided UK-wide approach best, says Hancock
Back to the health committee.
Q: Shouldn’t you have introduced the lockdown in London earlier?
Hancock says the government did consider this. But it decided to apply the restrictions to the whole country at the same time.
There were “difficult judgments”, he says.
We did consider having a London-specific lockdown, and decided that it was better to do it across the country as a whole.
And that’s for two reasons. The first is that if you put a lockdown in one part of the country, then there’s still travel from there to the rest of the country, so it isn’t as easy as that.
And the second reason is that actually one of the really strong things that’s come through this crisis is that the country is acting in lockstep ...
To separate off one part of the country from the rest actually has downsides in terms of the national unity that we’ve seen in support for the overall response.
Updated
Good morning! I’m Lucy Campbell, joining Andrew Sparrow to bring you all the latest UK developments on the coronavirus pandemic as the day unfolds.
As always, if you have any tips, advice, comments or suggestions, you’re welcome to get in touch with me, either via email at lucy.campbell@theguardian.com or on Twitter, I’m on @lucy_campbell_.
Updated
The former Leeds and England defender Norman Hunter has died at the age of 76 after contracting coronavirus. The full story on the footballer is here.
Updated
Q: Do you have an estimate for the number of NHS staff who have had coronavirus?
Hancock says he does not. But he says 8% of staff have been off work because they or a family member have had symptoms.
Updated
Hunt says that the ONS has reported just 217 coronavirus deaths in care homes. That would be less than 2% of the overall deaths. But Scotland says a quarter of its coronavirus deaths are in care homes. And France says it is half. Is the UK figure accurate?
Hancock says the ONS figure is an old number. He goes on:
I can tell you with a high degree of confidence that both the number and proportion [of care home deaths] are higher than you say.
He says he has asked officials to get a better way of reporting care home deaths.
I asked CQC to make sure that we record the data in care homes specifically, of those who are residents of care homes, whether they die in hospital or in the care home, and they started collecting that data yesterday and it will be published very shortly. So I have introduced a new measure that will directly address this question.
Q: Are you still saying only 27 NHS staff have died from coronavirus?
Hancock says that is the official figure. He says it gets updated three times a week. So the true number will be higher.
Q: Will you publish the updates?
Yes, says Hancock. And he says he would like to be able to publish a daily figure for the number of deaths of NHS staff.
Updated
Matt Hancock explains six-point coronavirus 'battleplan' as he gives evidence to MPs
Matt Hancock, the health secretary, is now giving evidence.
He starts with an opening statement. He says he wants to explain his approach.
He says his “battle plan” has six elements.
First, social distancing. He says everyone knows where they are on that. That is “mission critical” for bending the curve down.
Second, building up NHS capacity. He says making sure the NHS always has capacity to treat patients is also mission critical.
He says there are 2,769 spare critical care beds as of this morning.
Third, supply. He says the world has suddenly needed huge amounts of particular items, like PPE, medicines, ventilators, and potential treatments.
Fourth, testing. He says he expects the committee to ask about this. He says he puts this in the same category as tracking and contract tracing. It is the combination of the three that matters: test, track and trace.
Fifth, treatments. He says if you can treat the disease, then its impact will be lessened. And obviously they are looking for a vaccine.
And the sixth part of the plan is shielding. The more you can protect the vulnerable, the safer society will be, he says.
Updated
Donna Kinnair, the chief executive and general secretary of the Royal College of Nursing, tells the health committee that she is “very worried” about the shortage of PPE (personal protective equipment) for nurses.
Back in the health committee Prof Anthony Costello, professor of global health and sustainable development at UCL Institute for Global Health, says there could be 40,000 deaths by the time this wave of coronavirus is over.
But even with those numbers, only 10% to 15% of the population might have had the illness, and developed immunity.
He says that is why it is crucial to keep the spread of the disease down until a vaccine is ready.
UPDATE: Costello also suggested offering incentives to 10% of the population to stay socially isolated in order to get the economy going again.
We have to get the economy going and if it means locking down 10% of our population, even giving them incentives to stay in quarantine and with digital apps to help monitor their symptoms and give them support, that’s the way to really keep this going until we get a vaccine and safe herd immunity.
Updated
Travel industry hits back at Grant Shapps after he discourages summer holiday bookings
Turning away from the health committee for a moment, Abta, the travel industry body (formerly the Association of British Travel Agents) is furious with Grant Shapps, the transport secretary, for suggesting this morning that now is not the time to book a summer holiday. (See 9.20am.) An Abta spokesperson said:
It was a thoughtless comment and not based on any facts about what we know today about the future of the pandemic, but it shows complete disregard for the UK travel industry, the hundreds of thousands of people it employs and the struggle it is facing in this current crisis. It would be better if the government focused on taking the necessary steps to support the sector rather than undermining confidence in it.
At the health committee Tom Tugendhat, chair of the foreign affairs committee (who is making a guest appearance - see 9.50am), asks about the implications of coronavirus in the developing world.
Costello says countries in Africa will struggle to test.
But it is possible that the southern hemisphere could be protected for a few months because of “seasonal issues”, he says.
He says developing countries will see a huge increase in unemployment, and debt crises. It is not just a medical crisis, he says.
Prof Anthony Costello, professor of global health and sustainable development at UCL Institute for Global Health, says the UK seems to be facing the highest death rates in Europe. He says the UK was too slow to introduce testing.
But he says he does not think the UK necessarily needs 100,000 tests a day. What matters is getting the right people tested, he suggests.
Updated
Donna Kinnair, the chief executive and general secretary of the Royal College of Nursing, tells the Commons health committee that she has heard of cases of nurses driving two hours to a testing centre and then being turned away.
What I’m hearing from the front line is nurses are sometimes just driving two hours feeling very unwell with possible symptoms of coronavirus and driving to a testing station.
Sometimes if you haven’t got an appointment you’re turned away only to be told to come back another time.
So we need some really clear direction on how we can access testing both in the NHS but more so for social care, because they don’t have the same infrastructure as the NHS.
Updated
Jeremy Hunt, the committee chair, says he wants to start by getting an update on what is happening on the frontline.
Dr Alison Pittard, dean of the Faculty of Intensive Care Medicine, says people are working very hard. In intensive care, doctors have only been able to meet the demand by changing the way they work.
She says if staff had to spread themselves more thinly, there would be concern about safety being compromised.
Updated
Commons health committee takes evidence on coronavirus
The Commons health committee hearing (see 9.50am) is just starting.
The first three witnesses are: Donna Kinnair, the chief executive and general secretary of the Royal College of Nursing, Dr Alison Pittard, dean of the Faculty of Intensive Care Medicine, and Prof Anthony Costello, professor of global health and sustainable development at UCL Institute for Global Health.
Updated
Northern Ireland death toll revised up by 39
Northern Ireland’s coronavirus death toll is 39 higher than previously reported, official statisticians confirmed.
A total of 157 fatalities involving Covid-19 have been recorded on death certificates up to 10 April, the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA) said.
More than two thirds, 109, happened in hospital. Another 41 occurred in care homes and hospices involving 23 separate establishments. The remaining seven happened in people’s homes.
The Public Health Agency (PHA) in Northern Ireland had previously reported 118 deaths involving the infection up to 10 April because of differences in how the statistics are gathered, PA reports, which relies on a patient having previously tested positive for the virus.
Updated
The Scottish Conservative leader, Jackson Carlaw, has lodged a formal complaint with BBC Scotland over what he sees as its failure to adequately challenge Scottish National party politicians on their response to the coronavirus outbreak.
It is reported this morning that Carlaw was especially angered by a Reporting Scotland interview with the finance secretary, Kate Forbes, after her U-turn on business support to mirror England’s grant scheme. He says the BBC did not challenge her change of stance or mention the fact that his party had been pressing the SNP on the issue.
A Scottish Conservative spokesperson said:
We have submitted a letter to BBC Scotland highlighting some concerns, and we look forward to working with them to resolve these in future.
Updated
The Commons health committee is holding what is likely to be a widely-watched evidence session this morning when it questions Matt Hancock, the health secretary, by video link. Hancock is due up at 10.30am.
In an unusual move, Jeremy Hunt, the Conservative former health secretary who now chairs the committee, has beefed up his inquisitorial team by inviting four other select committee chairs to participate, alongside the normal members of the committee. The four chairs are Clive Betts (housing), Greg Clark (science), Yvette Cooper (home affairs) and Tom Tugendhat (foreign affairs). This means it might sound more like a meeting of the liaison committee than a normal committee hearing.
Before Hancock appears three other leading health experts are giving evidence at 10am. They are: Donna Kinnair, chief executive and general secretary of Royal College of Nursing , Dr Alison Pittard, dean of the Faculty of Intensive Care Medicine and Prof Anthony Costello, professor of global health and sustainable development at UCL Institute for Global Health
According to the Daily Telegraph (paywall), Costello will criticise the government’s failure to conduct widespread testing. He will also say that the idea that the UK could relatively quickly build up “herd immunity” to coronavirus is mistaken because research from the Netherlands suggests only a small proportion of the population are getting the exposure to coronavirus in this wave that will give them immunity. Costello told the Telegraph:
We won’t get herd immunity if what the latest models show are correct. In the UK we would have to get through another eight to ten waves to get to herd immunity. This study in the Netherlands shows antibody levels are very low in the community and so the idea it is rapidly spreading and giving protection at the same time isn’t there.
Black, Asian and minority ethnic communities appear to be disproportionately affected by Covid-19 in the UK. However, we don’t currently have enough public data to be able to understand how many people killed by the virus came from minority ethnic backgrounds. The Guardian’s data editor Caelainn Barr takes a look at this issue as well as the other key information that is missing from the government’s daily death toll.
Updated
Transport secretary suggests it would be mistake to start booking summer holiday now
Good morning. I’m Andrew Sparrow, joining Gregory Robinson.
Grant Shapps, the transport secretary, has been doing a round of interviews this morning. Here are the top lines.
- Shapps said he thought working from home was likely to become common after the coronavirus crisis was over. He said:
Well, talking to business leaders like the Northern Powerhouse, for example, we were commenting on the extent to which the world probably will not go back to the way it was before in all manner of ways ...
It may well be that in future companies say, actually it has worked pretty well having some of our staff working from remote locations, why don’t we carry on doing that?
Actually, why does everybody have to get up and travel during the rush hour at a particular time in the morning? Why don’t we have that distanced through the day? And there may be different ways, both in terms of businesses and organisations, but also to do with the way the government responds, to spread the load better.
We should look, as we think about the future, for lessons that we can take away that actually might change the way we can live life in the future a bit for the better.
- He suggested that it would be a mistake for people to start booking summer holidays now. Asked if people could book a holiday now, he replied:
Clearly people will want to see what the trajectory of this disease is in the next few weeks. We’ve just started to see a flattening of that daily, tragic curve that shows the deaths each day ... We are not seeing declines yet. I won’t be booking a summer holiday at this point, let’s put it that way.
- He played down suggestions that airlines might have to keep middle seats empty when air travel resumes (an idea floated by EasyJet) to allow physical distancing. Asked about this idea, he said:
I think it’s the case that given the catastrophic impact on particularly aviation of this virus, with virtually all aviation having stopped, that actually it’s unlikely that passenger numbers, load factors, will be so high in the first place that this will be much of a problem I imagine.
When we get more detail, when the scientists have looked at it and we come out of the lockdown in the future, they’ll be in a better position, we’ll all be in a better position to say whether that is an adequate sense of distance or not.
- He said he disagreed with Sadiq Khan’s call for the government to back mask wearing on public transport. (See 7.53am.) Asked about Khan’s proposal, Shapps said:
We need to take this in the round and look at all of the evidence. So it is not the right moment to instruct people, as I saw the London mayor do this morning, to wear them if we are not certain yet that they are going to be advantageous.
In fact, he wrote to me about this and said in his letter he recognises that it could be counterproductive, so I don’t think we should be in that space right at this moment.
- He said that Keir Starmer’s claim that the government was “in limbo” in the absence of Boris Johnson was “completely untrue”. He said the cabinet and Cobra were continuing to function properly and that it was “simply not the case that everything’s on standstill”. He went on:
There would have been no difference to those decisions [if Johnson had been present] because we have been guided by the scientists and the medical advice.
- Shapps said it was too early to tell if the UK would end up with a higher coronavirus death toll than other countries. Asked about this, he said:
Look, I simply don’t know the answer to that question. I don’t think anyone will know for quite a long time.
For example, countries that think they’re out of it – do they have a second wave?
What’s the counter-factor? What’s happened to people who normally might have accessed the NHS? I’ve been concerned to see some of those numbers falling that may have caused illnesses or deaths which perhaps don’t come to light for months or even years.
So I think there will be a lot of factors that we’ll need to look at, and again, rather than guessing, we’ll ask people like the Office for National Statistics, the ONS, to tell us, and learn any of the lessons.
Updated
A video showing dozens of people gathering on Westminster Bridge yesterday evening to clap for the NHS is going viral on Twitter this morning.
The scene from Westminster bridge #ClapForCarers pic.twitter.com/JpzM0YBjgH
— Damir Rafi (@d_rafi1) April 16, 2020
From Monday, passengers will only be allowed to board London’s buses using the middle door in a new pandemic measure announced by Transport for London.
The new measure is being introduced in an effort to protect bus drivers and to keep passengers safe from the coronavirus, the operator said in a statement. Fifteen bus workers in the capital have died after testing positive to Covid-19.
TfL’s director of bus operations Claire Mann said:
Bus drivers are pivotal in ensuring critical workers like NHS staff and grocery workers can perform the vital roles they do during this national emergency.
Their efforts are nothing short of heroic, and it is essential that we leave no stone unturned when looking to protect them.
Updated
The social media service TikTok has announced a £5m donation to the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) Foundation’s Covid-19 healthcare support fund, which will provide frontline health and social care staff practical and psychological support both during and after the emergency.
The donation follows a spike in the number of TikTok videos being created by and for frontline healthcare workers.
TikTok videos celebrating NHS and healthcare workers have amassed 330m views in one month - a 5,000% increase on four weeks ago.
Matt Hancock, the health and social care secretary, said:
The whole country has been overwhelmed by the dedication and professionalism of all of our health and social care heroes battling against this global pandemic.
I know the extraordinary pressures this virus has brought to professional and private lives, and I’m delighted that TikTok is supporting the RCN Foundation which brings so much support to so many.”
Updated
Sturgeon says Scotland does not necessarily have to follow same line on easing lockdown as rest of UK
Scotland’s first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, has said she would deviate from the UK government’s lockdown measures if her advisers told her it was in the best interests of her country.
Sturgeon told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme:
If I was being advised, and if the judgment I was applying to that advice told me that I had to do something different to the rest of the UK because it was right and necessary to continue to control the virus in Scotland, of course I would do that.
I think people would find it astounding if I said anything different to that. But I will be driven by what advice, science and my own judgment is telling me the right thing to do is.
Updated
High-end fashion retailers in the UK, including Burberry, Barbour, Louis Vuitton and David Nieper have stepped up to help meet the demand for personal protective equipment (PPE), following reports of ongoing shortages.
The firms have all repurposed factories to produce PPE items such as gowns and masks.
Burberry CEO Marco Gobbetti said:
In challenging times, we must pull together. The whole team at Burberry is very proud to be able to support those who are working tirelessly to combat Covid-19, whether by treating patients, working to find a vaccine solution or helping provide food supplies to those in need at this time.
Covid-19 has fundamentally changed our everyday lives, but we hope that the support we provide will go some way towards saving more lives, bringing the virus under control and helping our world recover from this devastating pandemic.”
I am running a project to remember those who lost their lives working in hospitals, surgeries and care homes during the coronavirus outbreak.
The government says there have been 27 verified deaths of NHS staff during the pandemic, but others have also died. The Guardian has recorded 50 deaths that have been reported in the news, although the true scale of those who lost their lives is likely to be higher, as not all deaths will be in the public domain.
If you want to share any further names and stories with us, or feel there are some people we have missed, then please email me at sarah.marsh@theguardian.com. We hope to publicly acknowledge and pay tribute to the people who died working on the frontline of the pandemic, and try to understand the causes behind their deaths.
Updated
Morrisons and Kellogg’s have partnered with Magic Breakfast to provide 200,000 boxes of cereal to over 12,000 schoolchildren during the Coronavirus lockdown.
Manufacturers of cereal, porridge, baked beans and bagels, a supermarket, schools, and delivery companies are all working with Magic Breakfast to reach vulnerable children through this period of crisis.
Magic Breakfast usually delivers to 471 schools in disadvantaged areas of the UK, providing meals to children who often arrive to school hungry. In the coming weeks, Magic Breakfast will be arranging deliveries of breakfast food to alternative distribution sites, where schools are closed, and will be working with delivery partners and volunteers to deliver breakfast packs for children to their homes.
Joseph Clark-Bland, Charity and Community Specialist at Morrisons said:
We are playing our part in feeding the nation and that includes vulnerable young people. We hope these boxes provide fuel to help young people to concentrate on their schooling at this very difficult time.”
Bus travel in London will be free of charge from Monday when passengers are banned from using the front door. It follows the death of 21 transport workers who tested positive for COVID-19. @itvlondon
— Simon Harris (@simonharrisitv) April 17, 2020
The mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, also told BBC Breakfast that protective measures for the capital’s bus drivers had gone “above and beyond” expert advice.
He said:
It’s heartbreaking, I’ve had 16 bus drivers who have lost their lives, it’s personal to me. It’s really heartbreaking and my condolences to those families.
Khan said authorities have introduced protective glass, anti-viral cleaning and passengers sitting away from the driver to keep staff safe, as well as middle-door boarding which will be rolled out from Monday.
He added:
I’m confident working with the excellent trade unions, we’ve made sure our public transport is as safe as it can be for both passengers and also our staff as well, who deserve a huge credit for keeping public transport running in these difficult times.
Updated
London mayor urges government to back mask wearing on public transport
The mayor of London, Sadiq Khan appeared on BBC Breakfast earlier to urge the public to wear non-surgical face masks when they go out.
Khan said he is lobbying the government to change its advice on wearing face coverings to add “another layer of protection” to members of the public.
In those circumstances where we can’t keep our social distance, we can’t keep two metres apart, think about when you’re using public transport and you really have to, or you’re in a shop and you can’t keep two metres apart. Wearing a non-medical facial covering makes it less likely you may inadvertently give somebody else Covid-19.
I want a consistent approach across the country, we don’t want mixed messaging. So I’m lobbying the government’s experts and the government, want them to change their advice and change their guidance so we can have this additional layer of protection.
Updated
Prince William discussed finding out his father Charles, Prince of Wales, had coronavirus. “At first I was quite concerned,” he said in regards to his father’s age. “My father has had many chest infections and colds and if anyone was going to beat this it was going to be him. He had very mild symptoms, but at that age you do worry a bit more.”
They also reflected on the high risk faced by older people in the UK who are “going to have to isolate for quite some time”, and called Capt Tom Moore, the 99-year-old army veteran who raised more than £15m for NHS, an “absolute legend”.
Updated
The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge spoke to the BBC’s Today programme about the effect of the coronavirus pandemic on mental health. Prince William said: “Pressure, stress and isolation are all building up.”
They also discussed the effect on NHS frontline workers:
NHS are used to dealing with very sad situations. A lot of patients are dying with no family around them and for the frontline NHS workers at their bedsides that is very hard for them. To be able to manage those emotions is going to take some time as well.”
Updated
Help for English fishing industry
England’s fishing industry has been thrown “a lifeline” by the government, with £10m in cash grants to help them stay afloat amid the coronavirus crisis, as the export markets they rely on have collapsed, my colleague Fiona Harvey reports.
Updated
The SNP’s Westminster leader, Ian Blackford, has said Scotland could deviate from the rest of the UK’s lockdown measures if it wished to do so.
Blackford told BBC Breakfast:
The governments across the United Kingdom, all the devolved administrations and the government in Westminster have worked very closely across the course of the last few weeks and it’s right and proper that that is the case - I think the public expect to see us doing that.
But of course the administration in Edinburgh does have devolved powers, we have our own emergency legislation that was put in place four weeks ago, so yes we can do things in our own way.”
Of course, we took action when we considered appropriate to close schools in Scotland. So there are powers the first minister, the government and the parliament in Edinburgh has and they’ll use those powers in the interest of the people of Scotland.”
That’s only right and proper that we do that, but we’ll seek to work collectively with the government in London.”
Updated
Good morning, this is Gregory Robinson and I’ll be running the live blog this morning, bringing you the latest news from the UK.
If you want to follow me or contact me on Twitter to share insight or send tips, I’m on @Gregoryjourno or send me an email at gregory.robinson@guardian.co.uk
Yesterday, we learned that lockdown measures will continue for at least the next three weeks. Dominic Raab said there was ‘light at the end of the tunnel’ but it was too early to “ease up” quarantine measures that will remain in place in the UK for at least three more weeks.
The foreign secretary also laid out five key things that would allow the government to relax lockdown measures, which included getting more resources for the NHS and ensuring adjustments would not allow a second peak in the coronavirus outbreak.
Updated
