Evening summary
- The government emphasised that any changes to lockdown measures announced by the PM tomorrow will be “extremely cautious”. Boris Johnson is expected to announce small changes to measures, which could include permitting outdoor exercise more than once a day, reopening garden centres and requiring passengers arriving from abroad into airports and ports to quarantine for 14 days. The government declined to confirm these reports today and said only that the PM will make an announcement at 7pm tomorrow.
- The coastguard recorded the highest number of incidents in one day since lockdown began as people “ignored” the government’s stay-at-home message. The Coastguard said there were 97 incidents on Friday, 54% more than the average of 63 recorded for the previous month. Going into another warm, sunny bank holiday weekend, it urged people to continue observing the stay-at-home guidance for the sake of the NHS and first responders on the frontline.
- The UK death toll rose by 346 to 31,587 across all settings.
- The government pledged a £2bn package to boost cycling and walking during what the transport secretary Grant Shapps called “a once-in-a-generation” chance to change the way people travel in the UK. The package will include measures such as widening pavements, pop-up bike lanes, cyclist-only streets and trialling the use of e-scooters.
That’s it from us today on the UK side. If you would like to continue following the Guardian’s coverage of the coronavirus pandemic, head over to the global live blog.
Updated
Q. While the inquiry into BAME deaths with Covid-19 is ongoing until the end of the month, in the interim, what steps are you taking to protect BAME key workers and their families?
Shapps says at the end of May [with results of PHE inquiry] the government will be in a better position to advise on this.
Van-Tam says he takes this very incredibly seriously and there is an enormous determination to get to the bottom of this with real clarity and in a proper and scientific way. That’s why he doesn’t want to offer “quick fixes”, he says.
There are multiple risk factors and it is very complicated, so there are no quick answers, he says.
I can’t tell you how urgent this is, but it’s not so urgent that we can make mistakes.
Q. Will the government consider including convenience retailers as key workers and providing them and pharmacists with PPE so they can continue to serve the nation, or will you tell them to close so they can stay alive?
This doesn’t get answered.
And that’s it, the press conference is over.
Updated
Q. As of right now and for the next 24 hours ahead of the PM’s statement, should people be staying at home?
Shapps says it is “absolutely unequivocal” that people should be staying at home and not throwing away the efforts of the last seven weeks just because it’s sunny this weekend.
Please stay at home this weekend in exactly the same way that you have been previously.
Q. For track and trace to really work, do we have to have new cases down to the hundreds and if so how long do you think that will take?
Van-Tam says test and trace will involve the NHS app and PHE in wider traditional contact tracing.
He says test and trace is part of the solution to how we continue to live with this virus after the lockdown – it’s not the total solution, he adds.
How extensive test and trace needs to be depends on the level of disease among the population, he says, but it is part of the overall measures that will give us more flexibility on social distancing.
It’s a contribution, not a total solution.
Q. Will you accept that parents won’t be able to cycle into work until schools are up and running?
Shapps says more people than ever are working from home and this is likely to continue as long as social distancing remains at the heart of the situation. The PM will say more on this tomorrow, he adds.
Q. What’s going to happen to the 1.8m shielding when the volunteers they rely on go back to work?
Van-Tam says shielding is extremely important to protecting the most vulnerable in society and is likely to have prevented many deaths.
He says these groups and how to proceed are being kept under review.
Updated
Q. Can you level with people that realistically foreign travel this summer is unlikely and recommend that people start cancelling trips?
Shapps says the Foreign Office is advising strongly against all international travel at the moment and many countries aren’t accepting foreign travellers at the moment.
We have to see how the R rate continues to proceed before we know the answer as to how things will look in the summer, he adds.
Q. Why has it been so difficult to protect people in care homes and what more needs to be done?
Van-Tam says he recognises the difficult situation in care homes and is extremely sorry for the deaths that have occurred.
The largely indoor environment in care homes means the virus spreads more easily among the largely elderly population in care homes – many of whom have a range of underlying health conditions, creating “a perfect storm”, he says.
NHS England and the CQC are looking closely at this, he adds.
Updated
Q. Are you open to negotiation on this quarantine arrangement with the airline industry or have you made up your mind?
Shapps says nothing has been announced yet.
The aviation sector has been approached to have “bespoke conversations” with himself and the chancellor, he says.
Q. The average UK commute is 9 miles - many couldn’t cycle to work if they want to. What will you do about that?
Shapps says there will be further announcements on road and rail.
They are taking questions from the media now.
Q. Will anyone flying into UK airports be quarantined for 14 days from the start of next month? Why didn’t this happen weeks ago during the peak and won’t such a move damage the aviation industry even more?
Shapps says people travelling from Wuhan, Iran and South Korea were quarantined in January and February.
It makes sense to look at the borders, he says, but the capacity to do this exists but the PM will say more on this tomorrow.
Van-Tam adds that the incubation period of this disease is understood to be between one and 14 days. This means from exposure to the virus, you remain well for one to 14 days before symptoms emerge. If people go home, they must work out that incubation period at home, and that’s the scientific basis for quarantine.
Q. Is the government’s messaging now looking more confused as you’re looking at tightening controls on the borders yet allowing people to visit garden centres?
Shapps says he feels people are capable of understanding what’s being said.
Van-Tam adds that the policy is quite consistent. Testing and tracing means contacts will be told to self-isolate, consistent with quarantining people travelling in from abroad, he says.
Updated
Tammy from Bristol asks how the government plans to implement social distancing measures in education settings.
Shapps says we must wait to hear from the prime minister tomorrow at 7pm but discussions are ongoing on this matter.
Van-Tam says that whatever the PM announces tomorrow, it will be “extremely cautious, careful and painstaking” and will take into account these factors.
It’s caution all the way, really.
Updated
They are taking questions from members of the public now.
Stephen from County Durham asks if he should follow the advice of the Scottish government or Westminster.
Shapps says the four nations have largely moved in lockstep and the next phase will involve very clear messaging, as it has so far.
Updated
Prof Van-Tam is speaking now.
Transport use remains low and “extremely impressive”, he says.
There is a gradual increase in the use of motor vehicles, which may reflect people returning to work but is difficult to interpret, he says.
Daily tests (both completed and sent out) have reached “a high plateau” with some fluctuation on a day-to-day basis, he says.
Mass swab testing by universities, research institutes and companies is complementing NHS swab testing to record several thousand new cases per day. This is reflected in the higher capacity, he says.
There is “a solid decline” in the number of people in hospital in all the different regions. We must still be “cautious and measured about what happens next”, he says.
There is “plenty of capacity” for critical care patients, the numbers of which continue to decline, he says.
There has been and continues to be a “steady and consistent fall” in the number of recorded deaths, he says.
Finally, on the global death comparison, the US is an outlier at the top and the UK is in company with France, Italy and Spain in the middle band. We won’t get the most granular picture until we start to get excess mortality data across all countries, he says.
Updated
There will be further announcements on investments in road and rail in the coming days, he says.
He has met with Google, Microsoft and Citymapper to develop data and apps to help the public view crowding across the travel network in real-time, he says.
He also announces £10m for car charging points on streets and to accelerate the filling of potholes, as the car remains the “mainstay” for many families, he says.
Government pledges £2bn package to boost cycling and walking
In this new world, pedestrians will need more space, Shapps says.
He announces a £2bn package to put cycling and walking “at the heart of the government’s transport policy”.
He will bring forward a “national cycling plan” in early June to set out how they will double cycling and increase walking by 2025.
The first stage worth £250m is a series of emergency interventions to make cycling and walking safer – including pop-up bike lanes, wider pavements and cyclist-only streets, he says.
They will also publish statutory advice for councils to accommodate for cyclists and walkers.
This will be a once-in-a-generation change to the way people travel in Britain, Shapps says.
Once of the few positives of this crisis is the fall in levels of air pollution, he says.
To try to preserve this cleaner air, he is also trialling use of e-scooters to get rental schemes up and running in cities as soon as possible.
Updated
Even with public transport reverting to a full service, once the two-metre social distancing rule is accounted for, there would only be capacity for one in 10 passengers in many parts of the network, Shapps says.
We must think very carefully about how and when we travel, if we are to get Britain moving again without overcrowding our transport network, he says.
This is an opportunity to make us healthier in the long-term through active travel, he says.
When we do get back to work, cycling and walking in a safe way should be encouraged.
Updated
Tomorrow, the prime minister will set out a “roadmap” for the next phase in the government’s strategy, Shapps says.
Moving beyond Covid will be “a gradual process, not a single leap to freedom”, he says.
When we do emerge, the world will seem quite different, at least for some time, he says.
Updated
UK death toll rises by 346, bringing total to 31,587
The transport secretary is speaking now.
An update from Cobra’s data file:
96,878 tests were carried out yesterday.
215,260 have tested positive, an increase of 3,896 cases since yesterday.
11,809 people are in hospital with coronavirus in the UK, down from 12,284 yesterday and 17% down on the same day last week.
31,587 people have now died, an increase of 346 fatalities in all settings since yesterday.
Grant Shapps's press conference
The transport secretary Grant Shapps will lead the government’s daily coronavirus press conference, which is due to begin shortly.
He will be joined by the deputy chief medical officer Prof Jonathan Van-Tam.
Tributes have been paid to a learning disabilities nurse who died after testing positive for coronavirus.
Augustine Agyei-Mensah, known to his colleagues as Gus, was a highly regarded team member at Northamptonshire healthcare NHS foundation trust.
Originally from Ghana, the father-of-four had worked as a learning disabilities nurse at the trust since 2014, having qualified the year before. Before training as a healthcare worker, he was employed by South West Trains for four years.
He worked closely with the team’s speech and language therapist and his psychology colleagues to support people with complex cognitive and sensory needs.
The chief executive of the trust, Angela Hillery, said:
Our hearts break today for Augustine’s wife and young family. We remain committed to supporting them through this time.
Augustine epitomised what we stand for here at NHFT. He was committed to making a difference and giving people a second chance.
Augustine cared for some of the most vulnerable in our society; lives have been transformed because of him.
Colleagues at NHFT have set up a Just Giving page in his memory, to support his family, and donations can be made online here.
Updated
Updated
The number of people to die in England’s hospitals after contracting Covid-19 has risen by 207 to 22,972.
NHS England confirmed on Saturday that, of the 207 new deaths:
- 47 occurred on 8 May
- 90 occurred on 7 May
- 23 occurred on 6 May
The figures also show 23 of the new deaths took place between May 1 and May 5, 19 took place in April, while the remaining five deaths occurred in March, with the earliest new death taking place on 12 March.
NHS England releases updated figures each day showing the dates of every coronavirus-related death in hospitals in England, often including previously uncounted deaths that took place several days or even weeks ago.
This is because of the time it takes for deaths to be confirmed as testing positive for Covid-19, for post-mortem examinations to be processed and for data from the tests to be validated.
The figures published today by NHS England show 8 April continues to have the highest number for the most hospital deaths occurring on a single day, with a current total of 884.
Updated
Public Health Wales said a total of 1,099 people had died after testing positive for coronavirus in Wales, an increase of nine on Friday’s figures.
A further 118 people have tested positive for Covid-19, bringing the total number of positive cases there to 11,121.
The latest number of confirmed cases of Coronavirus in Wales has been updated.
— Public Health Wales (@PublicHealthW) May 9, 2020
Data dashboard:
💻 https://t.co/RwgHDufHE7
📱 https://t.co/P6UF1MTOwc
Find out how we are responding to the spread of the virus in our daily statement here: https://t.co/1Lza9meaTL pic.twitter.com/nucnDGGANw
Updated
A total of 1,847 patients have died in Scotland after testing positive for coronavirus, up by 36 on Friday, the Scottish government has announced.
Recent statistics show 13,305 people have now tested positive for the virus in Scotland, up by 156 from 13,149 the day before.
There are 93 people in intensive care with coronavirus or coronavirus symptoms, an increase of nine on Friday. There are 1,585 people in hospital with confirmed or suspected Covid-19, an increase of one.
Since 5 March, 3,016 people who have tested positive for coronavirus have been able to leave hospital.
Updated
A “dedicated and loving” nurse who contracted coronavirus has died five weeks after first being placed on a ventilator.
Onyenachi Obasi, 51, had been working as a health visitor and nurse, and her family said she “gave her life doing what she loved”.
Her niece Ijeoma Uzoukwu told PA Media:
We are just heartbroken. She was really loving, really sweet and a really cute person.
She was a good example of unconditional love and just loved everyone. She was so giving and always had an ear - she took people as they were.
She loved her job, but that is what caused her to fall ill in the first place.
Obasi, who had been living in Barking and Dagenham, had no underlying health conditions and told her family that she felt she had a duty to work, and help, during the pandemic.
However, a few days after caring for a Covid-positive patient, she fell ill herself before eventually being admitted to hospital.
Her niece said:
Any normal situation I would go and see her, and be by her side. But because of the lockdown, we weren’t able to do that, and that was really hard for our family.
Obasi was placed on a ventilator for five weeks and was slowly recovering before she caught an infection. She died in the early hours of 6 May at Queen’s hospital, in Romford.
Uzoukwu has organised an online fundraiser to help provide for her 19-year-old son, who is vulnerable and was dependant on her.
Updated
Boris Johnson has issued the public a reminder to keep their distance from each other “if you are leaving the house this weekend”.
If you are leaving the house this weekend you need to
— UK Prime Minister (@10DowningStreet) May 9, 2020
Keep ↔️ 2 metres ↔️ apart ↔️ from ↔️ others.
Speaking of reminders, this is Aaron Walawalkar here. I’m taking over the blog while my colleague Lucy takes a break. Thank you for following our coverage and please do DM me your UK coronavirus updates on Twitter @AaronWala.
Anti-racism campaigners have staged a physically-distanced demonstration outside a Manchester petrol station where police used a stun gun on a man in front of his distressed young son.
A group of about 15 people gathered at a petrol station forecourt in Stretford, Manchester, where the incident took place on Wednesday night.
Mobile phone footage widely shared on social media showed an altercation between a black man and two white police officers.
The man is seen standing next to a marked police car and puts down his crying son before moments later he falls to the ground as a stun gun is fired by one of the officers.
Among the protesters at the event staged by Stand Up to Racism on Saturday was Paul Davidson, a minister at the Church of God of Prophecy.
He told PA Media:
I am here because this news has outraged black people nationally. We are obviously keen to find out what the details are and whether there are other circumstances we haven’t learned from the immediate clip.
But if the immediate clip is anything to go by then people have questions to answer and we should expect answers as a community.
This sort of behaviour should not be expected by anyone in a civilised society.
Greater Manchester police has voluntarily referred the matter to the Independence Office for Police Conduct (IOPC).
Read more about the incident here:
Updated
Greggs has reopened a small number of stores as it continues to trial safety measures.
The Newcastle-based baker is selling its popular products, including coffee, pasties and cakes, at an undisclosed number of shops in the Tyneside area.
The gradual reopening process has followed a series of trials with staff testing working practices while remaining shut to customers.
A Greggs spokesman said:
We are initially operating shop trials behind closed doors in order to test the effectiveness of our new operational safety measures.
We will continue to review this and will invite walk-in customers into our shops only when we can do so in the controlled manner we intended.
The Greggs chief executive, Roger Whiteside, issued a statement on the firm’s website, stressing the trials were in line with the government’s Covid-19 guidelines.
He said:
These trials are being conducted across a number of channels, including delivery through Just Eat, Click + Collect and walk-in customers.
Colleague and customer safety continue to be the primary focus of the decisions we take as we start to reopen our shops.
Thank you for your patience while we work hard to play our part in getting the nation back up and running again and serving the communities in which we operate.
Updated
Updated
More potential migrants have been spotted at Dover as the huge increase in crossings since lockdown was imposed continues.
Pictures taken at the busy trade port show people wearing face masks being processed by officials, following reports of large numbers of people seeking to migrating to enter Britain on Friday.
A humanitarian charity said it was little wonder that so many people were risking their lives to cross the dangerous Dover straits because of “awful conditions” in French refugee camps. The pandemic “has made a bad situation life-threateningly worse”, Care4Calais said.
The Home Office has yet to confirm how many migrants have arrived in the past two days. The department has only confirmed that, “Border Force is currently dealing with a number of ongoing small boat incidents off the Kent coast”, on Saturday.
Earlier this week, the home secretary, Priti Patel, acknowledged that a recent increase in the number of migrant boats making the dangerous crossing of the channel ws linked to the lockdown.
Since lockdown was announced in Britain on 23 March, at least 609 migrants have been intercepted by UK authorities and brought ashore, according to data gathered by the PA Media news agency.
This is more than half of the entire total for 2020, which stands at at least 987. And these figures do not include crossings on Friday or Saturday, which the Home Office has so far refused to disclose.
Clare Moseley, founder of Care4Calais, said:
It’s little wonder people living in France’s refugee camps are desperate to make this dangerous crossing, given the awful conditions they face there.
Coronavirus has made a bad situation life-threateningly worse. People are squeezed into tiny areas, they can’t social distance, and the support they relied on for survival is drastically reduced.
These people are fleeing terrifying situations in some of the most dangerous parts of the world. They aim for the UK because they want to be safe.
Many have family or other connections, and others know our language and want to integrate and contribute. Now more than ever, we need to give them a safe and humane way to have their requests for asylum fairly heard, that’s the way to end chaotic and dangerous channel crossings once and for all.
Updated
Responding to Labour’s proposal for an extension to the evictions ban, and for renters to be given two years to pay back rent arrears, Amina Gichinga from the London Renters Union said this did not go far enough and rents had to be suspended altogether to protect renters:
Deferring rent just means renters will get into enormous debts - or be made homeless. Unemployment is going to rocket and we are not going to be able to afford a massive hike in our rent over two years.
We need rents to be suspended during this crisis, and the evictions ban needs to be permanent, so no one else is made homeless because of the pandemic.
The downturn is going to continue for a long time and many people are already in arrears. Without greater protection for renters, we’re heading for a chaotic rent debt and eviction crisis.
Research suggests millions in the UK are having to choose between paying rent and eating, after a survey found that six in 10 renters said they had suffered financially because of the pandemic. A separate poll found that up to 1.7 million private sector workers fear they will lose their jobs this summer and a growing number of people will need to rely on welfare benefits for the first time to cover basic costs.
In its five-point plan due to be presented to the government, Labour proposes an extension to the temporary ban on evictions for six months or however long is needed to implement the legal changes.
They also ask that renters should get at least two years to pay back any arrears accrued during this period; and that the government should bring forward its proposal to scrap section 21 “no-fault” evictions and outlaw evictions on the grounds of rent arrears if the arrears were accrued because of hardship caused by the coronavirus crisis.
Updated
Coastguard records highest number of incidents in one day since lockdown began as people flout rules
The Coastguard has said that on Friday it had the highest number of callouts since lockdown began as people “ignore” the government’s stay-at-home message.
It said there were 97 incidents, 54% more than the average of 63 recorded for the previous month.
Matt Leat, duty commander with HM Coastguard, urged people to stop “ignoring” the government’s measures for the sake of the NHS and all those on the frontline:
I completely understand that the weather and the bank holiday coupled with the fact that we’ve been in this lockdown situation for just over six weeks has tempted people out to our beautiful coasts. However, as the government said only yesterday, it’s really vital that we all continue to observe the guidance.
Every time we get a 999 or distress call, we will always respond but the minute we send in a rescue response, we’re putting our frontline responders at risk as well as putting the NHS under avoidable pressure.
Please, please continue to observe the StayHomeSaveLives message - it’s still in place for a reason. Exercise locally and stretch your legs, not our resources.
Updated
Campaigners have called for a fundamental redesign of the transport system to help prevent a bounce-back in air pollution levels once the lockdown ends.
Nine organisations – Greenpeace UK, CPRE, Cycling UK, the Environmental Defence Fund, Global Action Plan, Living Streets, Possible, Transport Action Network and Transport & Environment – have written an open letter to the secretaries of state for transport and the environment, as well as the chancellor, leaders of local and regional authorities, and city mayors.
The group’s demands include wider pavements, protected cycle tracks, restricted through-traffic in residential and shopping streets through the installation of bus gates, bollards and planters, networks of low-traffic neighbourhoods, and walking and cycling to be prioritised along main roads.
Ministers are understood to be preparing to recommend that commuters use bicycles for journeys to work to reduce the number of people using public transport, according to PA Media.
The letter calls for “immediate action” to lock in some of the reduction in road traffic and the introduction of new measures to ensure that “when the nation gets moving again, it does so in a cleaner, safer way”.
Milan and Brussels have already taken steps to prioritise walkers and cyclists in their city centres, according to Greenpeace UK’s head of politics, Rebecca Newsom. She said:
There are many things about the lockdown people will be glad to leave behind, but cleaner air is not one of them.
Yet there’s a real risk that congestion and toxic pollution will be back on our streets as soon as restrictions are lifted.
Some of the world’s major cities are already reshaping the urban space to allow people to go out and about safely while keeping the air clean, and we need our political leaders to follow suit.
Updated
More than 650,000 people across the globe tuned in as the inimitable Andy Serkis completed a live theatrical reading of the entire Hobbit novel in just under 11 hours as part of a Covid-19 fundraiser.
Starting his performance at 10am BST on Friday, Serkis, 56, inhabited each character as he told JRR Tolkien’s classic 1937 story. The critically acclaimed actor is best known for playing Gollum in The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit films, and was awarded by Bafta earlier this year for his pioneering work in motion-capture in cinema.
He had raised more than £280,000 – with more than 20,000 donations from over 70 countries flooding in – by the time he finished just before 9pm. He paused only at 11am to observe a two-minute silence for VE Day, and for a spot of lunch and loo breaks throughout the day.
All donations through the GoFundMe campaign are to be split equally between NHS Charities Together and Best Beginnings, the latter of which Serkis has been an ambassador for more than six years.
Soon after completing the Hobbitathon, Serkis said:
Thank you ALL so much for tuning in and for supporting NHS Charities Together and Best Beginnings, who between them support frontline workers, parents and babies. I am truly humbled by the response! Because of you, we raised more than £280,000 and counting! Thank you again to @harpercollins and the Tolkien Estate for making this all happen. We are going to investigate with them more opportunities to share today’s “one-time” live event, so stay tuned. And with that, I bid you goodnight from London - and to you and your loved ones, stay well.
Thank you ALL so much for tuning in and for supporting our frontline workers. I am truly humbled by the response! Because of you, we raised more than £270,000 and counting! Thank you again @HarperCollinsUK and the Tolkien estate! Stay well! pic.twitter.com/m79POIQq4b
— Andy Serkis (@andyserkis) May 8, 2020
Updated
The Welsh first minister, Mark Drakeford, said he expected Wales’s “very modest” lockdown easing to be in line with what Boris Johnson will announce for England.
On Friday, Drakeford stole a march on the UK government when he announced that Wales would remain in lockdown for another three weeks with modest adjustments, including plans to reopen libraries and allow outdoor exercise more than once a day.
Amid signs of a rift between Wales and Westminster, he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that “only the very smallest and most modest steps ... are allowable at this time” and he remained keen on the four nations working as one and expected Johnson to announce similar changes. He said:
We’ll hear from the prime minister on Sunday the details of what he proposes for England, my view is we’ll be very much in line with one another.
Our new regime won’t come in until Monday, so we’ll move in a timely way together across the UK and I still think that is very much a preferable route.
On BBC Breakfast, Drakeford said it was “definitely not” his intention for his announcement on Friday to pressurise the prime minister to come into step with Wales; it was merely the essence of devolution. He said:
It’s inevitable that we have to fine-tune that approach to meet the different circumstances of different parts of the United Kingdom but I think that we will move forward in the same basic way.
My responsibility is to tell people in Wales the regime that they will be facing over the next three weeks.
Our three-week review ended on Friday and I was keen to make sure that people in Wales know the decisions that their government are making on their behalf.
It’s not intended to be a form of pressure or anything else on anybody else, it’s simply in a devolved United Kingdom - 20 years of devolution - to discharge the responsibilities that we have in Wales in a way that demonstrates to people in Wales the decisions that we are making for them.
Updated
Good morning and welcome to the UK coronavirus live blog. The next steps in Britain’s lockdown plan are becoming clearer after the government indicated it would reopen garden centres, encourage commuters to use bikes, allow outdoor exercise more than once a day, and potentially quarantine foreign visitors.
Ahead of Boris Johnson’s “roadmap” speech at 7pm tomorrow, the Times (paywall) reports that he is likely to announce a mandatory 14-day quarantine for all travellers into Britain’s ports and airports, including Britons returning from abroad, as part of measures aimed at avoiding a second peak. People arriving in the UK would have to self-isolate at a private residence, potentially having to provide an address at the border. The new restriction is expected to take effect at the end of this month.
The shadow foreign secretary, Lisa Nandy, said:
It’s something that we’ve been asking ministers to clarify for weeks now. I raised it with the minister for the fifth time on Thursday because it’s caused real confusion.
[Britons who were abroad] have been brought back in relatively large numbers and many of them are telling us that they have no information or advice given out about what they should be doing when they get home.
They travel back from the airport on public transport, they go back to their families and they’re worried that they’re putting their families and other members of the public at risk, and some of them are coming from parts of the country where we are seeing an increase in infection rates, and so they’re really worried about it, the wider public are really worried about it, and for weeks we’ve had mixed messages being briefed out of government.
The trade body Airlines UK said the government needed “a credible exit plan with weekly reviews to ensure the restrictions are working and still required”. However, the Airport Operators Association’s chief executive, Karen Dee, added the move would be “devastating” for the aviation industry and the wider economy:
If quarantine is a necessary tool for fighting Covid-19, then the government should act decisively to protect the hundreds of thousands of airport-related and travel-related jobs across the UK.
Throughout the day I’ll be bringing you all the latest developments on the pandemic. If you would like to get in touch with a story or suggestions, please feel free to do so – your comments are always welcome and apologies in advance if I can’t reply to all of you.
Email: lucy.campbell@theguardian.com
Twitter: @lucy_campbell_
Updated
