Evening summary
- Almost a quarter of coronavirus deaths in England and Wales were in care homes, the latest weekly figures from the ONS revealed, with more than 4,300 deaths recorded in a fortnight. This marks a sharp rise from the official death toll up to 10 April, which was 1,043. From Wednesday, the government will publish daily figures for the number of coronavirus deaths in care homes and the community. This follows complaints for many weeks that by only publishing hospital deaths, figures could be underestimating the true number of deaths by as much as half, according to some estimates.
- The Scottish government published new guidance recommending the public should wear face coverings in “limited circumstances” where it was not always possible to remain two metres apart, for instance in supermarkets and on public transport. The UK government said it was still considering advice submitted on this issue submitted by Sage last week, which maintained there is “weak” evidence of face masks having a “small” protective effect. The most important thing to maintain is physical distancing, it added.
- British Airways is set to make up to 12,000 workers redundant as the airline’s parent company revealed its revenue had plunged 13% in the first quarter of 2020. Announcing the cuts, IAG said it expected recovery to 2019 passenger levels to take several years.
- Eligibility for free coronavirus tests has been extended to NHS patients and staff who do not have symptoms, and care home residents and staff who do not have symptoms (those who do have symptoms qualify for tests already). Anyone over 65 with symptoms and anybody who needs to leave home to go to work who has symptoms, as well as members of their family, will also be eligible.
- And the former prime minister Theresa May urged ministers to consider the impact of lockdown for domestic abuse and mental health, as well as the economy, when deciding how quickly to lift restrictions. Speaking in a debate on the domestic abuse bill, she said there was “clear” evidence that domestic abuse was increasing during lockdown because perpetrators have greater freedom to act and victims find it harder to leave.
That’s it from us today on the UK side, thanks to all of you for following along and to everybody who got in touch with tips and suggestions. If you would like to continue following the Guardian’s coverage of the pandemic, head over to our global live blog for the worldwide picture.
Updated
Matt Hancock's press conference - Summary
Here are the main points from Matt Hancock’s press conference.
- Hancock, the health secretary, said that from tomorrow the government will start publishing daily figures for the number of coronavirus deaths in care homes and other non-hospital settings. Until now it has only published daily figures for hospital deaths. This has led to complaints that the headline figures are giving a misleading impression, because there are claims that they understate the true level of coronavirus deaths by as much as half. (See 3.34pm.) Hancock said the new figures would “help inform the judgments that we make as we work to keep people safe”.
- He announced a significant increase in the number of people eligible for free coronavirus tests. Residents and staff in care homes, and patients and staff in NHS hospitals, who don’t have symptoms would be eligible, he said. (If they do have symptoms, they are already eligible.) And he said that people over 65 with symptoms, or people who need to travel for work and have symptoms, would be eligible too. He said that the government was able to do this because it now had the capacity to carry out more than 70,000 tests a day. The full details of the new eligibility rules are here.
- He complained that a reporter who asked him to apologise for not doing enough to protect people in care homes was being unreasonable. When it was put to him that he might take the opportunity to apologise, Hancock replied:
The thing is, I think that’s unreasonable as a question, actually.
Hancock insisted that he had been focused on problems in care homes from the start.
- He defended his decision not to ban visitors to care homes earlier. He said:
The critical thing is that in a care home having visitors also has a positive impact both against the loneliness of the residents but also on their longevity and their mental health. So these are difficult judgments and there are no easy recommendations to make.
We were guided by that clinical advice and when it was necessary to make that change, which is quite a firm change, then we did so.
- He criticised a BBC Panorama investigation about PPE shortages. In response to a question about the report, and about a survey of doctors that showed their concerns about PPE, he said:
I saw two of the things you referred to. I’m not sure they were a fair and objective journalistic assessment of the situation but what we do have is constant focus on the realities of getting PPE to the frontline.
- Prof Dame Angela McLean, the government’s deputy chief scientific advisor, said ministers have been told there is “weak” evidence of a “small” beneficial effect from face masks. She said this advice had been passed on to ministers, who are still deciding whether to change the official advice to the public.
- The government published a chart that appears to show the UK performing worse than other European countries on coronavirus deaths. That is because it includes all coronavirus deaths for the UK. But the chart itself stresses that the data does not always include like-for-like comparisons because different countries count in different ways. Here is the chart.
The number of confirmed cases of Covid-19 within prisons continues to rise, a daily update by the Ministry of Justice shows.
As at 5pm on Monday, there were 332 prisoners who had tested positive for the virus across 69 prisons, an increase of 2% in 24 hours. The number of prison staff infected rose by 7% to 317 workers in the same period.
Analysis by Public Health England published late on Monday revealed that there were nearly 1,800 possible cases of the virus among the prisoner population. 15 inmates have died directly or indirectly from Covid-19.
There are 81,500 prisoners across 117 jails in England and Wales, and around 33,000 staff working in 104 public sector prisons.
The new modelling from PHE shows that reducing the prison population by 5,000 could be effective in limiting the spread of the virus, the MoJ said, with the number of inmates already reduced by 3,000 over a seven-week period.
Testing for prisoners has been “limited but variable” but staff testing has been made available with more than 1,000 referred in the past fortnight.
Q: When will you recruit the 18,000 contact tracers you need? And how many people do you expect to download your contact-tracing app?
As soon as possible, and as many as possible, says Hancock.
He says he is sorry he cannot give a more detailed answer.
He says the contact tracing network, and the app, need to work together.
He wants them in place by the middle of May, he says.
Q: If the app is coming in three weeks, does that mean you hope to hire the 18,000 contact tracers by then?
Hancock says he wants them available before, or at the same time.
And that’s it. The press conference is over.
Q: What is the time lag for the epidemic? If some regions went into lockdown when the epidemic was at an earlier stage, does that mean they are more vulnerable to a second peak? And could the lockdown measures be lifted at a different point?
Hancock starts by paying tribute to the people of the north-east for staying at home. (The question came from the Northern Echo.) He says he knows how “gregarious” they are.
McLean says London passed its peak before other areas. But if there is an effect, it is quite small, she says.
She says the question of whether or not there should be regional approaches to relaxing the lockdown is interesting. There is always a trade-off between tailoring policy to different regions, and keeping it simple and ensuring people are all in it together. She says she does not have an answer on that.
Hancock says the government is looking at the case for taking different approaches in different regions. But he says there is a case for ensuring all regions move together. And if the reproduction number went above 1 in any area, that would spread.
These arguments make the case for acting together, he says.
Updated
Q: There is confusion about what the social distancing measures are. Can you clarify them?
Hancock says it is clear; people have to follow the social distancing rules.
Q: Is British ventilators production being scaled back?
Hancock says people were worried about the NHS being overwhelmed. But it has not been overwhelmed.
The UK is still producing ventilators, he says. There are other countries around the world that need them.
He pays tribute to those who contributed to the ventilator challenge.
Hancock says deciding whether or not to ban visitors from care homes was difficult, because having visitors can have a beneficial effect on residents’ health.
Updated
Ministers have been told there is “weak” evidence for face masks having “small” protective effect, deputy science chief says
Q: When are ministers going to update the advice on face masks? And why is it taking so long?
Hancock says the government is guided by the science. The UK government position has not changed, he says.
He says the most important thing is to maintain social distancing.
Q: Are you advising people to disinfect items coming into their home?
McLean says the recommendation from Sage is clear; there is “weak evidence” of face masks having a “small” protective effect.
She says they have passed that advice on to government for ministers to make a decision.
- Ministers have been told there is “weak” evidence for face masks having “small” protective effect, McLean says.
British Airways to make up to 12,000 workers redundant
British Airways owner International Airlines Group (IAG) has announced up to 12,000 planned job cuts as it revealed that revenues plunged 13% in the first quarter of 2020.
In a statement, IAG said:
In light of the impact of Covid-19 on current operations and the expectation that the recovery of passenger demand to 2019 levels will take several years, British Airways is formally notifying its trade unions about a proposed restructuring and redundancy programme.
The proposals remain subject to consultation but it is likely that they will affect most of British Airways’ employees and may result in the redundancy of up to 12,000 of them.
As previously announced, British Airways has availed itself of the UK’s Covid-19 job retention scheme and furloughed 22,626 employees in April.
Hancock says asking him to apologise for care home record is unreasonable
Q: You said care home deaths were a sixth of the total. But in the most recent week for which figures were available they were 23%. (See 5.11pm.)
Hancock says he was talking about the total for all deaths. But he accepts that that proportion is changing.
Q: Testing in care homes was inadequate. PPE was inadequate. This seems to have taken you by surprise. Will you apologise for leaving people unprotected?
Hancock says he does not think that is reasonable as a question.
He says his department was aware of the problems in care homes right from the start.
He recalls a conversation in January about care homes. They knew the virus was particularly dangerous for care homes.
It is something we have focused on right from the start.
Updated
Hancock suggests that the BBC Panorama investigation looking at the government’s record on stockpiling PPE was not fair and objective.
The second question from a member of the public, recorded on video, comes from a mother with a child with cystic fibrosis and autism who asks if children like hers will be able to get back to a normal education.
Yes, says Hancock. He says the education plan makes allowance for children with special health needs. But he also says that shielding them must take priority, because their health comes first.
Hancock says the first two questions will be ones submitted by members of the public.
He reads out the first, from Amanda in Hull. She says, given that grandparents cannot look after grandchildren, what can full-time working parents with young children do when they need to go back to work?
Amanda does not get much of an answer. Hancock says he cannot say. He says the government is not in a position to lift lockdown measures yet.
Updated
McLean is now presenting the daily slides.
Here are the latest figures for hospital deaths.
And this figure compares weekly figures for all coronavirus deaths with figures for hospital deaths.
And here is the global deaths comparison.
Hancock announces expansion of eligibility for coronavirus testing
Hancock says the government now has the capacity to carry out 73,400 coronavirus tests per day.
As a result, he can expand the list of people eligible, he says.
He says NHS patients and staff who do not have symptoms, and care home residents and staff who do not have symptoms, will be able to get tests.
(Those who do have symptoms qualify for tests already.)
He also says anyone over 65 with symptoms, and anyone who needs to leave home to go to work with symptoms, will be able to get a test, as well as members of their family.
UPDATE: I’ve corrected this post to make it clear that it is people over 65 and people who need to travel to work with symptoms who will be eligible. There are more details here.
Updated
Hancock says daily care home coronavirus death figures to be published
Hancock says the government plan is working.
He says the government has 3,260 spare critical care beds.
He says the government has carried out 700,387 tests, including 43,453 yesterday.
He says 21,678 people have now died in hospital with coronavirus - an increase of 586 since yesterday.
The proportion of coronavirus deaths in care homes is around a sixth of the total, he says.
(That is not true if you just look at the most recent figures. See 12.18pm.)
Hancock says from tomorrow the government will publish daily figures for the number of coronavirus deaths in care homes and in the community.
Updated
Hancock is starting now.
He says the minute’s silence this morning was a “solemn moment of reflection”. People were remembering “the nation’s heroes”.
Matt Hancock's press conference
Matt Hancock, the health and social care secretary, is due to hold the daily government press conference any minute now. He will be with Prof Dame Angela McLean, the government’s deputy chief scientific adviser, and Prof John Newton from Public Health England, coordinator of the national testing effort.
At first minister’s questions this afternoon, Nicola Sturgeon underlined the importance of public understanding of the test, trace, isolate strategy that will be at the heart of any easing of lockdown restrictions.
She said that the Scottish government would be publishing a document next week setting out more detail about test, trace, isolate, “so the public can start to develop an understanding of what their role will be” and also to help them prepare for what might be multiple periods of isolation that the plan could require.
On the earlier guidance on face covering, Sturgeon emphasised that this was advice and a recommendation, rather than mandatory, and that the circumstances where it might be necessary should be very limited.
She said she had taken advice from the UK government’s scientific advisory group (Sage), and the Scottish government’s chief medical officer, saying the evidence was that there could be some benefit in a situation where somebody is asymptomatic but doesn’t know they have the virus, and a mask could give additional protection.
She restated that the rationale for setting out the guidance now is to set out what limited benefit there may be to face covering but also to say it is not a substitute for the other things people should be doing, such as maintaining physical distancing and staying at home and within household groups.
Updated
Theresa May warns about dangers of prolonging lockdown, saying 'cure' could be more damaging than virus
In the Commons, MPs have been debating the second reading of the domestic abuse bill. The bill, which has cross-party support, creates a new definition of domestic abuse, creates new civil protection orders and creates a domestic abuse commissioner post. There are full details in this Commons library briefing note (pdf).
Theresa May, who pushed for tougher laws on domestic violence as home secretary and then as prime minister, spoke in the debate and said ministers should consider the impact of the lockdown on this issue, and wellbeing generally. Addressing the Commons via Zoom from her home she said:
I would also urge government to think of the impact on domestic abuse that lockdown has made as they consider the exit strategy from lockdown.
I want government to look not just at the impact of relaxing restrictions on capacity in the National Health Service, although we must all have a concern for our wonderful NHS staff and care workers, and for those who have contracted the disease.
But government must also think about the impact of lockdown on our overall health and wellbeing as a nation. That, of course, includes the economy, but it must also include the impact on domestic abuse and mental health.
We cannot have a situation where the cure for the disease does more damage than the disease itself.
May’s warning about the “cure” for coronavirus being potentially more damaging than the illness itself is almost word for word what President Donald Trump said last month. “We can’t have the cure be worse than the problem,” he said.
According to a HuffPost story, three government departments have asked the Treasury for a total of £70m to help them support domestic abuse victims during the crisis.
Updated
New data has shown that an increasing number of vulnerable children are turning up at schools to take up places set aside for them by the government, but it’s still far fewer than ministers had hoped.
Since the lockdown began last month, there has been growing concern about the impact on vulnerable children who have largely disappeared from view.
According to figures published by the Department for Education (DfE) on Tuesday, the number attending school last week was double the previous week, but it still only represents around 10% of all vulnerable children entitled to a school place.
While schools in England remain closed to most children, a skeleton service is running for children of key workers as well as children classed as “vulnerable” by the government, which includes those who have assigned social workers or education, health and care plans.
Last Friday, 49,000 vulnerable children were in schools, up from 24,000 on 17 April, which was the end of the Easter holidays, though schools remained open. The DfE said:
We estimate this represents around 10% of all children and young people classified as ‘children in need’ or who have an education, health and care plan, up from 5% on 17 April.
The number of key workers’ children in school has also gone up, from 62,000 to 112,000 over the same period, which represents around 4% of children of essential workers entitled to be in school.
Overall, the attendance rate in school and early years settings doubled, going up from 1% of pupils to 2% – far lower than the government originally anticipated – suggesting that parents remain cautious about sending their children to school.
Updated
These are from Sky’s economics editor Ed Conway.
I was hesitating to post this chart, so depressing is it.
— Ed Conway (@EdConwaySky) April 28, 2020
The lines here represent excess deaths.
No other major European state has excess deaths so far above “normal" levels for the time of yr.
In other countries excess mortality is falling. In England it's still rising #COVID19 pic.twitter.com/tZO37qZczd
Worth underlining that this sharp leap in excess mortality is, on the basis of figures collected by EuroMomo (best like-for-like comparison of mortality trends) very much an English issue. Excess deaths look to have peaked in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland pic.twitter.com/SyDvo126bt
— Ed Conway (@EdConwaySky) April 28, 2020
Conway has based his figures on data from EuroMOMO, the European monitoring of excess mortality for public health action project. It works with public health bodies around Europe.
Mark Kleinman, professor of public policy at Kings College London (not the Sky News City editor), has written an interesting article on what cities like London might look like after the coronavirus pandemic is over. Here’s an extract.
After the Plague and the Great Fire, London was rebuilt by [the architect Christopher] Wren. In the decades after the second world war, London’s manufacturing base dwindled to a fraction of its former self, and the Docks, the hub of the world’s goods-trading economy were shuttered. But London was reborn as a city of services – financial, business, educational, creative, cultural, scientific, technological and more.
It seems unlikely that London, and cities like it, are about to disappear. But London may become a very different place from what it is now. A city where creative class or knowledge workers work from home as much as they commute to the office. Where the jostling for the best table in the restaurant takes place when booking online and not in the queue on the street. Where stadiums, art galleries and concert halls are redesigned to ensure public health along with entertainment and high culture. Where delivery vehicles are necessarily electric, and deliveries are grouped by algorithms and priced accordingly. Where pavements and public areas are widened to allow easy transition to social distancing, and where road space is recognised as a precious asset and charged for as such. Where the slow process of reimagining the high street gets speeded up. In this new London, centrality will retain both its allure and its economic benefits – but they will become relatively more expensive.
In Scotland pavement widening is already on the agenda. See 3.54pm.
Updated
Further 20 deaths in Northern Ireland, taking total to 329
Another 20 people have died in Northern Ireland after testing positive for Covid-19, taking the total there to 329.
And a further 34 people tested positive, bringing the number of confirmed cases to 3,408.
UPDATE on coronavirus (#COVID19) in NI. pic.twitter.com/ZGuEUBCYqj
— Department of Health (@healthdpt) April 28, 2020
Some of Scotland’s best-loved independent museums are facing mass redundancies and permanent closure as the ongoing lockdown drains resources.
Scotland is considered a world leader with its wide range of community-run heritage, particularly across the Highlands, and the vast majority of these local museums are charities that receive no local or central government funding.
But rural sites like the Highland Museum of Childhood, the Groam House Pictish Centre and New Lanark, which operate on limited reserves and generate most of their income from visitors and education programmes between April and September, are at risk.
Industrial Museums Scotland, which holds almost a quarter of Scotland’s nationally significant collection, the Scottish Community Heritage Alliance and Museums Heritage Highland today issued a call for urgent intervention by funders, arguing that whilst some emergency grants are available, this support is only designed for the short term.
We're closed for now but hope to see you all soon!#wemissyou #COVIDー19 #lockdown #visitsoon #highlandmuseum pic.twitter.com/1uy09BwQy4
— Highland Museum of Childhood (@hmoc123) April 22, 2020
Updated
The Department for Education has published a report (pdf) showing that at the end of last week only 1.6% of children were in school in England. When the government announced that schools would be closed except for the children of key workers and vulnerable children, it was expected that a far higher proportion would continue to attend. But these figures show that only around 10% of children classified as vulnerable, and only around 4% of children of essential workers, are attending.
Updated
The Scottish government is offering £10m to allow councils to introduce new “pop up” wider pavements and cycle paths to improve physical distancing and protect pedestrians, joggers and cyclists from motorists.
Michael Matheson, the Scottish transport secretary, told MSPs on Tuesday the funding would allow councils to quickly install new and widened features without needing to find additional spending from their own budgets. Cycling is believed to have increased by 35% during the lockdown.
The cash for the new “spaces for people” initiative has been diverted from the devolved government’s Places for Everyone active travel budget, Matheson said.
Today @MathesonMichael announces £10m fund to support pop-up #ActiveTravel infrastructure across Scotland – administered by @SustransScot and open for local authorities to apply today – helping support #PhysicalDistancing while #walking or #cycling. pic.twitter.com/RiF0R4SCY4
— Transport Scotland (@transcotland) April 28, 2020
Addressing the Scottish parliament during its once-a-week session, he said:
Our communities need this support quickly, especially with the welcome increases in cycling we are seeing across the country. At the same time, almost every journey starts and ends on our pavements in some way, and so it is vitally important that people can physically distance for those essential trips or for exercise.
[For] our air quality, climate, health and particularly for our mental wellbeing at this time, walking and cycling remain our most beneficial form of transport. We should all be encouraged by the increases we are seeing in cycling and this government will do what it can to continue to support this through our recovery and beyond.
The Scottish Greens and Liberal Democrats, as well as cycling campaigners, have been pressing for extra help to protect and support pedestrians and cyclists during the lockdown; walking, cycling and jogging has increased dramatically while most of the population has been working from home or furloughed.
There are fears, however, that as people return to work and car use increases, there are greater risks of accidents as pedestrians and joggers continue physical distancing on pavements, and step out on to roads. Cycling campaigners welcomed the initiative, asking councils to quickly install new infrastructure.
#SpaceForDistancing #SpacesForPeople #CovidStreets
— Spokes CycleCampaign (@SpokesLothian) April 28, 2020
Statement by @MathesonMichael MSP
🙂🚲is up 35%
🙂he wants this to continue, also to grow🚶♀️
🙂100% cash to councils (£10m fund) for #PopUpBikeLane/#widefootway
🙂legal certainty & help to councils
🙋♀️Now Councils must step up! pic.twitter.com/tY3XnoPM3a
Updated
Matt Hancock was wrong to state earlier that some children have died from the new set of serious symptoms that resemble toxic shock syndrome and is closely linked to Covid-19, it has emerged.
When asked about the condition on LBC radio this morning the health secretary said: “We have lost some children.” However, he was referring to children dying from Covid-19 and not from this new inflammatory syndrome, which is confounding and worrying doctors.
The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) has now clarified that Hancock did not mean to suggest that any children had lost their lives as a result of the new set of symptoms, which include intense stomach pain, gastrointestinal problems and an inflamed heart.
A source at the DHSC said:
The health secretary was referencing deaths we’re aware of that sadly related to Covid-19 not the inflammatory syndrome. We are not currently aware of any confirmed deaths related to the inflammatory syndrome.
His comments were widely reported in the media, including in this liveblog.
The existence of the syndrome first emerged on Monday. NHS England issued an urgent alert to doctors at the weekend asking them to immediately refer to hospital any under-18s displaying the key symptoms, which the Health Service Journal obtained.
The Guardian understands that 19 cases have been found in London and other parts of the UK and that many of those affected are being treated at Great Ormond Street hospital for sick children in the capital.
On LBC Hancock said he was “very worried” about reports of the new illness in children, most – and possibly – of whom have had Covid-19. Medical experts are “looking into it with great urgency”, he added.
“We’re doing a lot of research now but it is something we’re worried about. What I would also stress is that it is rare.
“Although it is very significant for those children who do get it the number of cases is small,” Hancock added.
Updated
The former Labour prime minister Gordon Brown has challenged Donald Trump and Xi Jinping to recognise the “deadly urgency” of joining a global push to help poor countries combat Covid-19 and warned the world’s two biggest economies that go-it-alone strategies will end in failure, our colleague Larry Elliott reports.
Turning back to today’s ONS weekly death figures, Chris Giles and Gill Plimmer in the Financial Times (paywall) say the new figures support their own modelling suggesting that by last week more than 41,000 people in the UK had died either directly or indirectly from coronavirus. The total is now likely to be in excess of 45,000, they say.
That is more than double the daily headline figure announced by the UK government, which only covers deaths in hospital of people who have tested positive for coronavirus. Yesterday it was 21,092.
Here is an extract from the Giles/Plimmer analysis.
Since the beginning of March, there have been 27,015 more deaths registered up to April 17 than the five-year average for the time of year.
With an average delay of four days between someone dying and their death being registered, the figures relate to the period to April 13, during which the government said there had been 11,408 deaths of people testing positive for coronavirus in English and Welsh hospitals ...
The official figures verified Financial Times modelling that suggested 41,000 people had died by last Tuesday either directly or indirectly as a result of coronavirus, with the death registrations higher than expected by the FT’s model.
With almost 30,000 excess deaths by mid-April across the UK, approximately two weeks ago, the number of total deaths now is likely to be in excess of 45,000, according to the FT model.
Earlier Michael Gove, the Cabinet Office minister, told MPs that Nervtag, the new and emerging respiratory virus threats advisory group, was responsible for advising the government on what should be held in its stockpile of PPE (personal protective equipment) needed for a pandemic. (See 1.44pm.)
But, according to a BBC investigation for Panorama, Nervtag advised the purchase of gowns last June, and yet this recommendation was ignored.
(I’m grateful to njf1953 in the comments for flagging this up.)
On BBC Radio 4’s the World at One, Prof Sir David Spiegelhalter, a statistician at the University of Cambridge, has said he believes more coronavirus deaths are now occurring in care homes and at home than in hospitals. He told the programme:
I think we can be very confident that our deaths in English hospitals peaked around April 8 – we had about 850 deaths and now they are down to around 400 deaths a day occurring in English hospitals – a steady but slow decline.
However, we’ve now just got new data that the Care Quality Commission have been reporting on notifications from care homes about deaths from Covid.
They receive those really quite up to date, only a couple of days’ delay, but that goes right up until April 24 – just a few days ago – when they were getting 400 notifications a day of deaths in care homes from Covid.
When we add on deaths at home from Covid, makes me – slightly sticking my neck out – believing that recently that more deaths occurring from Covid out of hospital than in hospital.
Updated
Another 546 deaths recorded in England, taking total to 19,295
NHS England has announced 546 more deaths of patients who tested positive for Covid-19, bringing the total number of confirmed reported deaths in hospitals in England to 19,295. The full details are here (pdf).
Of the 546 new deaths announced today:
- 93 occurred on 27 April
- 213 occurred on 26 April
- 79 occurred on 25 April
The figures also show 141 of the new deaths took place between 1-24 April while the remaining 20 deaths occurred in March, with the earliest new death taking place on 19 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 postmortems to be processed and for data from the tests to be validated.
The figures published by NHS England show 8 April continues to have the highest number for the most hospital deaths occurring on a single day, with a current total of 857.
Updated
Sturgeon rejects claims she is seeking to upstage Westminster government
From Scotland’s first minister:
I’m just trying to do my job - as every other government is. This tendency to read malign motives when all any of us is trying to do is tackle the virus as best we can, is tedious and misplaced. https://t.co/VNVHthPsO9
— Nicola Sturgeon (@NicolaSturgeon) April 28, 2020
Updated
Following the Scottish government’s recommendation that people should wear face coverings in “limited circumstances” where physical distancing isn’t always possible (see 12.58), the Welsh health minister, Vaughan Gething, said formal guidance was not yet being issued in Wales.
He said there was “no evidence” that it was harmful for members of the public to wear a form of face covering or scarf, adding:
If we do give formal guidance that people should wear a covering over their face, we need to understand what that means about the way the public will then behave.
We also need to be particularly cognisant of the potential for people trying to acquire masks that would otherwise be used by health and care professionals.
Gething said he wanted to see details of the Scottish government’s recommendation and speak to Wales’s chief medical officer before “making a definitive comment about the position in Wales”.
Updated
Only 23% of Britons favour restarting economy if coronavirus not fully contained, poll suggests
Britons do not believe the economy and businesses should open if coronavirus is not fully contained, according to a new study.
In an Ipsos Mori poll of more than 28,000 people in 14 countries, Britons were the least likely to believe restarting the economy was the right approach as ministers face continued questions over the UK’s plan for lifting its coronavirus lockdown.
Britons had the strongest views against opening up the economy if the virus is not fully under control, with 70% of those surveyed saying they felt this way.
It comes as a number of British businesses have said they are set to start opening despite the lockdown. High street bakery chain Greggs has told staff it plans to open 20 stores in the Newcastle area from 4 May as part of a “controlled trial”. And firms such as B&Q have reopened their doors to shoppers, while John Lewis has said it hopes to reopen all its shops next month. Burger King, KFC and Pret have also announced they are to reopen some stores for takeaway and delivery.
23% of Britons think the economy should be restarted and businesses should reopen even if #covid19 is not fully contained - the lowest among 14 countries https://t.co/DDRZkNucbG pic.twitter.com/LyIKHOyW1x
— Ipsos MORI (@IpsosMORI) April 28, 2020
The researchers also found that Britons were “the most cautious” about reopening the economy, with 71% saying they will be nervous about leaving the house after the lockdown eases.
Gideon Skinner, head of political research at Ipsos Mori, said these factors “suggest that the turnaround in the economy might not be quite so fast as hoped for”.
The prime minister Boris Johnson said lockdown will only be eased if the country can meet five tests: falling death figures, a protected NHS, a reduced rate of infection, sufficient testing and PPE, and avoiding a second peak. The next three-week review of the lockdown restrictions is due on 7 May.
Updated
Wales records another 17 deaths, taking total to 813
Another 17 people have died after testing positive for Covid-19 in Wales, Public Health Wales said, taking the death toll there to 813.
And there were 232 new cases reported, bringing the total number of cases to 9,512.
The Welsh health minister Vaughan Gething told a press conference there had been “challenges in communication” between Betsi Cadwaladr health board and Public Health Wales, and there had also been a “material under-reporting issue” in the Hywel Dda health board area, where 31 deaths were not reported and did not appear in Public Health Wales figures.
Gething said “individual family communication” had not been affected, with those who had lost loved ones informed of the deaths at the time, and that figures would now be “fully up to date”.
The latest number of confirmed cases of Coronavirus in Wales have been updated.
— Public Health Wales (@PublicHealthW) April 28, 2020
Data dashboard:
💻https://t.co/RwgHDufHE7
📱https://t.co/P6UF1MTOwc
Find out how we are working with our partners to respond to the spread of the virus here: https://t.co/1Lza9meaTL pic.twitter.com/8tFBr0EI4Y
The coronavirus outbreak has changed all of our lives in ways that are profound and often overwhelming. Amid the endless headlines, rolling news coverage and constant stream of information about the virus, how much have you taken in? Here is a quiz from the Guardian’s Martin Belam, designed to test your knowledge of Covid-19 and refresh your memory on the facts.
Gove says scientific advisers determined what was held in PPE pandemic stockpile
In the House of Commons, in response to a question from the SNP’s Pete Wishart, the Cabinet Office minister Michael Gove suggested that the government’s scientific advisers bore some responsibility for the shortage of PPE (personal protective equipment).
Asked by Wishart to acknowledge that the government had not stockpiled enough in advance, Gove said:
The stockpile that we had before this pandemic was explicitly designed in accordance with the advice from the scientific advisers the government has - Nervtag (the new and emerging respiratory virus threats advisory group) - and of course it was specifically for a flu pandemic.
The nature of coronavirus is different from a flu pandemic as we all know and we, like every government across the world, have had to respond to this new virus by assuring not just with personal protective equipment, but in every respect, that we are in a position to retool, refit and to upgrade our response.
This exchange can be viewed as an early dry run for the debate that is going to be central to what is now seen as the inevitable public inquiry that will take place into how the government handled the pandemic.
Updated
York, one of the UK’s most popular tourist destinations, could implement a one-way system to guide visitors around the Viking city on foot, the BBC reports.
Phil Pinder, who chairs the York Retail Forum, said plans were being considered to introduce a form of voluntary code or charter to help pedestrians safely navigate York’s higgledy-piggledy streets. Pinder told the BBC:
Narrow streets and alleyways would be strictly one way with perhaps a barrier at one end telling people to please go the other way round.
On wider streets people would be allowed to go in both directions but to stick to the left, like a car would, with a line down the middle and temporary stickers to guide people. We have to make sure it works for everyone and have rules we can all follow.
According to this Reuters analysis, the latest ONS coronavirus death figures suggest that the UK is now on track to record more coronavirus deaths than France or Spain, but not Italy.
In the Commons Michael Gove, the Cabinet Office minister, has just said that the government will publish the figures showing whether or not it met its target of achieving 100,000 daily coronavirus tests by the end of April (Thursday) on Saturday. No 10 said yesterday it would not be able to disclose figures on the day because it took a while to get the figures for the number of home-delivered tests administered.
Announcing Scottish government guidance on facial coverings as calls grow for the rest of the UK to follow suit, Nicola Sturgeon has said that her government will review whether to make them mandatory as restrictions are lifted. She said:
As we go into a phase of lifting some of the restrictions and people are maybe coming into contact with more people than they are now we will review that and it may be at later stages we will take a tougher stance.
Over the weekend, pressure was growing on the UK government with the British Medical Association calling on ministers to make wearing masks in public compulsory. Sturgeon said that “all governments across the UK are considering this and it’s not for me to speak to them”. She added:
My judgment is that this guidance is appropriate in Scotland ... there will be some instances where we decide to do things ahead of the rest of the UK, or vice versa – that does not indicate a different of opinion or a divide or split. My responsibilityis to make judgment based on the evidence I can get on what is right to protect the people of Scotland.
Sturgeon also said that one of the reasons she had issued the guidance was because she didn’t want the use of facial coverings to make people feel “invincible’ or distract from adherence to existing physical distancing and stay-at-home guidance.
Updated
At the Downing Street lobby briefing, when asked if the UK government would follow the Scottish government in offering new advice to the public on wearing face coverings (see 12.58pm), the prime minister’s spokesman said ministers were still considering advice on this topic submitted by the scientific advisory group for emergencies (Sage) last week.
Sky’s Sam Coates has a Twitter thread with more from today’s No 10 lobby briefing. It starts here.
Downing Street Tuesday briefing
— Sam Coates Sky (@SamCoatesSky) April 28, 2020
- PM “fine”
- PM has chaired 915 meeting and met with Chx and cab sec around 11
- Rest of day meetings, papers and boxwork
- No details on PMQs tomorrow. Which is odd.
No 10 also announced that Matt Hancock, the health and social care secretary, will take this afternoon’s press conference.
There were reports in some papers this morning suggesting that Boris Johnson was going to announce his plans for starting to relax the lockdown at the end of the week. A story in the Daily Telegraph (paywall) said Downing Street sources had confirmed that the “prime minister was expected to share his plans with the nation by the end of the week” and the Times (paywall) quoted a No 10 adviser saying Johnson would “put flesh on the bones” of the plan by the end of this week
Now it seems that either someone in Downing Street jumped the gun, or else there has been a change of heart, because at the Downing Street lobby briefing the prime minister’s spokesman strongly signalled that Johnson would not be announcing any plans this week. The spokesman said:
We have set out that we will review social distancing measures by 7 May and the government is focused upon that date.
It was also stressed that the government will not be announcing plans to relax the lockdown until the five tests set for this to happen have been met.
Further 70 deaths in Scotland, taking total to 1,332
At her daily briefing, the Scottish first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, confirmed a further 200 confirmed cases of coronavirus, taking the total to 10,721.
There was also a decrease of eight people in hospital, giving a new total of 1,754 patients, and a decrease of eight patients in intensive care, reducing that total to 126.
There were 70 more deaths recorded since yesterday, taking the death toll to 1,332.
Updated
Scottish government recommends wearing face coverings where physical distancing is more difficult
The Scottish government has published updated guidance on the use of face coverings during the pandemic.
It doesn’t go as far as enforcing their use, but recommends that in “limited circumstances” there may be some benefit in wearing one when leaving the home and entering enclosed spaces with others where physical distancing is more difficult.
Examples of this include on public transport or entering a supermarket where it’s not always possible to maintain a two-metre distance from others.
The guidance reads:
We are recommending that you consider using face coverings in the limited circumstances described above as a precautionary measure. Given that the evidence of impact on transmission is relatively weak, the public use of facial coverings is not being made mandatory and will not be enforced at this stage. However, we will keep this guidance under ongoing review as we consider any easing of lockdown restrictions in the weeks ahead.
The guidance stresses that the wearing of face coverings must not be used as an alternative to physical distancing, hand washing and respiratory hygiene, which remain the most important and effective measures for preventing the spread of coronavirus.
The Scottish government advice highlights that there is currently no evidence to suggest that the general wearing of a facial covering outdoors has any benefit, unless in an unavoidable crowded situation. It adds that face masks are not suitable for children under the age of two.
It also specifies that face coverings should not be the same as those used by medical professionals:
By face coverings we do not mean the wearing of a surgical or other medical grade mask but a facial covering of the mouth and nose, that is made of cloth or other textiles and through which you can breathe, for example a scarf.
The UK government is not currently advising the public to wear face masks but has said it will consider the scientific evidence presented by Sage.
The change in policy from the Scottish government will add to growing pressure on the UK government to follow suit, after the likes of the London mayor Sadiq Khan and the Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer already publicly backed the idea that non-medical face coverings should be recommended.
Updated
Michael Gove's statement to MPs on coronavirus and public services
Michael Gove, the Cabinet Office minister, is making a Commons statement about coronavirus and the public services.
He started by paying tribute to public sector workers.
He said the ministerial group he chaired looking at the impact of the pandemic on public services had now met 30 times.
They have been working to address the shortfall in the agricultural workforce, to protect the food supply, he said.
Working with Gavin Williamson, the education secretary, the group had set up the free school meal voucher scheme, he said. He said 15,500 schools had placed orders for vouchers, and vouchers worth £29m had been redeemed.
Since the end of March 90% of rough sleepers known to councils have been offered accommodation, he said.
He said the armed forces had organised a 19,600-strong coronavirus support force.
He said more than 150,000 key workers and their family members had been tested for coronavirus.
More than 400 civil servants had been moved to the Department of Health and Social Care to help it operate, he said.
More than 750,000 people have signed up to the NHS volunteers programme, he said. And he said more than 600,000 had had their ID verified so they could start volunteering.
And he said a total of 3,203 fines had been handed out to people who flouted social distancing rules between 27 March and 13 April.
Updated
Frontline “heroes” risk losing their jobs if the government fails to meet its promise to fully fund councils in their coronavirus crisis response, Labour has warned.
The shadow communities secretary, Steve Reed, told the Commons that if councils face falling into debt because of the extra work created by the crisis they “will be forced to make cuts potentially totalling billions of pounds and that’ll mean job losses”. He said:
Councils say the additional funding that’s been announced so far barely covers a quarter of what’s needed – it’s not enough.
So will the secretary of state reconfirm the government’s original promise to fund whatever is necessary in full, because if he doesn’t the frontline heroes we’re cheering today will lose their jobs tomorrow.
The communities and local government secretary, Robert Jenrick, said he had been working closely with councils and that £3.2bn of additional money had already been committed, plus other support. He added:
We will keep under review whether further funding is required, and if it is we will bring it forward because we want to back this brilliant sector in all that they’re doing.
Updated
As a consequence of social and economic lockdown measures introduced by governments, the global economy is heading for what the International Monetary Fund believes is the worst recession since at least the Great Depression.
The Guardian’s economics correspondent Richard Partington explains the unprecedented measures being taken to help protect individuals, households and businesses; how they are helping, and the costs they may involve.
Updated
Labour proposes six-point action plan on social care
Alongside its report on the latest weekly death figures (see 9.42am), the Office for National Statistics has also published its latest dataset, a file that contains the figures in detail. This shows that in the week ending Friday 17 April, the latest week for which figures are available, almost a quarter of coronavirus deaths in England and Wales were in care homes. And around 70% were in hospitals. The rest were in private homes, hospices, or elsewhere.
The exact figures are: 6,107 coronavirus deaths in hospitals, 2,050 in care homes, 416 in private homes, 103 in hospices, 41 in other communal establishments and 41 elsewhere.
Following the publication of the figures Liz Kendall, the shadow social care minister, has written an open letter to Matt Hancock, the health and social care secretary, calling for action in six areas on social care. She said:
These new [ONS] figures show the devastating impact Covid-19 is having on care homes, and will be desperately worrying for residents, their families, and staff.
Urgent action is needed to get a grip of this problem. That is why I have today written to the health secretary outlining six areas where further steps should be taken to help protect care users and staff, and help bring these appalling death rates down.
Here are Kendall’s six proposals.
1. A new intermediate care strategy for people being discharged from hospital who test positive for Covid-19, and to support struggling care homes.
2. Improved access to, and priority testing for, social care workers.
3. Guaranteeing all care workers get the PPE they need: for domiciliary care workers and personal assistants employed via direct payments, as well as staff in residential care.
4. Ensuring social care has “whatever resources it takes” to deal with the Covid-19 pandemic.
5. New leadership for social care sector, with a new chief care officer.
6. Daily reporting of Covid-19 deaths outside hospitals, including in care homes.
Updated
The Chartered Society of Physiotherapists is calling on the government to extend its automatic visa extension scheme to physiotherapists to protect staffing levels across health and social care at the height of the pandemic.
At the moment the one-year visa extension scheme applies to doctors, nurses and paramedics who are employed by the NHS on a Tier 2 visa that was previously due to expire before October 2020. But it does not cover NHS physiotherapists or other allied health professionals (AhPs) and their families.
Physiotherapists and physiotherapy support workers are essential throughout the care of patients worst affected by Covid-19, from intensive care to community rehabilitation after discharge. Their work includes helping patients recovering from coronavirus to rehabilitate and return home, and freeing up capacity by helping patients with non-Covid-19 conditions rehabilitate and leave hospital.
Rob Yeldham, the CSP director of strategy, said:
Physiotherapy staff are playing a crucial part in the UK’s response to Covid-19, helping patients leave hospital and ensuring those with other conditions, such as stroke, can continue their recovery at home.
Their services are set to face unprecedented increases in demand caused by the crisis in the coming months and years and their success in meeting that need will be crucial for the whole system.
In order to do that, we need to retain every overseas physio and physio support worker currently working in the UK.
The CSP is therefore urgently calling on the UK government to extend the scheme to include all overseas physiotherapists and rehab support workers regardless of their employer, and help us ensure patients receive the rehab they need.
There are an estimated 3,000 physiotherapists working in the UK who qualified overseas, though not all will be affected by the visa issue.
Updated
Government contact-tracing app should be ready for deployment next month, MPs told
At a hearing with the Commons science committee this morning, Matthew Gould, the chief executive of NHSX, the health service’s digital innovation arm, said the contact-tracing app being developed by the government, which should tell people if they have been in contact with others who subsequently test positive for coronavirus, would be trialled in a “small area” before potentially being rolled out nationally next month, subject to its performance in those trials. He went on:
I would expect it technically to be ready for wider deployment in two to three weeks. Whether it is then deployed depends on the wider strategy.
He said people using the app could be “confident” their personal data would not be compromised. He explained:
What we have is identifiers rather than identities, which sit on people’s phones until they choose to share it with us. So there are a series of protections that allow people to be confident in using it that their privacy is being protected.
But he also said it would be “tough” to get 80% of smartphone users to install the app.
The message needs to be: if you want to keep your family and yourselves safe, if you want to protect the NHS and stop it being overwhelmed and at the same time we want get the country back and get the economy moving, the app is going to be an essential part of the strategy for doing that.
Prof Christopher Fraser, senior group leader in pathogen dynamics at the University of Oxford Big Data Institute, told the committee that if roughly 60% of the population used the app, that would be enough to keep the reproduction number (the infectivity rate of the virus) below one, meaning the pandemic could be contained.
But he said that number would rely on people paying heed to other warnings about sharing data with the app rather than simply downloading it, and self-isolating when symptoms developed.
Updated
The work of postal staff will be marked on Wednesday as they continue to play a huge role during the lockdown.
National Postal Workers’ Day is an annual event organised by the Communication Workers Union (CWU) to promote the work its members do year-round, but is particularly pertinent this year. A union spokesman said:
We are living in unprecedented times but one thing always remains constant – the significant role our members play in every community in the UK.
This year we are calling on the public, media and politicians to give a greater level of recognition to postal workers than ever before.
Despite hugely challenging times, CWU members are keeping the country connected. From delivering essential items to checking on the elderly and taking shopping to the most vulnerable in society, we have seen thousands of examples of local postal workers stepping up.
Updated
Updated
The Labour MP Tony Lloyd is stepping down as shadow Northern Ireland secretary to focus on his recovery from coronavirus, the party has announced. He will be replaced by the shadow policing minister Louise Haigh, who had been covering for him in his absence. Lloyd, 70, was discharged from intensive care at Manchester Royal Infirmary last week.
Updated
Guardian Money is reminding readers who are no longer able to use their rail season tickets that they can now cash it in for a full refund online, which in many cases could be worth thousands of pounds.
In stark contrast to the airlines, the rail industry is refunding passengers – even those who bought non-refundable single tickets. Refunds are being backdated to 17 March, or the last day travelled.
In London, passengers have eight weeks from their last trip to cash in the Oyster card.
Those who booked one-off rail trips for March and April are also being refunded.
Here is our full story on how to do it, and what you’re likely to receive back.
Updated
People around Britain have been observing a minute’s silence in honour of NHS workers, care home staff and other key workers who have lost their lives to coronavirus. Boris Johnson stood in silence in the cabinet room, alongside the chancellor, Rishi Sunak, and Sir Mark Sedwill, the cabinet secretary.
At least 5,500 care home residents in England have died with coronavirus, says ONS official
Nick Stripe, head of the health analysis and life events division at the ONS, has been speaking to the BBC about today’s coronavirus death figures released this morning. He said there have now been around 27,000 excess deaths - that is more deaths than you would expect on average for this time of year - in the four most recent weeks for which figures are available.
Of the 12,000 excess deaths in the most recent week (see 9.42am), he said that around 25% of those did not involve coronavirus being mentioned on the death certificate.
He also said that there total number of coronavirus deaths in care homes in England was probably now at least 5,500 - which is higher than the official most recent ONS figure. (See 9.55am.) He explained:
In care homes we are now seeing over three times more deaths in total in care homes, in that last week, than we saw four weeks previously. And 28% of those deaths are from Covid.
Now, we’ve also taken data from the Care Quality Commission over the last few days. The Care Quality Commission collects death notifications of all deaths of care home residents. And we have been able to compare that data against our death registrations data, and it’s a good match.
So from the 10 to 17 April, for example, we can see a very close match.
If you take that data, we can see the Care Quality Commission has figures for England of 4,343 deaths in care homes between 10 and 24 April, so much more current, that’s last Friday.
And we know that we had 1,000 deaths registered in care homes prior to 10 April.
So in total we are looking at around at least 5,500 deaths in care homes in England related to Covid by 24 April.
More than 4,300 people in care homes in England and Wales died from Covid-19 in a fortnight, according to official figures which show a sharp increase in mortality outside hospitals.
Data gathered by the care homes regulator, published for the first time on Tuesday by the Office for National Statistics, showed that from 10-24 April, care homes reported 4,343 deaths from coronavirus.
It marks a sharp rise in the official death toll in care homes, which stood at 1,043 up to 10 April.
Read the full story here:
Updated
Workers who have been furloughed as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic are being offered the opportunity to improve their numeracy and digital skills with a free online learning platform set up by the government.
The Skills Toolkit, launched on Tuesday by the education secretary, Gavin Williamson, will offer adults stuck at home during lockdown the chance to refresh their maths skills, learn how to do digital marketing, how to code and use programmes like Excel and PowerPoint, as well as how to use social media and present themselves professionally online.
The government’s aim is to improve employability, boost confidence and support mental health. Launching the platform, Williamson said: “I know how difficult the recent months have been and the huge changes the coronavirus has brought on the daily lives of us all.
“The high-quality and free-to-access courses on offer on our new online learning platform, the Skills Toolkit, will help those whose jobs have been affected by the outbreak, and people looking to boost their skills while they are staying at home, protecting the NHS and saving lives.”
There are currently 13 courses on offer and providers include the Open University, Google and Lloyds bank. Matthew Fell, the chief UK policy director of the CBI, said: “Online learning is a great way for people to upgrade their skills at any time, but never more so than during a lockdown.”
Updated
Here are three of the most useful chart from the ONS report on weekly death figures.
This one shows the sharp rise in coronavirus deaths, and all excess deaths (ie, above what you would expect at this time of year).
This one shows coronavirus deaths by age and gender. It shows that men are more likely to die from the illness than women.
And this one shows coronavirus deaths by date and place of death. It shows that hospital deaths have been decreasing, but not care home deaths.
The health secretary said it appears that some children with no underlying health conditions have died from a rare inflammatory syndrome which researchers believe to be linked to Covid-19.
Italian and British medical experts are looking into a potential link between coronavirus and clusters of severe inflammatory disease being found among infants arriving in hospital with high fevers and swollen arteries.
Doctors in northern Italy have reported large numbers of children under the age of nine with severe cases of what appears to be Kawasaki disease, which is more common in parts of Asia.
We have this report out of our Australia bureau:
Hancock told LBC he was “very worried” about reports of the new illness in children and experts were “looking into it with great urgency”. He said:
We put out at the weekend a call across the NHS because some cases of this had been identified and then this call essentially says to doctors in other parts of the country: ‘Have you seen this condition?’ and then they collate the information and find out what’s going on.
He said:
We have lost some children [...] There are some children who have died who didn’t have underlying health conditions.
It’s a new disease that we think may be caused by coronavirus and the Covid-19 [disease], we’re not 100% sure because some of the people who got it hadn’t tested positive, so we’re doing a lot of research now, but it is something that we’re worried about.
It is rare, although it is very significant for those children who do get it, the number of cases is small.
Updated
The Office for National Statistics says there were 4,316 deaths involving Covid-19 outside hospitals in England and Wales up to 17 April.
Of these, 3,096 took place in care homes (up from 1,043 the week before), 883 in private homes, 190 in hospices, 61 in other communal establishments, and 86 elsewhere.
The equivalent figure for hospital deaths over this period is 14,796.
The ONS numbers are based on where Covid-19 is mentioned anywhere on the death certificate, including in combination with other health conditions.
The ONS also says 4,343 deaths in care homes involving coronavirus were reported by care home providers in England to the Care Quality Commission in the fortnight up to 24 April.
Updated
Almost 12,000 excess deaths in England and Wales a week, ONS figures show
The Office for National Statistics weekly death figures are out. The report is here.
These figures cover the week ending Friday 17 April. (That’s week 16 in ONS-speak.)
Here are the main points from the ONS report.
The provisional number of deaths registered in England and Wales in the week ending 17 April 2020 (week 16) was 22,351; this represents an increase of 3,835 deaths registered compared with the previous week (week 15) and 11,854 more than the five-year average; this is the highest weekly total recorded since comparable figures begin in 1993.
Of the deaths registered in week 16, 8,758 mentioned “novel coronavirus (Covid-19)”, which is 39.2% of all deaths; this compares with 6,213 (33.6% of all deaths) in week 15.
In London, over half (55.5%) of deaths registered in week 16 involved Covid-19; the North West and North East also had a high proportion of Covid-19 deaths, accounting for 42.3% and 41.1% respectively of deaths registered in these regions.
Of deaths involving Covid-19 registered up to week 16, 77.4% (14,796 deaths) occurred in hospital, with the remainder occurring in care homes, private homes and hospices.
The number of overall deaths in care homes for week 16 was 7,316; this is 2,389 higher than week 15, almost double the number in week 14 and almost triple the number in week 13.
Updated
Good morning. I’m Andrew Sparrow, joining the blog.
We are about to get the latest weekly death figures from the Office for National Statistics. Unlike the daily figures produced by the Department for Health and Social Care, these figures include care home deaths.
Nick Stripe, head of the health analysis and life events division at the ONS, posted this on Twitter about the release yesterday.
Our latest weekly deaths reports will be released at 9.30am tomorrow
— Nick Stripe (@NickStripe_ONS) April 27, 2020
As well as updated figures for total and COVID-related deaths, for the first time we will also be publishing and comparing data on deaths in English care homes as notified to the Care Quality Commission (CQC)
Hopes in Scotland for new anti-viral drug
Scientists hope to begin clinical tests of a new anti-viral drug which has had positive results in laboratory tests against Covid-19.
Pneumagen, a University of St Andrews spin-out company, conducted three separate in-vitro studies into preventing coronavirus infections, reports PA Media.
The successful studies involved both treating infection and blocking new infections.
The chief executive, Douglas Thomson, said:
Today’s positive results from in-vitro studies of our mCBMs against coronaviruses show that glycan binding has the potential to prevent and treat infection.
This further supports the value of our universal therapeutic modality to block access to lung cells of Sars-CoV-2 [coronavirus], as well as other viruses, that cause respiratory tract infections, providing the potential for a pan-viral respiratory product.
Our goal is now to rapidly begin clinical testing for the prevention and treatment of Covid-19.
Updated
We’ve reported this morning that at least 15m more cases of domestic violence are predicted around the world this year as a result of pandemic restrictions, according to new data.
The UN Population Fund (UNFPA) has also calculated that tens of millions of women will not be able to access modern contraceptives this year, and millions more girls will undergo female genital mutilation or be married off by 2030.
Discussing the domestic abuse bill, which is to have its second reading in the Commons on Tuesday, Victoria Atkins told BBC Breakfast said it would introduce new powers, protective orders, and change various measures in courts to help protect victims.
What we’ve done in terms of our response to the Covid-19 crisis is that we have been listening to charities delivering these services on the frontline.
In response to the huge increase in calls to helplines and engagement with web services, the government has announced a further £2m to bolster services. She added:
In addition, today we are very conscious of the impact this may be having on children living in abusive households, so we have announced a £3m fund today to help those charities ... to ensure that the children receive the immediate care they need.
If you, or someone you know, need help escaping domestic violence, the NHS lists the following help lines:
- Women can call the freephone National Domestic Abuse Helpline, run by Refuge on 0808 2000 247 at any time, day or night. The staff will offer confidential, non-judgmental information and support.
- Men can call Men’s Advice Line on 0808 8010 327 (Monday and Wednesday, 9am to 8pm, and Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, 9am to 5pm) for non-judgemntal information and support.
- Men can also call ManKind on 0182 3334 244 (Monday to Friday, 10am to 4pm)
- Men and women who are harming their partners and families can contact Respect Phoneline: 0808 8024040, the service is anonymous and confidential.
- If you identify as LGBTQ+ you can call Galop on 0800 999 5428 for emotional and practical support.
- Anyone can call Karma Nirvana on 0800 5999 247 (Monday to Friday 9am to 5pm) about forced marriage and “honour” crimes. You can also call 020 7008 0151 to speak to the government’s Forced Marriage Unit.
Updated
Hancock was asked by LBC host Nick Ferrari whether he accepted that mistakes were made in the provision of PPE. He replied:
Well, there are things that we’ve changed as we’ve gone through, both because we’ve learnt more things about the virus, also because things didn’t work out as we expected.
Pushed, he added:
A huge amount of people are doing everything they can and have done since the start of this crisis, and of course this is a very, very complicated logistical effort but I don’t want to play down the enormous efforts of many thousands of people.
Asked whether it had been right to allow the Cheltenham Festival to go ahead, Hancock said there would be a review.
Hancock defended the decision to let the horse racing event go ahead in March, and said:
We followed the scientific advice, we were guided by that science. I think broadly we took the right measures at the right time. We were ahead of many other countries in Europe in terms of when we took the measures.
Hancock said that people in care homes who go to hospital for non-Covid-19 reasons will not be discharged until they are known not to have the virus, after one caller - Victor, from Loughton, Essex, who runs a care home - said 12 of his residents died when someone with Covid-19 was moved in.
Hancock said:
I’m not going to say, you know, it’s a matter for the care home; it’s actually a matter for all of us, and exactly as Victor says, because you know, when this horrible disease gets into a care home, some of the people who are most vulnerable to it live in care homes.
One thing that we’ve done is introduced testing for everybody leaving hospital going to care homes to avoid the situation that Victor talks about.
He also addressed Victor’s concerns about PPE in private care homes and said:
The responsibility sits on my shoulders. Because of the need to increase the amount of PPE, we’ve stepped up and put in place extra processes and allowed the access to the NHS PPE distribution and expanded that to care homes.
Updated
Hancock refuses to apologise to son of doctor who died after highlighting PPE shortage
Matt Hancock is having a difficult morning. When he began to take questions from members of the public on the Nick Ferrari show on LBC, he was confronted by Intisar Chowdhury, the son of Dr Abdul Mabud Chowdhury who we heard earlier on Today. (See 7.49am.)
Challenging Hancock, Chowdhury asked why his father’s letter to the prime minister which appealed for more PPE was ignored. He said:
When he was unwell he wrote an open letter to the prime minister appealing for more PPE for NHS frontline workers. It was a request that was ignored. Two weeks later he passed away and since then over 100 NHS and social care workers have passed away from contracting the virus.
Do you regret not taking my dad’s concerns, my 11-year-old sister’s dad’s concerns, and my mother’s husband’s concerns seriously enough for my dad that we’ve all lost?
The health secretary replied:
Intisar, I’m really sorry about your dad’s death and I have seen the comments you’ve made and what you’ve said in public, and I think it’s very brave of you to be speaking out in public.
We took very, very seriously what your father said and we’ve been working around the clock to ensure that there’s enough protective equipment. In the case of anybody who works in the NHS or in social care [who] has died from coronavirus, we look into it in each case to find out the reasons why they might have caught it and what lessons we can learn.
Asked to response to what Hancock said, Chowdhury replied:
Mr Hancock, the public is not expecting the government to handle this perfectly. None of us are expecting perfection. We are expecting progression. We just want you to openly acknowledge there have been mistakes in handling the virus, especially for me and so many families that have really lost loved ones as a result of the virus and probably as a result of the government not handling it seriously. Openly acknowledging a mistake is not an admission of guilt. It is genuinely just making you seem more human. So could you please do that for me later today, at the press conference today, maybe a public apology.
In response, Hancock said:
It is very important that we are constantly learning about how to do these things better, and listening to the voices on the frontline is a very, very important part of how we improve.
Updated
Matt Hancock’s defence of the government’s handling of PPE this morning comes after it emerged that key items of personal protective equipment (PPE) were not included in the government’s pandemic stockpile when coronavirus reached the UK, an investigation has found.
BBC Panorama reported that gowns, visors, swabs and body bags were left out of the stockpile when it was set up in 2009. Some of the items are now in short supply.
The full story is here:
Updated
A chartered flight carrying 200,000 fluid-resistant gowns is expected to arrive in Wales from Cambodia and China today, reports the South Wales Guardian.
Today’s flight has been arranged through Welsh contacts and is the first of two due to arrive this week, which will replenish vital supplies of gowns for the NHS and social care staff in Wales.
In total, 660,000 gowns will be flown in to Cardiff airport on the flights, from Phnom Penh, in Cambodia and Hangzhou, in China.
The first minister, Mark Drakeford, said:
Since the start of the pandemic, we have been working very hard to make sure we continue to get the right supply of PPE for Wales.
Coronavirus has put supplies under pressure around the world. Today’s flight is the result of a lot of hard work behind the scenes to secure new supplies of gowns for our frontline workers.
Updated
The health secretary, Matt Hancock, has said the government has distributed more than a billion items of PPE.
Speaking to Nick Ferrari on LBC, he said:
People need to have the PPE according to the guidelines, the guidelines do say that in some cases PPE can safely be reused and that’s a good thing because PPE is in global short supply.
When asked if he would wear re-used PPE that was originally designed as single-use on future visits to hospitals, Hancock said:
If that is what is clinically advised, then yes of course. What we’ve managed to do during this crisis is improve ways that kit like that can be sterilised and then safely re-used and that’s work that has been ongoing.
Updated
Online grocery sales are expected to grow by around a third during 2020, due to the “seismic impact” that Covid-19 is having on people’s shopping habits, PA Media reports.
The online grocery market is forecast to grow by 33% in 2020 to reach an estimated value of £16.8bn, up from £12.7bn in 2019, market research agency Mintel said.
The big jump follows four years in a row of slowing growth. In 2019, growth fell to a historic low of just 2.9%. Mintel estimates the market will be worth £17.9bn by 2024, growing by 41% over the five-year period.
Nick Carroll, associate director of retail research at Mintel, said:
Covid-19 has had a seismic impact on Britain’s grocery sector. [T]he impact will last beyond the crisis. Shopper numbers in the online grocery market have plateaued in recent years as retailers struggled to get new customers to try these services. The outbreak is bringing a new audience to online grocery, and this should boost the market long term with strong growth forecast through to 2024.
Updated
Son of doctor killed by Covid-19 says government should apologise
The son of a doctor who died of coronavirus after warning Boris Johnson about a lack of protective equipment has spoken powerfully on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme this morning.
Intisar Chowdhury, the 18-year-old son of Abdul Mabud Chowdhury, a consultant urologist at Homerton hospital in east London who died after contracting Covid-19, called on the government to apologise to all the families of healthcare workers who had died during the pandemic. He said:
I definitely do want a public apology because I feel like the government response in not only handling the PPE crisis but the whole crisis wasn’t the best.
I think that we could forgive that as a country, as it’s such an unprecedented thing it’s hard to know what the right thing is to do, but they need to be able to hold themselves accountable for that, make an apology for that, learn from that and then move on so we can trust them more.
The 18-year-old’s father urged the prime minister to ensure every NHS worker was protected in a direct plea on Facebook last month shortly after being taken ill with Covid-19. Following the 53-year-old’s death on 8 April, his son said he was glad that the issue was now getting the attention it needed.
But asked about the government announcement of £60,000 for every family of a healthcare worker who has died as a result of the disease, he said:
It’s a step in the right direction, but if I’m being honest rather than the £60k for my family I would rather the efforts go into giving more PPE to NHS, because I have family friends and cousins that work in hospitals and they are still having to reuse their equipment and clearly they do not have the adequate equipment right now.
He added:
The money itself doesn’t really cover up the fact that the government hasn’t really made a public apology yet. They have a press conference every single day where they have an opportunity to own up to their mistakes and you know what as citizens none of us are expecting perfection from the government we are just expecting progression.
Updated
Good morning if you are joining us in the UK, I’m Alexandra Topping and I’ll be starting the UK coronavirus liveblog this morning.
Here are a roundup of today’s key stories
- The UK’s coronavirus frontline has switched from hospitals to care homes, according to sector leaders who have dismissed Boris Johnson’s claim that the virus has been “wrestled to the floor” as premature.
- A minute’s silence will be held across the UK later to commemorate the key workers who have died with coronavirus. Prime minister Boris Johnson, who returned to work on Monday, will join the tribute, which starts at 11am.
- Grieving families of NHS and social care workers who died after contracting coronavirus in the course of their duties will be entitled to a £60,000 payment, ministers announced on Monday as the reported death toll for frontline workers rose to 134.
- Ministers have held a series of high-level meetings with trades unions and business leaders amid fears that millions of people will be too fearful to return to work as pressure intensifies on the government to publish a path out of the national lockdown.
-
The first minister of Wales has said he is ready to move the country out of lockdown earlier than the rest of the UK as he demands more contact from ministers at Westminster.
Updated
