That’s it from the UK coronavirus liveblog today. Please do follow the 24-hour global coronavirus liveblog for further updates - we’ll be back with you early tomorrow morning.
Updated
Summary
Government denies it took political decision to stay out of EU ventilator scheme
The health secretary Matt Hancock has denied that UK ministers took a political decision not to be involved in an EU ventilator scheme, contradicting a statement from the Foreign Office permanent under-secretary Sir Simon McDonald, earlier in the day. The government has previously said the UK did not take part due to missed emails.
Trials for a coronavirus vaccine to start on people in Oxford on Thursday, says government
A potential coronavirus vaccine being developed at the University of Oxford will be trialled on people from Thursday, said the health secretary Matt Hancock. Hancock added that he was making £22m available to Imperial to support their ongoing phase two trials, and providing £20m to the Oxford team to accelerate their trials.
UK hospital coronavirus deaths rise by 823 to 17,337
The Department for Health and Social Care has published the latest UK hospital death figures: 823 new deaths were recorded, taking the total to 17,337.
Coronavirus deaths in England and Wales peaked on 8 April, experts claim
The peak in the number of coronavirus deaths in England and Wales happened on April 8, according to scientists
ONS to investigate why 8,000 weekly ‘excess’ death toll even higher than coronavirus figures imply
Nick Stripe, the health analysis and life events division at the ONS, said new ONS figures showed around 8,000 “excess deaths” in the week ending 10 April. The figures revealed that deaths were at the highest level for 20 years, and double the level normally expected.
Latest ONS figures show 20% of coronavirus deaths occurring outside hospital
In the week ending 10 April only 80.3% of coronavirus deaths took place in hospital, with the rest occurring in care homes, private homes and hospices. The ONS figures also revealed that the number of deaths in care homes in that week was double what it was just four weeks before.
Dozens of patients with Covid-19 have been turned away from the NHS Nightingale hospital in London because it has too few nurses
A Guardian exclusive has revealed that dozens of patients with Covid-19 have been turned away from the NHS Nightingale hospital in London because it has too few nurses to treat them.
Labour: there is ‘increasing gap’ between government claims on PPE and reality
Labour leader Keir Starmer said there was a “increasing gap” between what the government was stating and what was being reported on the frontline. Earlier the shadow Cabinet Office minister Rachel Reeves said the shortage of personal protective equipment was a “disgrace.
Matt Hancock's press conference - Summary
Here are the main points from Matt Hancock’s press conference.
- Hancock, the health secretary, said an Oxford team working on a coronavirus vaccine would begin trials on humans on Thursday. He said:
I can announce that the vaccine from the Oxford project will be trialled in people from this Thursday. In normal times, reaching this stage would take years and I’m very proud of the work taken so far.
At the same time, we will invest in manufacturing capability so that if either of these vaccines safely work, we can make it available for the British people as soon as humanely possible.
Hancock also announced that the Oxford University project will get £20m to fund its trials. Another project based at Imperial College London will get £22.5m to support its phase two clinical trials, he said. He said he was determined to back the researchers “to the hilt”. He went on:
After all, the upside of being the first country in the world to develop a successful vaccine is so huge that I am throwing everything at it.
- Hancock dismissed a claim from the most senior official at the Foreign Office that the government took a political decision not to participate in an EU-wide ventilator procurement scheme. Asked about Sir Simon McDonald’s comment (see 4.17pm), Hancock said:
I haven’t seen that exchange but I have spoken to the foreign secretary and as far as I’m aware there was no political decision not to participate in that scheme.
We did receive an invitation in the Department of Health and it was put up to me to be asked and we joined so we are now members of that scheme.
However, as far as I know that scheme hasn’t [provided] a single item of PPE [personal protective equipment].
Although Hancock’s comment sounded like a robust denial, it was less than watertight because Hancock just said he was “not aware” of any political decision to boycott the scheme and he then conflated the EU ventilator procurement scheme with a separate one covering PPE (although, as Jennifer Rankin wrote when she first reported on this in March, the original UK decision not to get involved covered all the various EU coronavirus procurement schemes.)
- Prof Jonathan Van-Tam, the deputy chief medical officer for England, hinted that the government is not about to change its policy on members of the public wearing masks. The government’s scientific advisory group for emergencies, Sage, discussed this today, but no new recommendations have gone to ministers yet. Van-Tam said the advice would change if the evidence justified that. But he went on:
There is an absolutely enduring principle here that Sage places great value and prime importance on never jeopardising the supplies of PPE to our health and social care workers. That is a line that we are not going to cross.
- Hancock said the government would start testing NHS staff who do not have coronavirus symptoms.
- Van-Tam said the “vast majority” of coronavirus was being spread by people with symptoms. But there was also likely to be some spread from symptomatic or pre-symptomatic people, he said.
- Hancock said the government was working with 159 UK manufacturers who may be able to make PPE for the NHS. But not all offers were credible, he said.
We have had to make sure we sort out the creditable offers from those that are not.
We have had some offers, for instance, that have come from companies where, upon investigation, the company has only just been formed in the previous day or two before coming and asking for a cash deal with the government.
- Van-Tam said the UK is not yet seeing a significant downturn in new cases. he said:
It isn’t clear there is an enormous downturn at this point. The numbers are varying day to day but they remain high and we remain in a situation of danger that we must take very seriously indeed.
In London the number of hospital cases is declining, after hitting a peak probably on 10 April, he said. But he said in other parts of Britain hospital cases were at “rather more of a plateau”.
Photograph: Andrew Parsons/10 Downing Street/AFP via Getty Images
The number of confirmed cases of Covid-19 in prisons continues to rise.
As MPs heard that more than 4,000 prisoners aged over-50 were in shared cells, Ministry of Justice figures revealed that 287 prisoners had tested positive for the coronavirus across 65 prisons by 5pm on Monday, up 3% in 24 hours.
There are about 81,500 prisoners in England and Wales across 117 prisons. At least 15 prisoners are known to have died from the virus. The number of infected prison staff rose 10% in the same period to 217 across 54 prisons.
The Prison Service is to temporarily release up to 4,000 inmates who are within two months of their release date, as well as building 500 extra cells within the prison estate to increase single-cell occupancy.
However, there have been warnings that 15,000 would need to be released to achieve single-cell occupancy across the estate.
Earlier on Tuesday, the justice committee heard that prisoners aged over 50 were particularly vulnerable to Covid-19. There are currently about 13,700 prisoners aged 50 and over in England and Wales.
Peter Clarke, the chief inspector of prisons, told a remote session of the justice committee:
We’ve looked at some of the data. It is the fact that more older prisoners than from other age groups are held in single-cell accommodation, about 67%. That does mean there’s about a third who are not held in single-cell accommodation. That of course, with current figures, is somewhere over 4,000.
Updated
Nightingale hospital turns away dozens of Covid-19 patients
Dozens of patients with Covid-19 have been turned away from the NHS Nightingale hospital in London because it has too few nurses to treat them, according to an exclusive from my colleagues Sarah Marsh and Denis Campbell.
The disclosure comes amid a growing belief among hospital management in the capital that the Nightingale, built to great acclaim over just nine days, is becoming a “white elephant”.
The hospital has been unable to admit about 50 people with the disease and needing “life or death” care since its first patient arrived at the site in London’s Docklands on 7 April. Thirty of these people were rejected because of a lack of staff.
Full story here:
Updated
Allowing people to drive to the countryside for exercise causes “untold anxieties” for rural communities fearful of being exposed to a greater risk of coronavirus, rural groups have told the government.
Last week police said guidance from the Crown Prosecution Service meant it was permitted for people to drive to recreation sites, so long as they spent more time walking around than getting there in their cars. In a letter to the justice secretary, Robert Buckland, a coalition of rural groups said this stance needed to change.
The letter is from the National Farmers’ Union, the Countryside Alliance, the Country Land and Business Association and the National Rural Crime Network, whose chair is Julia Mulligan, the police and crime commissioner for North Yorkshire, where police have been stopping drivers at checkpoints.
Updated
News stories about nature and wildlife flourishing and air pollution dropping as the lockdown has reduced air and road traffic has left many people keen to retain some benefits.
Some politicians are already talking about how the future could look different – leaders in northern England have urged the government not to return to “business as usual” after the coronavirus lockdown, but to embrace positive changes the measures have led to, such as the drop in UK air pollution, writes my colleague Amy Walker.
Andy Burnham, the mayor of Greater Manchester, and Steve Rotheram, the mayor of Liverpool city region, said building cycling and walking networks in cities and boosting internet connections so that more people could work from home could form part of a strategy to “keep some of the benefits that we’ve been experiencing”.
Updated
Hancock says there is a huge amount still to do.
But the UK has met its core goals, he says. He says it has managed to “bend down the curve” in terms of infections, and ensure that the NHS has not been overwhelmed.
And that’s it. The press conference is over.
Q: Yesterday Prof Yvonne Doyle from Public Health England said about 10% of coronavirus deaths were taking place outside hospital. Today the ONS figures show that is much higher. It says government figures could be 40% out. (See 10.50am.) That suggests your plan is not working.
Hancock says that 40% figure is not right. He says one of the slides shown earlier addresses this. (See 5.20pm.)
Updated
Hancock says NHS workers should feel free to talk about what is happening at their work. That sort of transparency is important.
Updated
Q: Why won’t you introduce screening for people who arrive in the UK?
Van-Tam says screening won’t pick up people who have been infected but who are not yet showing symptoms.
He says there is widespread transmission in the UK. It is still there, although it has been reduced.
So any possible infection by people arriving from abroad would be “minuscule” compared to the in-country infection.
He says that, once the infection rate has been turned down, all scientific options will then be considered.
- Van-Tam hints that screening for people arriving at airports might be an option once the UK has got the infection rate down.
Updated
Q: The top diplomat at the Foreign Office says it was a political decision not to take part in the EU scheme. You say that is not right. Who is right?
Hancock says when the decision came to the health department, he said yes. But as far as he is aware, this scheme has not delivered any PPE.
He says there has been “zero” impact on the UK’s ability to procure PPE.
(Again, Hancock is talking about the PPE procurement scheme when Sir Simon McDonald was talking about a similar but different one, covering ventilators.)
Updated
From Sky’s Sam Coates
Apparently FCO top mandarin Sir Simon McDonald is about the write to the Foreign Affairs Select Committee report “clarifying” that it *wasnt* a political decision to initially not take part in EU scheme
— Sam Coates Sky (@SamCoatesSky) April 21, 2020
Letter expected in next hour...
Newton says, in areas where social distancing is not possible, there is a need to do intensive testing to see how many people may be asymptomatic but still carrying the virus.
Q: How worried are you about asymptomatic transmission? Should asymptomatic health staff be tested?
Hancock says this is a good question. The existence of asymptomatic transmission is a particular problem with coronavirus, he says.
Van-Tam says at the start of the crisis the officials did not have enough information about whether pre-symptomatic and asymptomatic patients were shedding the virus.
Now they know this can happen, he says.
But he says they still do not know how symptomatic they are compared to people with symptoms.
He says it is impossible to rule out spread occurring from asymptomatic or pre-symptomatic people.
But most of the spread is from people who do display symptoms, he says.
Q: There have been reports that China has run a global disinformation campaign to deflect the blame for its responsibility for the pandemic. What is your response?
Hancock says he has not seen that report. But he thinks there has been disinformation. He says it is vital that people are provided with accurate information about what has been happening.
Updated
Hancock says some of the firms offering to supply PPE to the government have not been credible. Some have only just been formed, he says.
He says, in trying to procure it worldwide, the government has tried to go direct to the source. It is more secure if you deal directly with the factory, he says.
Van-Tam says Sage, the scientific advisory group for emergencies, has met today to discuss face mask policy. In time a recommendation will go to ministers, and they will make a decision.
But the government will not do anything that might jeopardise the supply of PPE to medical staff, he says.
Hancock dismisses claim staying out of EU ventilator scheme was political decision
Q: Why did the most senior figure at the Foreign Office say it was a political decision not to join the EU’s ventilator procurement scheme, when the government claimed it was a communications mix-up?
Hancock says he has not seen what Sir Simon McDonald said. (See 4.17pm.) But he says he has spoken to Dominic Raab, the foreign secretary. Raab told him there was no political decision not to participate.
There was no political decision not to participate in that scheme. We did receive an invitation [at the Department for Health]. It was put up to me, and we joined.
But no PPE has been delivered through that scheme, he says.
(Hancock seems to be confusing the EU ventilator procurement scheme with a separate EU PPE procurement one.)
UPDATE: Here is the quote.
Full remarks from Hancock on Simon MacDonald comments to select committee earlier pic.twitter.com/6BIvErMaKv
— Beth Rigby (@BethRigby) April 21, 2020
Updated
Van-Tam is now presenting the daily slides.
Van-Tam says this next one is particularly important.
He says hospital cases in London did peak, probably on 10 April. Since then they have gone down. But in other regions it has been more of a plateau, he says.
This slide is a new addition. It shows the gap between hospital coronavirus deaths and all coronavirus deaths.
And here is the final slide, with global comparisons.
Updated
Hancock says Oxford team to start vaccine trials on humans from Thursday
Hancock turns to vaccines.
He says the UK will throw everything it has at trying to find one.
Two of the leading efforts around the world are taking place in the UK, he says.
He says today he is making £22m available to Imperial to support their phase two trials.
And he is making £20m available to the Oxford team to accelerate their trials. The vaccine from the Oxford project will be trialled on people from Thursday.
Normally it would take years to get to this point, he says.
And he says the government is investing in manufacturing capability so, if it works, it can be produced in scale.
He says nothing about this is inevitable. Vaccine production is a matter of trial and error, he says.
He says the benefits of getting a vaccine are so huge “that I am throwing everything at it”.
Hancock turns to PPE.
He says since the crisis started one billion items of PPE have been delivered.
He thanks firms that have offered to supply PPE.
He says some firms who have approached the government have been unable to provide equipment on scale.
But he says the government is now working with 159 potential UK suppliers.
The government is determined to get the equipment it needs, he says. He says it has been a huge procurement effort.
Hancock says the government will not relax the lockdown until certain conditions are met. Above all, there must be no second peak, he says.
Hancock says the government’s priority has been to stop the NHS being overwhelmed. That has happened. At no point has the NHS been unable to treat a patient needing treatment, he says.
He reads out the latest death and testing figures.
Matt Hancock's press conference
Matt Hancock, the health secretary, is holding the government’s daily press conference. He is appearing with Prof Jonathan Van-Tam, the deputy chief medical officer for England, and Prof John Newton, director of health improvement at Public Health England.
Updated
A health board has pledged to look into the availability of personal protective equipment (PPE) at its hospitals after staff appealed for help sourcing supplies, writes my colleague Ben Quinn.
A post on a Facebook group, which has been widely shared, carried an image of a mask described as an Easimask Duckbill, and claimed that University Hospital of Wales (UHW) no longer had stocks.
It said:
We have ran out on ICU in UHW, meaning a lot of staff myself included aren’t able to provide care for Covid patients. If you do have any of these masks please get in touch.
Contacted about the claims, Cardiff and Vale University health board said in a statement that it was aware of concerns raised by some staff in the media regarding the availability and or inaccessibility of PPE.
It added:
As a health board the safety of our staff is of the greatest importance alongside that of our patients. As a result of the inferences made we are taking a more detailed look into the availability of PPE across our sites and we regularly check our systems to ensure that we get stock to the right place at the right time.
It said that it had enough PPE equipment available and in stock, if the right level of PPE was used in the right circumstances.
If a colleague has not found this to be the case and they have encountered either a shortage or a perceived shortage we would encourage them to raise it immediately, there’s a freedom to speak up hotline that staff can use.
Updated
As the mystery of the missing consignment of PPE from Turkey continues, the Guardian’s defence and security editor Dan Sabbagh writes that supplies are edging closer to the plane that will transport them back to the UK:
At last, some of the PPE bought by the NHS from Turkey is clearing customs at Istanbul airport, defence sources report. It’s not clear how long it will take to get to the single waiting RAF A400M transport plane, or whether it includes all the 400,000 protective gowns badly needed by the NHS. But after days of delay and broken promises it is possible some PPE will be brought back from Turkey overnight.
Updated
Northern Ireland records nine deaths in the last 24 hours
Another nine people have died from Covid-19 in Northern Ireland in the last 24 hours, Stormont’s deputy first minister Michelle O’Neill said.
She said the projected worst-case scenario of 1,500 deaths in the first 20 weeks was still “shocking and harrowing” but that the chances of that had been significantly reduced.
“The reduction is because of you and your actions have saved thousands of lives,” she said.
The first minister Arlene Foster said the ministerial executive at Stormont would have more discussions about whether to reopen cemeteries during the coronavirus lockdown. She said visiting could be allowed over limited hours and if social distancing was in place, admitting other colleagues had “justifiable concerns”.
Updated
Downing Street has just released the read-out of the telephone call that Boris Johnson had with President Trump earlier. Here it is in full. A No 10 spokesperson said:
The prime minister spoke to President Trump this afternoon, and thanked him for his good wishes while he was unwell.
The leaders agreed on the importance of a coordinated international response to coronavirus, including through the G7 – which the US currently chairs.
They also discussed continued UK-US cooperation in the fight against the pandemic.
The leaders committed to continue working together to strengthen our bilateral relationship, including by signing a free trade agreement as soon as possible.
At the lunchtime Downing Street briefing the prime minister’s spokesman claimed that Johnson was still recuperating and that he was not “formally doing government work”. This is now sounding more and more like the sort of lie many of us tell our GPs (“definitely no more than 20 units a week, doctor”). If discussing a global crisis with the president of the US does not count as government work, it is hard to know what does.
The Tony Blair Institute for Global Change has published a paper today saying how a programme of mass testing could be used to help the UK exit from the lockdown. Daniel Sleat, one of its co-authors, said:
This paper, we believe, lays out the best information available on the state of testing. It sets out a path for the government to reach mass community testing. This must form a central element in any credible and sustainable exit from lockdown. To achieve this ambition the Government must make systemic and structural changes in the coming weeks - including appointing a senior minister responsible solely for testing. We cannot afford to be behind the curve on preparing to test at scale and conduct sophisticated contact tracing.
Jeremy Hunt, the Conservative former health secretary, is also a prominent advocate of this sort of approach.
Mass contact tracing is the only internationally proven alternative to mass lockdown. We need to act fast: https://t.co/O9I0MBBrwX
— Jeremy Hunt (@Jeremy_Hunt) April 21, 2020
Starmer claims there is 'increasing gap' between government claims on PPE and reality
This is from the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg.
Just spoken to Keir Starmer on PPE problems - 'what we’re seeing here is an increasing gap between what the government says or thinks is happening and what the frontline are telling us'
— Laura Kuenssberg (@bbclaurak) April 21, 2020
Staying out of EU ventilator scheme was 'political decision', not email error, says Foreign Office chief
UK ministers took a political decision not to be involved in an EU ventilator scheme, Sir Simon McDonald, the Foreign Office permanent under-secretary said today, so challenging previous claims that the UK did not take part due to missed emails.
McDonald was asked by a Labour MP, Chris Bryant, at the foreign affairs select committee whether the ventilator scheme was put to ministers. He said:
It was a political decision. The UK mission (UKREP) briefed ministers about what was available, what was on offer and the decision is known.
His remarks appear to blow a hole in the case originally made most prominently by the Cabinet Office minister Michael Gove.
McDonald also said the prime minister will consider in the next few weeks whether to go for an extension of the deadline for EU withdrawal date beyond December. He said he was stressing the theoretical possibilities, and added he believed the prime minister will confirm the existing timetable.
Updated
UK hospital coronavirus deaths rise by 823 to 17,337
The Department for Health and Social Care has published the latest UK hospital death figures. There are 823 new deaths, taking the total to 17,337.
As of 9am 21 April, 535,342 tests have concluded, with 18,206 tests on 20 April.
— Department of Health and Social Care (@DHSCgovuk) April 21, 2020
397,670 people have been tested of which 129,044 tested positive.
As of 5pm on 20 April, of those hospitalised in the UK who tested positive for coronavirus, 17,337 have sadly died. pic.twitter.com/rLnm7MWxEw
The Commons has now adjourned for the day.
In the Commons Jacob Rees-Mogg, the leader of the Commons, has just been asked to justify why the owners of second homes can qualify for £10,000 grants under the scheme to help small businesses affected by coronavirus. (See 3.09pm.) Rees-Mogg said, as he understood it, this money was only available if the second home was genuinely being run as a business. He said that seemed reasonable to him.
Sir Keir Starmer will lead for Labour at PMQs tomorrow even though he will be up against Dominic Raab, the foreign secretary and first secretary of state, not Boris Johnson. In recent years, when the PM is absent and someone else is deputising at PMQs, the leader of the opposition has normally nominated a stand-in too. But Starmer has never had a PMQs as Labour leader, and Johnson may be away for some time. There is no rule saying he cannot appear himself, and it seems sensible for him to ensure that no one else gets the limelight tomorrow.
Smaller juries with as few as seven people could be in Scottish courts as part of attempts to restart criminal trials during the lockdown, writes the Guardian’s Scotland editor, Severin Carrell.
Scotland’s justice secretary, Humza Yousaf, told a reduced number of MSPs on Tuesday, spaced out in Holyrood’s chamber for their sole weekly session, the Scottish government was focusing on proposals to cut jury sizes, speed up trials and giving sheriffs enhanced powers to allow trials to take place.
His proposals mark a significant reversal in policy after the Scottish government tried initially to temporarily scrap trial by jury to avoid a significant backlog in trials, suspended following the start of social distancing and then the lockdown last month.
Suspending jury trials was backed by Lord Carloway, Scotland’s most senior judge, and the lord advocate, James Wolffe QC, but encountered a storm of protest from the legal profession, opposition parties and civil rights groups.
The proposals were dropped, an emergency powers bill hastily redrafted and Yousaf instead promised far wider consultation with the legal profession and victims groups, including Rape Crisis Scotland and Victim Support.
He told MSPs those victims groups were worried that trials which relied on juries could start and be abandoned if jurors fell ill, causing “extreme distress to victims”. But he added: “Let me be clear, the Scottish government is absolutely committed to the principle of trial by jury.”
Updated
Here is Damian Carrington, the Guardian’s environment editor, on the research featured earlier showing a link between higher levels of air pollution and deaths from Covid-19 in England. (See 12.44pm.)
Jacob Rees-Mogg, the leader of the Commons, has just made a short statement on the Commons business for next week. He confirms that the second reading of the immigration bill has been shelved for the moment. Next week MPs will debate the finance bill, the domestic abuse bill and the fire safety bill.
Updated
Scotland’s justice secretary has announced that there will be limited release of prisoners in order to ease the pressures of coronavirus on the prison service, some weeks after equivalent moves in England and Wales.
Humza Yousaf told the socially distanced sitting at Holyrood: “After careful consideration, I will be asking the Scottish Prison Service to consider the release of a limited number of short term prisoners towards the end of their time in custody.” Describing it as a “necessary and proportionate response to the current situation”, he confirmed that around 450 prisoners with less than three months to serve would be eligible. Early release will not be considered for those convicted of sexual offences, terrorism offences, domestic abuse offences or Covid-19 related offences, nor will anyone with a non-harassment order be eligible.
Yousaf added that he had been speaking to local authorities to ensure that those eligible will have adequate housing and access to other support services on release. He added that he was looking into the possibilities of compassionate release for pregnant prisoners.
It is estimated that the current prison population will have to come down to around 6,500 to allow all prisoners to have a single cell, much preferred for implementing social distancing. The population, which has been vastly overcrowded over the past year, had already come down to about 7,200 because of court inactivity, so a further 450 releases will take the figure nearer this target.
Serious concerns remain for those still incarcerated, with out-of-cell activities at the very bare minimum and visiting suspended. The Scottish government announced last week that prisoners would be given access to mobile phones, with some security restrictions, in their cells to allow family contact.
Updated
MPs vote to bring in 'hybrid' proceedings, with most members participating remotely, from tomorrow
Back in the Commons, Jacob Rees-Mogg, the leader of the Commons, is winding up the debate. Responding to Sir Desmond Swayne (see 3.36pm), Rees-Mogg says he wants MPs to be able to contribute to debates. He says that if an MP were unable to enter the chamber because the 50-person limit had been reached, he would leave the chamber himself to allow them in. He says MPs have had the right to attend parliament unimpeded since 1340. He does not want to to be the leader of the house who brings that to an end, he says.
MPs then pass the two motions by acclamation, without opposition.
Updated
A consortium of British textile firms is aiming to make millions of protective gowns to help the NHS.
Kate Hills said manufacturers had come together to form the British Textile Consortium in order to make vital personal protective equipment (PPE) for health workers.
Hills, founder of Make it British, said that gowns produced by a number of consortium members were currently being tested before they could be supplied to the NHS.
Hills told the PA Media news agency that consortium members will potentially be able to produce millions of gowns a month to provide protective equipment to the health service.
Gowns and masks are the main things, gowns in particular are critical. Through the consortium a number of manufacturers are having their gowns tested with a view to then supply them to the NHS.
They will be able to provide gowns in the hundreds of thousands, if not millions, per month. But they are disposable products so it is not everything that is needed but a good proportion of what is needed. The rollout will be in a few weeks.
Updated
Oxford has become the latest UK university to announce a raft of cost-cutting measures in response to the damage caused by the Covid-19 pandemic and resulting lockdown.
They include a 12-month recruitment freeze and a pilot furlough scheme initially in six departments, which will then be rolled out across the university, using the government’s coronavirus job retention scheme.
Oxford is one of the wealthiest institutions in the country but the lockdown has already resulted in “significant losses” of university income, which are likely to continue into 2021.
The UK higher education sector is expected to be one of the hardest hit by the pandemic. Imperial College London has already warned its staff of similar measures and universities up and down the land are frantically drawing up survival plans for the coming year.
Prof Anne Trefethen, Oxford University’s pro-vice-chancellor for people, said:
Our aim is to ensure Oxford emerges from this crisis as a stronger institution, and these measures will help reduce the financial impact of the lockdown. We believe the changes are the best way to support staff through the current situation and to sustain the excellence of our teaching and vitally-needed research.
Updated
Allowing Speaker to prevent MPs from entering Commons chamber would be 'outrageous', says Tory
Back in the Commons chamber the Conservative MP Sir Desmond Swayne said told MPs that he was particularly worried by paragraph six of the motion (pdf) being voted on this afternoon. It says:
Members may participate in scrutiny proceedings virtually, by electronic means approved by the Speaker, or by attending in the chamber. The Speaker may limit the number of members present in the chamber at any one time.
Swayne said it was not right to put the Speaker in the situation where he might have to decide who is and isn’t admitted to the Commons chamber. He said he knew this was just a temporary measure. But it was setting a precedent, he said. He went on:
It would be outrageous if members elected to this house were unable to come and bring their concerns to this chamber because there were already a sufficient number of members within it.
Updated
Barclays is introducing temporary interest-free buffers of £750 on pre-agreed overdrafts from the start of May.
This is more generous than the £500 interest-free overdraft buffer that many providers are offering to help borrowers cope with the financial impact of the coronavirus pandemic, PA Media reports.
Measures put in place from 27 March mean Barclays is currently waiving all interest automatically until the end of April, meaning no charges for customers on their personal arranged overdraft.
The new £750 interest-free buffer will be in place from 1 May and will run until the end of 9 July.
Updated
Coronavirus deaths in England and Wales peaked on 8 April, experts claim
The peak in the number of coronavirus deaths in England and Wales happened on April 8, according to scientists. As PA Media reports, commenting on the death data released by the Office of National Statistics today, a panel convened by the Science Media Centre said the death rate had been consistent for the last 13 days. Prof Carl Heneghan, director of the Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine at the University of Oxford, said:
From an epidemiological perspective we can say that the numbers are consistent with the peak happening on April 8.
We’ve now tracked for 13 days that that has been consistent - it hasn’t jumped up.
All of the other data surrounding this, the triangulation of the data is showing us that is the case.
But Heneghan warned there could be a lag in the number of deaths in nursing homes where figures could continue to rise, even if deaths in hospitals start to decrease. “The proportion of deaths in nursing homes could have a considerable lag going forward,” he said.
Updated
Tim Farron, the former Lib Dem leader, is urging the Treasury to stop people with second homes who rent them out being able to claim £10,000 from the fund set up to help small businesses affected by coronavirus.
The loophole which allows second home owners to pretend to be businesses so they can avoid paying council tax, now means they can claim £10k from the coronavirus relief fund meant for struggling small businesses.
— Tim Farron (@timfarron) April 21, 2020
I've written to the Chancellor urging him to close the loophole. pic.twitter.com/aanF0cipeJ
Rapid coronavirus antibody home tests cannot currently be relied on to provide reliable results, a new study suggests.
But researchers said a laboratory test called Elisa showed promising results when indicating whether someone had developed Covid-19 antibodies.
The investigations were led by the National Covid Testing Scientific Advisory Panel. The authors write that there is an urgent need for robust antibody detection approaches to support diagnostics, vaccine development, safe individual release from quarantine and population lockdown exit strategies.
However, the early promise of lateral flow immunoassay (LFIA) devices - the fingerprick-type home tests - has been questioned following concerns about sensitivity and specificity.
In their pre-print study, the researchers tested samples from 40 people. The Elisa test detected both Covid-19 antibodies in 34 of the 40 patients, with the diagnosis confirmed with a separate test.
Updated
Tory MP says it's 'shocking' parliament has not yet had chance to debate social distancing rules
In the Commons Jacob Rees-Mogg says MPs who are in the chamber will try to observe social distancing rules. But he says there will be times when it is not possible for them to stay two metres apart from each other. But he says what matters is that they will try to observe these rules whenever practical.
Sir Desmond Swayne, a Conservative, says Rees-Mogg is referring to social distancing rules that have never been debated or explored by parliament. That is “shocking”, he says.
Rees-Mogg says MPs will get a chance to debate the rules.
And he says the new procedural rules being introduced today will only apply until 12 May.
Updated
Wales has enough personal protective equipment (PPE) to last “a few days”, the Welsh health minister Vaughan Gething told a press conference earlier. He said:
We have enough stocks of all items to last us for a few days, partly because of the mutual aid we’ve received from other UK countries, partly because of the UK supplies that have come in.
But we’re not in a position to say we have weeks and weeks of advance stock on all of those items. And that’s why I’m certainly not at all complacent or blasé about where we are.
Just because we’re not in the position England found itself in on the weekend, that does not mean there are no concerns here. There are very real concerns here in the government.
Jacob Rees-Mogg, the leader of the Commons, is now opening the debate. Asked if he will be asking the Commons to vote tomorrow on a motion calling for the introduction of electronic voting in the Commons, he declines to answer, saying that that is a matter for tomorrow.
He also says that in the immediate future the government wants to avoid calling votes on controversial motions. He says the government does not envisage the need for any divisions in the business coming up next week.
Originally MPs were meant to be voting on the immigration bill today - a contested measure that Labour would want to vote against - but that seems to have been shelved for the time being.
MPs start debate on motion to move to mostly virtual means of operating
In the Commons Sir Lindsay Hoyle, the Speaker, is opening this afternoon’s proceedings. He is in the chair, as normal, but there are only a small number of MPs in the chamber. (MPs have agreed that no more than 50 should be in the chamber at any time.)
Hoyle says, unusually, he is allowing two motions to be moved without the usual formal notice. They relate to coronavirus and to the plan for the Commons to move to “hybrid” proceedings - with some MPs attending in the chamber, but most participating via video conferencing.
The texts of the two motions are here (pdf).
Hoyle says he expects that today’s proceedings, which will be devoted to passing these two motions, will not take long.
The Treasury has said that by the end of yesterday there had been 185,000 applications to furlough workers under the government’s coronavirus job protection scheme. A Treasury spokesman said that 1.3m jobs had been benefited as a result, and that the value of the applications was £1.5bn.
Coronavirus hospital death figure for England rises by 778
Another 778 people in England have died from coronavirus in hospital, according to the latest daily update from NHS England, bringing the total for England to 15,607.
Patients were aged between 22 and 103, and 24 of the 778 patients had no known underlying health conditions; they were aged between 49 and 91.
The full details of today’s figures are here (pdf).
Updated
Wales reports 25 new deaths, bringing its total to 609
A further 25 people have died after testing positive for coronavirus in Wales, bringing the total number of deaths there to 609, according to the latest update from Public Health Wales.
Updated
Because we all need more recipes without tinned tomatoes right now....
One in five UK adults expect to apply for benefits
One in five UK adults expect to apply for benefits as a result of coronavirus or have already done so, according to Citizens Advice.
A survey between 2 and 7 April found this figure rose to seven in 10 (68%) people on zero-hours employment contracts.
Citizens Advice also highlighted government figures showing over 1.5 million households made a universal credit claim between 1 March and 12 April, the PA Media reports.
The charity has had nearly 2.5 million views of its online advice on employment and benefits issues since the lockdown started
It said insights from frontline advisers at Citizens Advice suggest the claims process remains problematic for some people, such as those who do not have personal identification, a bank account, or an internet connection.
Accessibility issues have been exacerbated by the necessary temporary closure of libraries and job centres, the charity said.
Almost one in six (15%) people surveyed for Citizens Advice anticipate having to borrow money from friends or family to cope with the wait before payment if they do apply for universal credit, its survey of more than 2,000 people found.
Dame Gillian Guy, chief executive of Citizens Advice, said:
Behind today’s figures are families whose world has been turned upside down by coronavirus.
The government has worked hard to shore up protections for workers and process soaring claims for universal credit. But we know that some people are still slipping through the safety net, often with desperate consequences.
Plugging the remaining gaps in the employment support schemes could protect more jobs. And for those needing support from the benefits system, turning advance payments into a grant would really ease the burden.
Updated
Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s temporary release from an Iranian jail has been extended by a month, according to her MP.
The British-Iranian mother has been freed from Evin prison in Tehran in response to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Tulip Siddiq tweeted on Tuesday morning:
Very happy to hear from Richard Ratcliffe that Nazanin’s furlough has been extended for a month - in line with other prisoners in Iran.
Now is the time for our government to do all it can to make it permanent.
Human rights charity Amnesty International said:
There should be no question of Nazanin ever being sent back to Evin Prison. There are numerous reports of Covid-19 in Iranian jails, with detainees pleading for basic things like soap to help combat the disease.
We’re urging the Iranian authorities to finally do the right thing and free Nazanin permanently, allowing her to return to her family back here in Britain.
A spokesman for the Foreign Office said:
While the extension of Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s temporary release is a welcome step, we continue to urge Iran to make it permanent so she can return to her family in the UK.
We will continue to do everything we can to help secure the release of all UK dual nationals arbitrarily detained in Iran.
We already know that the UK non-coronavirus- related death rate has risen, but now an academic has warned that delays in treatment and diagnosis could lead to a “cancer epidemic”.
New research has found that the efforts to tackle coronavirus are “significantly affecting” the treatment and care of patients with cancer, reports PA Media.
The research, published in the European Journal of Cancer, highlights how the repurposing of health systems and implementation of social distancing measures, including national lockdowns, have had negative effects on patients with cancer.
There have also been delays in urgent referrals and patients having their cancer treatment, such as chemotherapy, postponed, or surgery being delayed.
The research was conducted collaboratively by the Queen’s University Belfast, the University of Split, Croatia, and King’s College London.
Queen’s University’s Prof Mark Lawler said there is a risk of a future cancer epidemic:
We are already seeing the indirect effects of the Covid-19 crisis on cancer care. Urgent referral numbers are dropping, endoscopies and other surgical procedures are being postponed and many cancer specialists are being redirected to Covid-19 specific care. If we don’t act, we risk the unintended consequence of the current Covid-19 pandemic precipitating a future cancer epidemic.
The research also highlights that as more people are worrying about the signs and symptoms of Covid-19, less people are seeking advice on new symptoms of a possible cancer, including abnormal bleeding or new lumps on the body.
Updated
The Greater Manchester mayor, Andy Burnham, has said he will have to close Manchester’s Metrolink unless the government offers financial support, because there has been a 95% drop in the number of passengers.
@MayorofGM says he will have to temporarily close the @MCRMetrolink system unless government offers financial support within days because of a 95% fall in passengers.
— Andrew Bounds (@AndyBounds) April 21, 2020
Updated
Lord Justice Leggatt, the latest appointment to the UK’s highest court, has been sworn in at a ceremony watched online by most of his supreme court colleagues, writes my colleague Owen Bowcott.
As the justice system adapts to remote working, the court in Westminster held a closed ceremony in the supreme court library at which the only other justice present was the court president, Lord Reed.
Swearing-in ceremonies usually take place in the building’s main courtroom and are attended by all the justices, as well as by the family and friends of the judge being sworn in. Due to the coronavirus crisis, the event had to be modified and was held behind closed doors.
The swearing-in could not take place entirely by video - in the way that many cases are now being heard - because the Constitutional Reform Act 2005, which established the supreme court, requires that anyone appointed as a justice must take the required oaths in the “presence” of the president of the court
Lord Justice Leggatt, who read philosophy at Cambridge University, practised as a barrister mainly in commercial cases. He has previously been a high court and court of appeal judge. There are currently 10 male and two female justices on the supreme court.
Updated
Johnson to speak to Trump today about coronavirus - although No 10 denies he's back at work
The Downing Street lobby briefing has just finished. Here are the main points.
- Boris Johnson will speak to President Trump later today, in a sign that he is starting to resume some of his duties as prime minister. He is also due to have a telephone audience with the Queen later this week. The prime minister’s spokesman, as he announced that the calls would take place, refused to accept that this meant the PM was getting back to work. The PM was still recovering, the spokesman said. But he said that the call with Trump, although partly a thank you call for the message of support Trump sent when Johnson was ill, would also involve an update from Trump about what the G7 is doing to address the coronavirus crisis. (The US holds the presidency of the G7.) The spokesman also said that yesterday Johnson sent a message of condolence to Justin Trudeau, the Canadian prime minister, in relation to the shootings in Nova Scotia.
- Dominic Raab, the foreign secretary and first secretary of state, will chair a cabinet meeting on Thursday, the spokesman said. He will also take PMQs on Wednesday.
- The spokesman rejected a report claiming No 10 does not support Matt Hancock’s target of getting the number of coronavirus tests carried out each day up to 100,000 by the end of this month. The Daily Telegraph makes this claim, in a story (paywall) starting: “The health secretary’s promise that 100,000 people a day would be tested for coronavirus has been criticised as “arbitrary” and “irrational” by Downing Street sources.” The story goes on:
The Downing Street source said: “The problem is with this arbitrary target. There is a faint irrationality behind it, just because there was a clamour for mass testing. Hancock’s 100,000 target was a response to criticism in the media, and he decided to crank out tests regardless.
“Hancock’s not had a good crisis. The prime minister will say he has confidence in him, but it doesn’t feel like that. He set out to buy time by setting this target, and it threatens to come back to bite him. The 100,000 figure was Hancock’s idea – but he made that figure up.”
Asked about the story, the spokesman said that the source quoted by the Telegraph was “wrong”. He said 100,000 tests a day was a government target and the government was working to achieve it.
- Hancock will take the press conference this afternoon, the spokesman said. He will be accompanied by Prof Jonathan Van-Tam, the deputy chief medical officer for England.
- The spokesman said the government now has the capacity to test more than 39,000 people for coronavirus every day. But the latest daily testing figure, for the number of tests carried out in the 24 hours up to 9am yesterday, was 19,306. The spokesman said that in total 97,000 NHS and care workers and their relatives have now been tested.
- The spokesman said the government wanted to open 50 drive-through testing centres open by the end of the month. There are 27 open now, he said.
- The spokesman confirmed that Sage, the scientific advisory group for emergencies, is meeting today to discuss its advice on face masks. Sage is holding another meeting on Thursday. The spokesman was unable to say when Sage would come to a decision. When it was in a position to offer advice to the government, it would do so, he said.
- The spokesman signalled that the government agrees with those NHS bosses who have warned that making the public wear face masks could result in fewer being available for the NHS. As the Times (paywall) reports, Chris Hopson, chief executive of the hospitals group NHS Providers, has said:
If the government is going to consider advising the general public to wear facemasks it must fully assess the impact on the NHS. Fluid repellent masks for health and care staff are key to safety and to avoid the spread of coronavirus.
Securing the supply of masks, when there is huge global demand, is crucial. This must be a key consideration. There needs to be clear evidence that wearing masks, along with other measures, will deliver significant enough benefits to take us out of lockdown to potentially jeopardise NHS mask supply.
Asked if the government agreed with this, the spokesman said that Prof Chris Whitty, the government’s chief medical adviser, recently said that if there were a conflict between NHS staff needing mask and members of the public wanting them, NHS staff should take priority.
- Downing Street has not agreed to the TUC’s call for a judge-led inquiry into PPE shortages, the spokesman indicated. The TUC wants the inquiry to start by the end of this year. Asked about the TUC proposal, the spokesman did not say that the government was adopting it. But he did say that Michael Gove, the Cabinet Office minister, made it clear at the weekend that where there were lessons to learn from what had happened, the government would seek to learn them.
- The spokesman rejected claims that the UK was dependent on the consignment of PPE due to arrive from Turkey. There were many more orders for PPE in the pipeline, the spokesman said.
Updated
Scotland records 70 new deaths from Covid-19, taking total to 985
A total of 985 patients have died in Scotland after testing positive for coronavirus, up by 70 from 915 on Monday, Nicola Sturgeon has said. In the 24 hours before there were 12 deaths recorded.
The first minister said 8,672 people had now tested positive for the virus in Scotland, up by 222 from 8,450 the day before.
There were 166 people in intensive care with coronavirus or coronavirus symptoms, a decrease of three on Monday, she added.
There are 1,866 people in hospital with confirmed or suspected Covid-19, up from 1,809 yesterday.
She said the hospital figures appeared to be stabilising and numbers of people in intensive care appeared to be reducing.
Updated
Higher air pollution could be linked to increased deaths and cases of coronavirus in England, a preliminary study suggests.
An analysis by the Medical Research Council Toxicology Unit at Cambridge University compared regional data on total Covid-19 cases and deaths, against levels of three major air pollutants.
The study used data from seven regions in England, where a minimum of 2,000 infections and 200 deaths are reported from February to 8 April and air pollution records from more than 120 sites in 2018 and 2019.
Levels of pollutants nitrogen dioxide and nitrogen oxide, much of which comes from traffic fumes, were highest in London, the Midlands and the north-west and lowest in southern regions of England.
Fatalities of people with the coronavirus, known as SARS-CoV-2, followed the same trend, the study found, suggesting the higher the pollution levels, the greater number of Covid-19 cases and deaths.
Long-term exposure to air pollutants from car exhaust fumes or burning fossil fuels can put people at risk of these health conditions, and can also increase the risk of infection by viruses that affect people’s airways.
Marco Travaglio, a PhD student at the MRC Toxicology Unit, said:
Our results provide the first evidence that SARS-CoV-2 case fatality is associated with increased nitrogen oxide and nitrogen dioxide levels in England.
London, the Midlands and the north- west show the largest concentration of these air pollutants, with southern regions displaying the lowest levels in the country, and the number of Covid-19 deaths follows a similar trend.
Dr Miguel Martins, senior author on the study, added:
Our study adds to growing evidence from Northern Italy and the USA that high levels of air pollution are linked to deadlier cases of Covid-19.
This is something we saw during the previous Sars outbreak back in 2003, where long-term exposure to air pollutants had a detrimental effect on the prognosis of Sars patients in China.
This highlights the importance of reducing air pollution for the protection of human health, both in relation to the Covid-19 pandemic and beyond.
Updated
Dave Prentis, the general secretary of Unison, a union which represents many workers in the health and care sector, said that the latest ONS figures about care home deaths (see 9.45am and 10.59am), were “shocking evidence of the government’s shambolic handling of the Covid crisis”. In a statement he went on:
Staff working in care homes and those looking after people in the community have been massively let down. The ongoing lack of protective kit has left many terrified they’ll spread this deadly virus or become infected themselves.
There’s still widespread confusion among workers and their employers over what equipment they should have. Some staff are being told off for wearing masks while others can’t even get hold of hand sanitiser, according to reports still coming into Unison’s PPE alert hotline.
The government has got to get its act together if we are to prevent more lives being needlessly lost.
Updated
There could be a “bloodbath” for the UK’s pubs and restaurants unless the government extends coronavirus support for the hospitality industry, a trade body has warned.
The UKHospitality chief executive, Kate Nicholls, said the industry was the “canary in the coalmine” for the British economy and said firms could go to the wall without further help from Whitehall, PA Media reports.
She said unless measures on preventing evictions were extended, the industry would face a crisis when the next quarter’s payments were due in June.
The government intervention should also be extended to become a wider debt enforcement moratorium, Nicholls said.
She told MPs on the Commons Treasury committee that a breathing space of “six to nine months” was required.
If we don’t get a resolution at a global level, if you rely on landlords and lessees to sort it out individually themselves, it would be a bloodbath come June when we have the next quarter rent that becomes due.
She also called for the retail, hospitality and leisure grant to be extended, removing the bar on accessing the scheme for premises with a rateable value of more than 51,000.
We were the canary in the coalmine that went first into the coronavirus crisis and it looks like we will be last out.
If we don’t get that intervention on rent, if we are forced to remain closed until Christmas, then I think you could put a third of the sector at risk.”
Updated
Tributes have been paid to mental health nurse Khulisani Nkala, 46, who died on Friday after contracting coronavirus, PA Media reports. Dr Sara Munro, chief executive of Leeds and York Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, said:
This is the first member of our particular NHS family to lose their life to Covid-19 and I sincerely hope it will be the last. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family at this difficult time.
It is with great sadness that we announce that Khulisani (Khuli) Nkala, a Charge Nurse in our Forensic Services, died from Coronavirus on Friday 17 April 2020. Full tribute from our Chief Exec, colleagues and service users on our website.https://t.co/rGTXpVoArw#NHSheroes pic.twitter.com/Tl4u45DDhI
— Leeds & York NHS PFT #StayHomeSaveLives (@LeedsandYorkPFT) April 21, 2020
Updated
On Saturday the government assured the public that a “major consignment” of PPE was on its way from Turkey, and was set to arrive on Sunday after growing criticism of a critical shortage for frontline workers.
But Sky News has since reported Turkish sources claiming that Britain only made a formal request to Turkey over a consignment of personal protective equipment on Sunday.
Now it seems that there is only a “slim possibility” that an already delayed order of personal protective equipment (PPE) from Turkey will arrive in the UK on Tuesday, reports my colleague Dan Sabbagh. He writes:
An RAF A400M Atlas transport plane is on the tarmac at Istanbul, but it is yet to start loading the 400,000 gowns and other vital equipment for the NHS and is not expected to do so until later on Tuesday at the earliest.
It was sent out on Monday night by the UK in a desperate attempt to put diplomatic pressure on Ankara, despite the fact that Turkey, which is centrally controlling PPE exports during the coronavirus crisis, had not cleared them for release.
The first online hearing in a Scottish court has begun in a defamation case over claims a pro-independence blogger was called a homophobe by the former Scottish Labour leader, Kezia Dugdale.
Stuart Campbell, who blogs under the pen name Wings over Scotland, is appealing against a sheriff’s decision last April to dismiss his £25,000 damages claim over an opinion piece by Dugdale in the Record in March 2017.
The historic hearing before Lord Carloway, lord president of the court of session, and Scotland’s most senior judge, and Lords Brodie and Menzies, is being held entirely online over a secure video conferencing service; the judges and lawyers for both sides are all in separate locations.
It is expected to lead to numerous civil and potentially criminal trials being conducted online during the coronavirus crisis; later on Tuesday Humza Yousaf, the Scottish justice secretary, is to unveil new proposals to conduct jury trials differently during the lockdown.
Dugdale, then Scottish Labour’s leader, described a tweet by Campbell about Oliver Mundell, the Tory MP who is the son of the then Scottish secretary David Mundell, as “homophobic” in her column.
Craig Sandison QC, acting for Campbell, told the three judges on Tuesday morning that assertion was made as a statement of fact and not an opinion, leading people to believe Campbell was an “abusive homophobe” who was polluting Scottish political discourse.
Sheriff Nigel Ross ruled Dugdale was wrong to imply Campbell was a homophobe, but her opinions were protected as fair comment. In July 2019, he awarded costs against Campbell; the blogger described the ruling as “incomprehensible” and said the final bill would be roughly £100,000.
In a case being closely followed by press freedom campaigners and the media, Campbell is seeking £25,000 in damages plus interest at 8% from the date the Record article was published. Dugdale is resisting Campbell’s appeal and insists it was fair comment and an opinion, and therefore lawful.
Updated
Household claims for universal credit in Scotland have surged by 90,000 a month as the coronavirus pandemic continues to seriously affect family finances, writes my colleague Libby Brooks.
UC claims increased from an average of 20,000 per month in 2019 to over 110,000 between 1 March and 7 April, the Scottish government has announced, as it launches a new campaign to raise awareness of the financial support available in partnership with the Citizens Advice network.
The campaign will provide information and advice on issues including rent and mortgage payments, energy bills, council tax, and benefits people may be entitled to.
Updated
Super League’s Magic Weekend, one of English rugby league’s major events, been postponed as a result of the ongoing pandemic.
The event, which was scheduled for 23-24 May at Newcastle United’s St James’ Park, will not go ahead as planned but it may be rescheduled for a later date, according to organisers.
The event which brings all the top-flight teams together for back-to-back matches at one venue.
Updated
Here is our news story on the ONS figures from Robert Booth and Pamela Duncan.
And this is how it starts.
Covid-19 fatalities in care homes in England and Wales have more than quadrupled in a week, rising to 1,043, according to the latest official figures.
By 10 April, more than 1,000 people were confirmed to have died in care homes from the virus, up from 217, the previous week. The number of people who died in private homes also more than tripled, to 466.
But the latest assessment of the virus’s impact on the most vulnerable by the Office for National Statistics, released on Tuesday, remains far short of the care sector’s own warnings that many thousands more have already died.
Updated
ONS to investigate why 8,000 weekly 'excess' death toll even higher than coronavirus figures imply
Nick Stripe, the health analysis and life events division at the ONS, gave a sobering interview to the BBC’s Victoria Derbyshire a few minutes ago about the latest mortality figures. (“Life events” presumably include dying.) Here are the key points.
- Stripe said that the ONS death figures released this morning for England and Wales for the week ending 10 April were almost certainly an understatement. He said 10 April, was Good Friday, and only around a third of registration offices were open. He went on:
So actually that number is slightly deflated because if the registration offices had been open, maybe another couple of thousand, if not more, deaths would have been registered.
- He said the ONS figures that were published showed around 8,000 “excess deaths” in the week ending 10 April. That meant deaths above the five-year average. Of those, only 80% were directly related to coronavirus, he said.
Compared to the five-year average of the same week in the year, it’s 8,000 deaths above that average, of which 6,200 - about 80% of of those deaths - involved Covid.
- He said the ONS was carrying out a research project to establish what was responsible for the other 20% of excess deaths. They might be related to coronavirus, he said, or they might be related to people not going to hospital. He said fully establishing the reasons for these excess deaths might take months or even years.
- He said that the the ONS’s figures for the Friday up to 10 April were 40% higher than the numbers that were officially announced by the government for coronavirus deaths the following day. And the ONS figures were about 20% higher than the latest figures for NHS England (which is now publishing figures showing how many people are known to have died from coronavirus in hospital on any particular day).
- He said only around 80% of coronavirus deaths were in a hospital. In the previous week that figure was 90%, he said. He said 13% of coronavirus deaths were in a care home, and 5% were in a private home. In the previous week there were 217 coronavirus deaths in care homes. In the week up to 10 April there were just over 1,000.
- He said the number of deaths in care homes, from all causes, was double in the week up to 10 April what it was two weeks previously.
- He said that around one in three of the death in the week ending 10 April involved coronavirus. In the previous week only around one in five deaths involved coronavirus.
Updated
John Lewis sales have plunged after it was forced to shut stores in face of coronavirus despite a surge in online orders.
The John Lewis Partnership group also said sales at its Waitrose supermarket chain saw surged as shoppers stocked up on essentials.
However, department stores sales tumbled 17% in the weeks since 15 March, after it closed all its sites on 23 March. The high street retailer warned that a worst-case scenario would be annual sales plunging 35%.
Nevertheless, John Lewis said online sales had jumped 84% as shoppers purchased more technology and food preparation products.
The retailer said demand had particularly risen in some of its “less profitable lines”, with people “buying more Scrabble but fewer sofas”.
Elsewhere, Waitrose sales increased by 8% in the period since 26 January as supermarkets were buoyed by the crisis. Sales increased both in store and online as shoppers bought more essentials like rice, pasta and long-life milk.
Updated
The ONS has also published a paper looking at how its death figures compare with the ones published by the government for coronavirus deaths in hospitals.
Our weekly deaths data show that
— Office for National Statistics (ONS) (@ONS) April 21, 2020
- of all deaths in England and Wales that occurred up to 10 April (registered up to 18 April), 13,121 involved COVID-19
- Comparatively @DHSCgovuk figures show that 9,288 deaths occurred by 10 April https://t.co/g3G5KGuOel #COVID19 #coronavirus pic.twitter.com/0tu6lP9WyT
There is a difference in the numbers because we include all deaths where COVID-19 was mentioned on the death certificate, even if only suspected, and we include deaths that happened in hospital and the community.
— Office for National Statistics (ONS) (@ONS) April 21, 2020
Read our blog post for more detail https://t.co/GwZsiemGcn
The ONS says from 28 April it will be publishing a new set of data covering coronavirus deaths in care homes.
We’re working with the @CareQualityComm (CQC) to better understand deaths occurring in care homes. From 28 April, we will publish counts of deaths involving #COVID19 in care homes, based on reporting from care home operators to the CQC https://t.co/HDbeiZn611 #coronavirus
— Office for National Statistics (ONS) (@ONS) April 21, 2020
Updated
This is from Jonathan Portes, an economics professor, on the ONS figures.
About 8,000 extra deaths (England and Wales) in week to April 10.
— Jonathan Portes (@jdportes) April 21, 2020
Big difference between "extra" deaths in care homes and those directly attributed to covid-19. https://t.co/CynaFg36rG pic.twitter.com/fSKoKTUNGZ
Here are three of the most revealing charts from today’s ONS report.
This chart from the ONS report shows how the weekly death rate in England and Wales is now soaring above the long-term average.
This chart shows deaths by region.
And this chart, showing coronavirus deaths by gender, shows that the men are more likely to die from the virus than women.
Updated
Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s temporary release from an Iranian jail has been extended for one month, her MP has said.
Tulip Siddiq tweeted on Tuesday morning: “Very happy to hear from Richard Ratcliffe that Nazanin’s furlough has been extended for a month - in line with other prisoners in Iran.
“Now is the time for our government to do all it can to make it permanent.”
Latest ONS figures show 20% of coronavirus deaths occurring outside hospital
The Office for National Statistics has just published its latest weekly death figures for England and Wales. They cover the week ending 10 April.
Here are the main points.
- There were 18,516 deaths registered in England and Wales in the week to 10 April, based on the provisional figures. That is 2,129 more than the previous week, and 7,996 more than the five-year average.
- Coronavirus was a factor in 33.6% of all deaths that week, up from 21.2% in the previous week.
- Some 83.9% of all the deaths involving coronavirus that took place this year up 10 April took place in hospitals, with the rest occurring in care homes, private homes and hospices. In the week ending 10 April only 80.3% of coronavirus deaths took place in hospital.
- The number of deaths in care homes in that week was double what it was just four weeks before.
The 80.3% figure is particularly significant. It means that 20% of coronavirus deaths in England and Wales are now taking place outside hospital (or at least were in the week these figures cover). That seems higher than some people assumed. Yesterday Prof Yvonne Doyle, the medical director for Public Health England, said at the government’s daily press conference that 90% of coronavirus deaths were in hospital.
We’ll post more from the ONS report shortly.
UPDATE: Originally this post said that 83.9% of coronavirus deaths in the week ending 10 April were in hospital. In fact, the ONS says 83.9% is the proportion of all coronavirus deaths up to that point occurring in hospital. In the week ending 10 April, only 80.3% of coronavirus deaths took place in hospital.
Updated
Yesterday there was a rehearsal in the Commons for the new “hybrid” procedures, that will see a few MPs asking questions in the chamber, but most of them taking party virtually, via video conferencing. Here are some pictures showing how it worked.
Updated
Britain only made a formal request to Turkey over a consignment of personal protective equipment on Sunday, Turkish sources have told Sky News.
This is the day after Robert Jenrick, the housing secretary, said at the daily Downing Street press briefing on Saturday that 84 tonnes of the gear was already heading to the UK.
This included 400,000 urgently needed clinical gowns, which he said would arrive in the UK from Turkey the following day. It failed to materialise, but no explanation for the delay was given.
Two sources have told Sky News that no formal request was made to the Turkish authorities - who were not supplying the shipment, but whose help was sought to get it to the UK - until Sunday.
Updated
Agenda for the day
Good morning. I’m Andrew Sparrow, joining the blog.
Here are the main events on the agenda for the day.
9.30am: The Office for National Statistics publishes the latest weekly death figures.
9.30am: The Commons home affairs committee takes evidence on coronavirus and immigration.
12pm: Downing Street lobby briefing.
12.30pm: The Scottish and Welsh governments hold daily briefings.
2.30pm: MPs return to the Commons. They will debate and vote on a motion on hybrid scrutiny proceedings (ie, allowing most questions to ministers to take place virtually), and then there will be a business statement.
2.30pm: The Commons foreign affairs committee takes evidence from Sir Simon McDonald, the Foreign Office permanent secretary.
Afternoon: The latest UK coronavirus hospital death figures are released.
2.30pm: The Commons justice committee takes evidence from the chief inspector of prisons, Peter Clarke.
5pm: The government is due to hold its daily press conference.
An NHS nurse has recovered from coronavirus despite recently having a kidney transplant.
Charlene Nelson managed to fight off the disease after spending just one week in hospital.
The mother-of-one, who works as a nurse at Sandwell Hospital in the West Midlands, started suffering from a shortness of breath on April 12. Nelson underwent a kidney transplant in 2015 and said she was “very scared” after contracting Covid-19.
The 37-year-old said: “I just couldn’t breathe. I called for an ambulance and it all felt like a big blur.
“I got into A&E and then I was put into isolation because of my symptoms. I was treated with antibiotics and tested for coronavirus.
“Because of my kidney condition, I was transferred to another hospital for further treatment.
“My results for Covid-19 came back positive. I was in a bad way for the first two days and I was very scared.
“But I soon started responding to the treatment and began improving.”
Nelson continued: “I think there may be people out there who think they don’t need to go to hospital or believe that their situation will worsen if they do go. However, my condition definitely improved.
Updated
A consignment of personal protective equipment being collected by the RAF from Turkey will be in the UK “in the next few days”, local government minister Simon Clarke has said.
Asked whether it had left Turkey yet, he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme:
I can’t speak to that, I’m afraid. All I know is it set off last night.
It will be with us obviously in the UK in the next few days, which is the core priority.
Clarke said there is a “standing presumption” that the government will do its utmost to buy PPE “wherever it can be sourced” and urged manufacturers to “reach out” to the Cabinet Office to log their ability to make equipment.
On testing, he said the government is working to ensure more key workers are eligible to have the tests so “every possible slot is filled” but admitted it is an “enormous challenge”.
“We are doing our very best to make sure that we hit that target.”
Updated
The Lord Speaker, Lord Fowler, said he would chair the upper chamber from home, and all proceedings would be digital by Thursday.
He said the House of Lords Commission would consider on Monday whether peers would be able to claim their daily attendance allowance for the virtual proceedings.
Lord Fowler said peers’ membership of select committees would have to be considered, but it was a “pretty strong argument” that members would not have to leave their homes to contribute to proceedings in the chamber.
Updated
Commons Speaker urges MPs to stay at home as parliament moves towards remote working
The Commons Speaker, Sir Lindsay Hoyle, has urged MPs to “stay at home” as parliament returns following the Easter recess.
He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme:
My advice is please stay at home, let’s do it remotely.
Those that insist on coming - we can have up to 50, I’m not expecting 50 members in at once, far from it, I’m hoping that number is much reduced.
He stressed there would be “no advantage” for an MP in the chamber over one working remotely.
Here is the story my colleague Rajeev Syal wrote yesterday about how MPs plan to work mostly by video conferencing when the Commons returns today after the Easter recess.
Updated
Dentists and anaesthetists are among the latest groups to say they are working without adequate personal protective equipment (PPE) in the fight against Covid-19.
The British Dental Association (BDA) said dentists in England were facing “critical shortages” of PPE, while the Royal College of Anaesthetists (RCA) said doctors should not treat patients without proper equipment.
Over half (54%) of dentists in England said PPE shortages were hampering efforts to treat patients at urgent dental care (UDC) hubs, according to a survey of 1,010 UK dentists by the BDA.
Only one in five dentists in Scotland are reporting the same issues, the poll found.
Some 35% of all UK dentists surveyed said they felt fully protected against Covid-19 while 46% said they felt partly protected, and almost 12% said they were not protected at all.
Almost two-thirds of dentists at sites in England also reported shortages of FFP3 masks and gowns needed for high-risk procedures known as aerosol-generating procedures.
Updated
Morning all. I am running the live blog this morning, so please do get in touch if you would like to share any news tips of information with me this morning. Your thoughts, comments and insight are always very welcome. Thanks in advance.
Twitter: @sloumarsh
Instagram: sarah_marsh_journalist
Email: sarah.marsh@theguardian.com
UK job vacancies dived in the three months to March as the labour market contracted in the face of the coronavirus, official statisticians have revealed.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said the number of job vacancies plunged by 52,000 to 795,000 for the quarter.
It said the manufacturing and retail sectors reported the largest decline in hiring over the period.
The ONS also revealed that growth in the number of people on British companies’ payrolls slowed to 0.8% in March from 1.1% in February, according to preliminary tax data.
Economists also revealed on Tuesday that unemployment increased by 22,000 to 1.36 million in the three months to February, before Covid-19 gripped the UK.
Meanwhile, employment for the quarter to February jumped by 352,000 against the same period last year, rising to a record high of 33.07 million. It said this was heavily driven by a jump in the number of women in work, which rose by 318,000 to a record high of 15.73 million.
Primark furloughed 68,000 staff across Europe
The owner of budget fashion firm Primark has said 68,000 staff have been furloughed across Europe amid the coronavirus lockdown as it revealed a £248m hit for unsold stock as all its stores remain shut.
Associated British Foods boss George Weston said the group had been “squarely in the path of this pandemic”, but would not reopen Primark stores until the disease is under control.
Primark has seen sales plunge from £650m a month to zero as coronavirus has caused the 376-strong chain to shut completely, with no online business to fall back on.
Half-year results showed pre-tax profits slumped as Primark was left with piles of stock it was unable to sell amid the global coronavirus lockdown, falling 42% to £298m in the six months to 29 February.
Total charges in the first half soared to £309m, compared with £79m a year earlier, including the £248m stock costs.
Updated
Simon Clarke, minister of state for regional growth and local government, said 49 NHS staff had died in the coronavirus fight. He told BBC Breakfast:
Their service and their sacrifice will never be forgotten and we will look into every one of those cases to understand what has happened, I can give that total assurance.
He said he shared the “frustration” of NHS providers and the general public around issues with PPE supply.
But he said the government was confident it could can get the right levels of supply to hospitals and key public-sector workers. He said:
It is not straightforward, precisely because clearly this is an unprecedented challenge, and however much we have been able to put out, and it is a huge quantity, the demand is incredible.
It comes as at least 100 health and care workers have died of coronavirus, the Nursing Notes website has said, amid growing concerns about a lack of personal protective equipment (PPE) for those working on the frontline during the coronavirus pandemic.
The number of nurses, doctors, porters and members of other professions who have died has been catalogued by Nursing Notes, a platform run by nurses for others in the profession.
Updated
Katie Sanderson, a junior doctor in London, told BBC Radio 4’s Today there were “very, very significant gaps” in PPE provision.
Referencing a Doctors’ Association UK survey with more than 1,100 responses in 250 settings, she said 38% of doctors had no eye protection, 38% who need FFP3 masks do not have access to them and 47% do not have access to long-sleeved gowns.
Updated
Shortage of PPE 'a disgrace', says Labour
The shadow Cabinet Office minister Rachel Reeves said the shortage of personal protective equipment was a “disgrace” as she urged the government to use smaller UK manufacturers to source items.
She told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme she had been “inundated” with manufacturers who have contacted the government offering to make PPE but have heard nothing back.
There are many, many businesses around the country who have perhaps furloughed workers but have the capability and the capacity and the skills to make this personal protective equipment and clothing - particularly the gowns - but have not heard back from the government.
Some of them are doing it on an ad-hoc basis for local hospitals or care homes, but this needs to be systematic - it needs to be a national effort, using all of our manufacturing and textile capacity and capability to ensure that the doctors and nurses and care workers ... have that equipment and clothing that they need.
She said there had been “too much focus” on importing PPE from overseas and that there had not been enough focus on bringing smaller suppliers into the national effort.
It is a disgrace that we’ve got people working on the frontline who aren’t properly protected and government’s first and foremost responsibility is to protect its citizens, and this now is our main priority.
Updated
Summary of the morning
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Parliament returns on Tuesday amid mounting criticism of the government over its failure to ensure NHS staff treating coronavirus patients have the protective equipment they need. The minister for local government Simon Clarke told Sky News the UK “will not run out” of personal protective equipment for NHS staff but “margins will be tight”
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Ministers have insisted they are pursuing “every possible option” to secure additional kit but said with unprecedented worldwide demand, the situation was “very challenging”. The first of three RAF flights finally left on Monday for Turkey to begin collecting a consignment of personal protective equipment (PPE) including 400,000 surgical gowns. The government said meanwhile that 140,000 gowns had arrived from Burma - but with the NHS using 150,000 a day, the demand on resources remains intense.
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MPs are expected to approve plans for “virtual” sittings of the Commons when the House returns on Tuesday following the Easter recess. Under proposals drawn up by the House authorities, MPs will be able to contribute to proceedings at Westminster - including questioning ministers - through video links. Up to 50 MPs will still be able to be present in the chamber - although they are being strongly encouraged to stay away.
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Global deaths pass 170,000. More than 170,000 people have lost their lives in the coronavirus pandemic so far, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. There have been more than 2.47 million cases worldwide. Just under a quarter of global deaths – 42,000 – have been in the US. The UK has nearly 126,000 cases and more than 16,500 deaths.
- Trump announces plan to suspend immigration to US. Donald Trump announced on Twitter that he will “temporarily suspend” immigration to the US, referring to the “invisible enemy,” a term he has used in the White House press briefings and on Twitter to refer to coronavirus.
- Oil price falls to historic low due to coronavirus. The US oil market collapsed into negative prices for the first time as North America’s oil producers run out of space to store an unprecedented oversupply of crude left by the pandemic. However, Trump has downplayed the oil price drop, saying it’s only “short term”.
Hello everyone, and welcome to the UK coronavirus live blog, bringing you the latest updates on Covid-19.
Please do get in touch if you would like to share any news tips of information with me this morning. Your thoughts, comments and insight are always very welcome. Thanks in advance.
Twitter: @sloumarsh
Instagram: sarah_marsh_journalist
Email: sarah.marsh@theguardian.com
