We’re closing this UK liveblog now. You can follow the Guardian’s global coverage here
Evening summary
- The government’s new contact tracing app may not be ready for 1 June, when some primary schools could reopen. During the daily Downing Street press conference, foreign secretary Dominic Raab said it would be up and running in the “weeks ahead” but could not give a precise date. Previously the government said it wanted the new tracing system ready this month.
- Groups of up to six people from different households can meet outside in Northern Ireland. At a press conference, first minister Arlene Foster said that places of worship could reopen for private prayer, while drive-in cinemas, concerts and theatre would also be allowed under the further easing of lockdown measures.
- The health secretary has said 21,000 people have been hired to carry out contact tracing. Matt Hancock added that the number included 7,500 healthcare professionals who would provide call handlers with expert clinical advice.
- Anyone over five with coronavirus symptoms in the UK is now eligible for a test. Announcing the plans, Hancock said the measure would apply to anyone across the four nations with a continuous cough, high temperature or the loss of taste or smell
- The transport secretary has said more countries could be exempted from quarantine rules over time. A 14-day quarantine scheme for new arrivals to the UK will come into force “early next month”. Ireland is the only country to be excluded because of a longstanding common travel area arrangement, but Grant Shapps said other countries where there were low incidents of coronavirus may also be excluded after consideration.
- Scotland could start lifting lockdown measures from 28 May. During a daily press briefing, first minister Nicola Sturgeon said a route map presenting plans to ease the lockdown would be published on Thursday. Under the first phase, people will be able to meet a member of another households outdoors while social distancing, while garden centres and recycling facilities will also be reopened.
- Loss of smell or taste is now being treated as a Covid-19 symptom in the UK. A statement from the four chief medical officers said people who experience anosmia should self-isolate. They added that the measure had been recommended after thorough consideration of emerging data and evidence on the virus.
- The government’s immigration bill has been deemed as “not in the national interest” by Labour. Shadow home secretary Nick Thomas-Symonds criticised the government’s decision to not waive healthcare fees for all migrant workers in the NHS. The bill will undergo its second reading in the House of Commons this evening.
Updated
The chief executive of the NHS tech department has said its apps lack “credibility”, according to the Health Service Journal.
BREAKING: The man in charge of NHS tech says its Apps lack credibility. '“We are losing goodwill and credibility because we keep doing non-compliant builds and launches. We have to do better" he says https://t.co/gcSBKQIUjq
— Alastair McLellan (@HSJEditor) May 18, 2020
Matthew Gould said NHSX were “losing goodwill and credibility because we keep doing non-compliant builds and launches.”
The number of confirmed cases of Covid-19 in the prison estate continues to rise, according to the latest figures from the Ministry of Justice.
As of 5pm on Sunday, 411 prisoners had tested positive for Covid-19 across 74 prisons, a 1.5% increase in three days, when last figures were available, while there were 540 infected prison staff across 71 prisons, a rise of 2% in the same period.
The number of prisoner escort and custody services (Pecs) staff who have tested positive for Covid-19, rose from 19 to 23 in the period, an increase of 21%.
There are around 80,300 prisoners in England and Wales across 117 prisons, while around 33,000 staff work in the public sector prisons.
A total of 21 prisoners are known to have contracted Covid-19 and died, as well as nine prison staff, including one Pecs worker.
An inspection of three men’s local prisons published on Monday revealed that prisoners with coronavirus symptoms at Wandsworth jail were locked in cells for up to two weeks without being released once, including for showers.
Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Prisons (HMIP) conducted snap inspections at three jails - Wandsworth in south London, Altcourse in Liverpool, and Elmley on the Isle of Sheppey - to assess the response to the pandemic and found that the new restrictive regime designed to tackle the impact of the virus meant asymptomatic inmates were being released from cells for no more than 30 minutes a day.
Dominic Raab's press conference - Summary
Here are the main points from Dominic Raab’s press conference.
- Raab, the foreign secretary and first secretary of state, would not commit the government to having its new contact tracing app ready for 1 June. That is the date when, theoretically, the government might ask some primary school pupils in England to return to school. At one stage the government said it wanted its new contact tracing system up and running this month. But, asked if the app would be ready by 1 June, he just said:
In terms of the app, it’s still our intention to roll it out across the country for everyone to use in the weeks ahead, I can’t be any more precise at this stage. But, as I’ve said before, we’re making pretty good progress with it.
Prof Jonathan Van-Tam, the deputy chief medical officer for England, stressed that the app would only be one part of the contact tracing scheme. He said:
The app is one part of the test and trace system, the rest is much more of the tried and tested methodology used by Public Health England for this and many other diseases.
As the BBC’s Chris Mason reports, Raab also stressed that 1 June was only a provisional deadline. The government only said pupils might go back then if certain conditions were met.
"Roadmap with maximum conditionality" says Dominic Raab -- which roughly translates as no one can quite know what on earth is going to happen and when because there are a million and one variables at play here
— Chris Mason (@ChrisMasonBBC) May 18, 2020
- Van-Tam rejected claims that up to 200,000 coronavirus cases may have been missed because until today loss of smell was not treated as a symptom. (See 5.26pm.) He said most infected people with loss of smell had other symptoms too. So, he said, this new definition would only make a “very small” difference to the overall case numbers.
- Van-Tam said he accepted coronavirus test results needed to be processed more quickly. Commenting on testing, he said:
We are sending a clear message as scientists that it needs to be fast and we need to work as hard as we can to improve the timeliness of the testing system as we go along.
- Van-Tam said the government was currently considering whether to allow different households to meet up as part of a so-called “bubble”.
Groups of up to six people from different households allowed to meet outside in Northern Ireland
In Northern Ireland Arlene Foster, the first minister, has announced the further easing of some lockdown measures, in addition to ones already announced like the opening of recycling facilities and garden centres. (See 10.25am.) At a press conference earlier she said:
- Outdoor gatherings of up to six people from outside the same household would be allowed.
- Places of worship could reopen for private prayer, provided people socially distanced.
- Drive-in religious services would be allowed, provided people stayed in their cars.
- Drive-in cinemas, concerts and theatre would also be allowed.
- Golfing would be permitted.
Foster also the Northern Ireland executive was considering the case for allowing small weddings.
Doctors have reported new possible outbreaks of Covid-19 in care and nursing homes in west London, two months after the area became a hotspot.
“Just when we thought there might be light at the end of the tunnel, two new or worsening care home outbreaks over the past 48 hours,” said Dr Anna Down, clinical lead at a GP practice with 1,000 residents on its books in 15 privately-run nursing homes.
“Is this a whole new spike or just more evidence that this awful virus is way more pervasive and persistent than we thought?”
An increase in testing of residents and workers is exposing further cases, but there has also been a rise in the number of hospitalisations.
You can read the full report from our colleague Robert Booth here:
If you missed it earlier, here is a video of the health secretary, Matt Hancock, announcing that anyone in the UK aged five and over who has coronavirus symptoms will be eligible for a test.
From today, recognised symptoms include the loss of smell and taste, as well a persistent cough and a high temperature.
MPs debate immigration bill
Meanwhile in the Commons the government’s flagship immigration bill is receiving its second reading. The bill repeals EU freedom of movement, instead seeing EU and non-EU migrants treated equally.
Addressing MPs on Monday afternoon, home secretary Priti Patel said:
Since publishing the details of the new points-based system in February, our world has undoubtedly changed. But what has not changed is this government’s unwavering support for our NHS and its incredible professional staff. They are the very best of Britain.
She reiterated the promise of a fast-track NHS visa, which would make it easier and quicker for medical professionals to work in the health service, but made no concession to permanently scrap the surcharge many migrant healthcare workers will pay to access it.
The shadow home secretary, Nick Thomas-Symonds, told the Commons:
Nobody should have barriers placed in front of them when their work is essential in helping us all.
The issue has been mishandled by this government from the start of the crisis. Additional fees for NHS staff to access the very health care that we are thanking them for providing is no way to mark their extraordinary service throughout this process.
Full details of the new rules will not be published until later this year but are also expected to include minimum salary thresholds for migrants. The system will come into force in January, after the Brexit transition period ends.
Updated
Q: The Welsh first minister said Wales had gone a week without a conversation with the UK government. Is it just ignoring Wales?
Raab says that is not the case. He does not know when the two government’s last spoke. But the UK government is trying to develop an approach for the whole of the UK. He claims a repository of goodwill has been built up.
Van-Tam says he had a conversation with one of his Welsh counterparts late last week, and will have another this evening. And he says Prof Chris Whitty, the chief medical officer for England, is in touch with his counterparts from Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland almost daily.
And that’s it. The press conference is over.
Raab says the UK government has been very mindful of the need for anyone from England wanting to go to one of the other countries of the UK, like Wales, to have to follow rules there that might be different.
Q: Why do migrant care workers have to pay the NHS surcharge, which charges them to access the health system that in many cases they serve?
Raab says there are no plans to change the rules. But the government recognises that many people come to this country and make a valuable contribution.
Q: You did include an exemption for health workers. So why not carers?
Raab says this is always being kept under review. He says he understands the point.
Q: Why did you not introduce quarantine earlier?
Van-Tam says quarantine was introduced for some people arriving from China, and from certain parts of Italy. Iran was covered too, he says, although he says he cannot remember the exact details. But he says at that point the virus was fairly limited. Then it spread internationally.
He says, as the incidence decreases in the UK, the case for using quarantine again gets stronger.
Q: Does the UK want a global inquiry into the causes of coronavirus? The proposed WHO one does not mention China in its wording.
Raab says the UK wants a review that does get to the bottom of what happened.
Q: What is Sage recommending in relation to the notion of “bubbles” that would allow two households to meet up?
Van-Tam says Sage is currently looking at this. It would not be appropriate to say more at this stage, he says.
Q: Are you running late with the contact tracing scheme? And why are some test results coming back so late?
Raab says they are making good progress with contact tracing.
And he says they only said the step two measures (including some primary school pupils in England going back) would only happen not before 1 June. It was a conditional deadline, he says.
Van-Tam says the app was only going to be one part of the contact tracing system.
He says testing does have to be carried out more quickly.
Q: Will the contact tracing app be ready by 1 June, when you want children back in schools?
Raab says it will be rolled out in the coming weeks. He cannot say more at this point, he says.
Updated
Van-Tam says the “vast majority” of cases affecting children are very mild.
Do children have a higher infection rate than adults? He says data from around the world suggests the infection rate is about the same for children, although perhaps a bit lower for young children.
Can they infect adults? He says the data on this is sparse. But he says it is clear that children are not high-output transmitters in the way they are with flu.
And so is it safe to open schools? He says the key calculation is whether or not it will push the reproduction number, R, above 1.
He accepts this is a difficult issue, because there are disadvantages in keeping children out of school.
Van-Tam says health officials thought very carefully about adding anosmia (loss of smell) to the official list of coronavirus symptoms.
He says it does not often occur early in the illness. And it is very rare for it to appear on its own.
Q: Prof Tim Spector (see 10.50am) estimates that between 100,000 and 200,000 cases may have been missed because of the exclusion of this from your list. What is your estimate of how many cases have been missed?
Van-Tam says he does not know anyone else who has tried to work out this figure. But most of the people with loss of smell have developed other symptoms too. So he thinks this change will make a relative small difference to the overall numbers.
Q: Is the government preparing for a second wave?
Raab says the government is very keen to avoid a second wave.
Van-Tam says the government absolutely wants to avoid a second wave. That is why it is being so careful about lifting restrictions step by step.
But he says it is nevertheless proper to prepare for one.
People might hope and pray this virus will go away. But we will only be “out of this” when a vaccine is available. So we have to learn to live with it for months or years to come.
And he says we don’t know much about this virus yet. The flu virus goes away in the summer and comes back in the winter. He says it is not clear yet whether the same applies to this coronavirus.
The first question is from Danny from Bury. He wants to know when the government will publish its plan for economic recovery once the crisis is over.
Raab says a roadmap has already been published. But it is a conditional one, he says.
And here is the latest chart for deaths.
Van-Tam is going through the daily slides.
This one shows mobility data, based on Apple map requests.
He says it a noticeable increase in walking and driving, but not in public transport use.
Raab says the government has adopted a balanced approach, influenced by the overriding need to avoid a second peak.
Updated
Raab is summarising government strategy. This is a standard feature in these press conferences, even though regular viewers will be very familiar with the script.
Raab is reading out the latest testing and death figures.
He says the number of people in hospital is down 13% from last week.
Dominic Raab's press conference
Dominic Raab, the foreign secretary and first secretary of state, has arrived for the daily UK government press conference. He is with Prof Jonathan Van-Tam, the deputy chief medical officer for England.
UK records further 160 coronavirus deaths, taking total to 34,796
The Department for Health and Social Care has released the latest daily figures for coronavirus deaths in the UK. A further 160 deaths have been recorded, taking the total to 34,796.
As of 9am 18 May, there have been 2,682,716 tests, with 100,678 tests on 17 May.
— Department of Health and Social Care (@DHSCgovuk) May 18, 2020
1,887,051 people have been tested of which 246,406 tested positive.
As of 5pm on 17 May, of those tested positive for coronavirus, across all settings, 34,796 have sadly died. pic.twitter.com/NBITYqZlrS
An earlier post originally quoted Matt Hancock saying that 750 of the 21,000 people recruited to carry out contact tracing were healthcare professionals. (See 3.39pm.) In fact Hancock said it was 7,500 out of the 21,000.
As the Independent’s Rob Merrick points out, that it more than double the number of healthcare professionals they were originally expecting to hire.
Interesting that Hancock says his contact tracing army includes “7,500 healthcare professionals” (not the 3,000 planned - and widely criticised)
— Rob Merrick (@Rob_Merrick) May 18, 2020
If so, that’s a quiet U-turn…..
A man who was taken to intensive care after contracting Covid-19 has been able to go rollerskating just two weeks after leaving hospital.
Clayton Jean-Charles, 55, from Greenwich, south London, was taken to University hospital Lewisham on 11 April after experiencing symptoms including a high temperature, sore throat and shortness of breath.
The plumber was moved to an intensive care unit when his condition worsened, and put on a continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) machine.
Jean-Charles, who has four adult daughters, was able to go home to his wife on 29 April after almost three weeks in hospital. Within two weeks, he went rollerskating in Greenwich Park, a hobby he took up around a year ago.
I still have a bit of a way to go to get back to full health, the fact that I was well enough to go rollerskating in the park less than two weeks after being discharged shows how much better I am.
Updated
The Science Media Centre has some expert reaction to the decision to include loss of smell as an official symptom of coronavirus. It is a good move, the academics quoted say.
Prisoners with coronavirus in one jail held in cells for up to 14 days without release for showers or exercise, HMIP says
Prisoners with coronavirus symptoms were locked in cells for up to two weeks without being released once, including for showers, inspectors have revealed.
Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Prisons (HMIP) conducted snap inspections at three jails - Wandsworth in south London, Altcourse in Liverpool, and Elmley on the Isle of Sheppey- to assess the response to the pandemic.
In a report published today chief inspector of prisons Peter Clarke said:
The vast majority were locked up for nearly the whole day with usually no more than half an hour out of their cells.
We found some examples of even greater restrictions.
In one prison, a small number of symptomatic prisoners had been isolated in their cells without any opportunity to come out for a shower or exercise for up to 14 days.
The jail in question, Wandsworth, had made the decision “in consultation with Public Health England, and as a result of the lack of space for a protective isolation unit.”
The Victorian prison’s “physical limitations” had a “severe impact”, the report said.
Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland’s first minister, used her daily press briefing at lunchtime to announce the expansion of testing to five-year-olds, several hours earlier than Hancock’s statement.
She said it was a result of cooperation on mass testing between NHS Scotland and the Scottish and UK governments and would use a network of drive-through testing centres, which has been dogged by problems between the two governments over sharing test results.
“It will help more people to know if they have the virus and it will also be very helpful as we build towards our strategy of test, trace, isolate and support; something that as you know will be especially important as we start to emerge gradually from the lockdown,” she said.
This collaboration follows a sharp rise in tensions between the UK and devolved governments over Boris Johnson’s decision to unilaterally ease lockdown restrictions in England earlier this month.
Sturgeon said many people could find it hard to reach the five rapid testing centres installed by the Department of Health and Social Care at airports outside Edinburgh, Glasgow, Inverness and Aberdeen, and a fifth city centre site in Perth. To help those unable to travel to them, the British army’s mobile testing units would be used more widely in Scotland, she said.
Restaurant chains Bella Italia and Café Rouge are on the brink of collapse after owner Casual Dining Group filed an intent to appoint administrators for the businesses on Monday.
A spokesman for the company said: “These notifications are a prudent measure in light of the company’s position and the wider situation.
“These notifications will also protect the company from any threatened potential legal action from landlords while we review the detail of the Government advice, and formulate a plan for the company in these difficult times.”
Updated
In the Commons the Plaid Cymru MP Jonathan Edwards asks for an assurance that Wales will get its fair share of any vaccine produced. Hancock says the deal with AstraZeneca means that, if the Oxford vaccine works, there will be 100m doses for the UK.
Updated
Here is a Guardian video explaining how contact tracing works.
Labour’s Stella Creasy asks what protection there will be for people who cannot go to work because they are shielding until 30 June.
Hancock says of course all the protections already in place will remain.
Hancock says this crisis has demonstrated just how important social care is.
(On 24 July last year, on the day he became prime minister, Boris Johnson said in a speech: “I am announcing now – on the steps of Downing Street – that we will fix the crisis in social care once and for all with a clear plan we have prepared.” Ten months later that plan still has not been published.)
Asked when dentists will be able to operate again, Hancock says dentists are doing emergency appointments. As for restarting dentistry more broadly, Hancock says he is working on this. He says he wants to get it up and running, but it has to be safe.
Updated
Jeremy Hunt, the former health secretary who now chairs the Commons health committee, asks how low the daily number of new cases has to be for the contact-tracing scheme to be able to operate.
Hancock says having 21,000 contact tracers should be enough given the current level of new cases, according to the latest ONS figures. But he is willing to hire more, he says.
Updated
Hancock is now responding to questions from Jonathan Ashworth, his Labour shadow.
He says 62% of care homes have not had an outbreak. (He is referring to England.)
He says there was no large-scale removal of people from hospitals to care homes at the start of this crisis, despite some people implying otherwise.
There was no large-scale removal of people from hospital into care homes towards the start of this crisis, as has been implied by some. In fact, the number of people moving from hospitals into care homes has fallen throughout this crisis and those movements have been done with care.
This crisis has shown that there are many lessons for reform in the social care sector, not least the much closer integrated working with the NHS that we’ve seen in these crisis days.
He says the contact-tracing app is “successfully” being piloted. He says the government is preparing for the national rollout.
He says Ashworth was wrong to criticise the involvement of the private sector in testing. He says he thought that wing of the Labour party had left the shadow cabinet.
Updated
Hancock says 21,000 people have been hired to carry out contact tracing
Hancock says contact tracing is being rolled out.
- Hancock says 21,000 contact tracers have now been hired. At the weekend the figure was 17,000, and Hancock had set himself a target of 18,000 by this week. Hancock says the 21,000 include 7,500 healthcare professionals.
Today I can confirm that we have recruited over 21,000 contact tracers in England. This includes 7,500 health care professionals who will provide our call handlers with expert clinical advice.
They will help manually trace the contacts of anyone who’s had a positive test and advise them on whether they need to isolate. They have rigorous training with detailed procedures designed by our experts at Public Health England.
They have stepped up to serve their county in its hour of need and I want to thank them in advance for the lifesaving work that they’re about to do.
Updated
Anyone over five with symptoms now eligible for coronavirus test, says Hancock
Hancock says the plan has been to slow the spread and protect the NHS.
The plan is working, he says.
He says he wants to tell MPs about the next steps.
First, the government is protecting care homes, he says. It has announced a £600m package of support.
Second, the list of coronavirus symptoms has been updated.
Third, eligibility for testing is being expanded.
- Anyone over five with symptoms is now eligible for a test, Hancock says. And he says that applies to the whole of the UK.
Yesterday we conducted 100,678 tests. Every day we are creating more capacity and that means more people can be tested, and the virus has fewer places to hide.
Today, I can announce to the house that everyone aged five and over with symptoms is now eligible for a test.
That applies right across the UK in all four nations from now.
Anyone with a new continuous cough, a high temperature or the loss or change of sense of taste or smell can book a test by visiting nhs.uk/coronavirus.
Nicola Sturgeon announced this for Scotland earlier. (See 12.42pm.)
Updated
Matt Hancock's Commons statement
Matt Hancock, the health secretary, is making a Commons statement.
He says coronavirus has been the most serious public health threat for 100 years. But we have got through the peak, he says.
TV companies agree guidelines that should allow programme making to resume within weeks
TV companies have agreed guidelines for producers to follow to allow television programmes to start filming again in a way that minimises the risk from coronavirus. The document is available here. The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport says this should enable TV production to start again in the coming weeks.
In a statement Oliver Dowden, the culture secretary, said:
Great British television is keeping us company throughout the crisis, and I’m keen to get cameras rolling as soon as it is safe to do so. This is a significant step forward in getting our favourite shows and soaps going again.
Our creative industries are Britain’s global calling card, and I want to see them get back to doing what they do best safely.
And this is from Carolyn McCall, the ITV chief executive.
Our production teams are now working hard to bring many more much loved shows back for viewers. This requires really innovative thinking, but above all, the safety and well-being of all those who work on the programmes is paramount. Working with partners across the industry, and with the support of DCMS, we have created clear guidelines to give producers a framework within which they can ensure that their production is safe.
Nicola Sturgeon has insisted that protecting the human rights of prison inmates is “an absolutely key priority” after an expert body warned they were being breached during the coronavirus pandemic.
The Scottish Human Rights Commission, a statutory body, warned MSPs today that it believes the Scottish Prison Service is breaching the European convention on human rights on degrading and inhumane treatment. (See 12.30pm.)
Asked about the commission’s warnings, which it says followed repeated meetings with the justice secretary, Humza Yousaf, the first minister said:
I can’t stress enough at the best of times, but particularly these times, that human rights for people in our prisons are very important and we will always seek to operate in a way that respects and protects that.
SPS said these restrictions affected only 23 prisoners who were being isolated on medical advice. A spokesman said reductions in access to showers, telephones and outdoor exercise was regrettable. “It is not a desirable state of affairs, but they are in lockdown for health reasons,” he said.
He said SPS had a duty “to try and preserve the health and wellbeing of everybody in a confined environment”.
So far, six inmates have died in Scottish jails with Covid-19 symptoms; of the 23 in isolation with symptoms, one has confirmed Covid-19. Scotland’s prison population, which was at 8,300 in late November last year, fell last week to below 7,000 for the first time in 13 years, at 6,961.
Around 160 prisoners have been released early to relieve overcrowding and help physical distancing under Scotland’s emergency powers, but the overall population has fallen sharply because the courts have largely closed down due to the pandemic.
Updated
Shapps says countries could be exempted from quarantine rules over time
In the Commons Grant Shapps, the transport secretary, is now taking questions. He has just told MPs that the government will publish details of its proposed quarantine scheme for new arrivals to the UK soon and that it will come into force “early next month”.
He said that initially it would be a “blanket” scheme (although the government has already said Ireland will be excluded, because of the longstanding common travel area arrangement). But Shapps said that the government would later consider the cases for excluding other countries, where there were low incidents of coronavirus.
Brian Cox says politicisation of expert advice risks undermining public trust in science
Prof Brian Cox, the scientist and broadcaster, has said that ministers may be undermining public trust in science in the way they talk about it when defending their decisions. He said he was particularly concerned about ministers saying they are just “following the science”.
Speaking at a Science and Media Centre press briefing, Cox, who is the Royal Society professor for public engagement with science, said ministers use the mantra of “following the science” as a defence to difficult questions about the coronavirus outbreak. He said:
The politicisation of science or scientific advice might deliver some short-term political advantages. It’s very tempting, I think, to blame the science if a decision is made which subsequently turns out to be suboptimal in some way. But, this will have, I think, serious long-term consequences because it undermines public trust in science ...
We need to see how ministers made the decisions, and how they may have changed their minds as new knowledge became available, because this is the way to enhance the public trust.
I think you can see why there’s concern in the scientific community over the, ‘we are following the science message’. It almost seems sometimes like a defence that some ministers appear to have been coached to deploy, when asked a difficult question.
Police speak to Neil Gaiman over lockdown journey from New Zealand to Skye
Police Scotland officers have spoken to the writer Neil Gaiman who admitted to travelling more than 11,000 miles from New Zealand to his house in Skye in breach of Scotland’s lockdown rules, PA Media reports. The American Gods and Good Omens author said he travelled to Scotland so he could “isolate easily” after he and his wife Amanda agreed they “needed to give each other some space”. Writing on his blog, he described how he flew “masked and gloved” from Auckland airport to Los Angeles (LAX) and then on to London before borrowing a friend’s car and driving north to Skye. But only essential journeys are permitted under lockdown rules in Scotland.
A statement from the Scottish police force confirmed the 59-year-old had been given “suitable advice”. Inspector Linda Allan said:
Officers have visited Neil Gaiman and spoken to him about his actions. He has been given suitable advice about essential travel and reminded about the current guidelines in Scotland.
Updated
Northern Ireland records further six coronavirus deaths, taking total to 482
And the Department of Health in Northern Ireland has recorded a further six coronavirus deaths, taking the total to 482. The full details are here.
Wales records four more deaths, taking total to 1,207
Public Health Wales has recorded a further four coronavirus deaths in Wales, taking the total to 1,207.
The latest number of confirmed cases of Coronavirus in Wales has been updated.
— Public Health Wales (@PublicHealthW) May 18, 2020
Data dashboard:
💻 https://t.co/RwgHDufHE7
📱https://t.co/P6UF1MTOwc
Find out how we are responding to the spread of the virus in our daily statement here: https://t.co/1Lza9meaTL pic.twitter.com/XyQp7c8dzA
In the Commons Rishi Sunak, the chancellor, has just started taking questions. He began by saying that there have now been more than 2m claims for help from the self-employed income support scheme, for sums worth a total of £6bn. He said money would arrive in bank accounts in six days.
England records a further 122 hospital deaths, taking total to 24,739
NHS England has announced 122 new coronavirus deaths in hospital, bringing the total number of hospital deaths in England to 24,739.
Of the 122 new deaths announced today, 27 occurred on 17 May; 59 occurred on 16 May; 29 occurred on 15 May; six occurred on 14 May; and one occurred on 13 May.
The full details are here.
Updated
The chief executive of the budget airline Ryanair has condemned plans to impose a 14-day quarantine on international travellers arriving in the UK as “idiotic”.
On Monday morning, Michael O’Leary claimed the proposals had “no medical or scientific basis”, adding that the use of face masks onboard would “eliminate” the spread of coronavirus.
Ryanair announced last week that it would operate nearly 1,000 flights a day from 1 July, subject to European countries lifting flight restrictions and “effective public health measures” being put in place at airports.
International travellers will be asked to quarantine for a fortnight when they enter the UK, either in accommodation of their choice or provided by the government. An implementation date for the measure is yet to be announced.
O’Leary told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme:
It’s laughable that this government can come up with any plans for a quarantine that will be strict and fully enforced when already they are exempting the Irish, the French ...
It is idiotic and it’s unimplementable. You don’t have enough police in the UK to implement a two-week lockdown.
Downing Street has said there will not be an exemption for France, but there would be an exemption for Ireland as part of the common travel area.
Updated
Shakespeare’s Globe theatre is facing insolvency and the risk of closure because of the coronavirus pandemic.
The digital, culture, media and sport (DCMS) committee has called for more financial support to be given to creative institutions.
In a letter to the culture secretary, Oliver Dowden, the committee’s chairman, Conservative MP Julian Knight, said it would be a “tragedy” if the South Bank theatre were to close. He said:
Shakespeare’s Globe is a world-renowned institution and not only part of our national identity, but a leading example of the major contribution the arts make to our economy.
For this national treasure to succumb to Covid-19 would be a tragedy.
The theatre has warned it faces the “biggest threat to its future” since it opened in 1997, the DCMS committee said in a statement.
Last week the Old Vic’s artistic director, Matthew Warchus, also warned that it was in a “seriously perilous” financial situation caused by the Covid-19 crisis.
Updated
No 10 plays down prospect of contact tracing scheme being fully operational this month as hoped
The Downing Street lobby briefing is over. It went on for longer than usual, and covered a wide range of topics. Here are the main points.
- Downing Street has played down prospects of its new contact tracing system being up and running nationwide this month. The system is being piloted in the Isle of Wight. At one point Matt Hancock, the health secretary, said that he wanted to have the whole system up and running by the middle of May. But, when the prime minister’s spokesman was asked when it would be fully operational, he just said that this would happen “in the coming weeks”.
- The spokesman said that 17,000 contact tracers were already in place and that the government was “very confident” of getting the numbers up to 18,000 by the end of this week, as planned. The contact tracers are getting a range of training, he said.
- A decision is likely this week as to whether the government will go ahead with plans for some primary school pupils in England to start going back on 1 June (a fortnight today), the spokesman signalled. The UK government’s coronavirus recovery plan said Reception, Year 1 and Year 6 pupils would go back “no earlier than Monday 1 June”. The spokesman confirmed that this was still the position, but he accepted that 1 June (the Monday after half term, for many pupils) remained an ambition. Asked when the government would be able to say if this would be the date, he replied:
You can see from the discussions that have taken place ... that we are working to seek to resolve this as soon as we can.
When it was put to him that in practice this meant a decision this week, because next week is half term, the spokesman did not challenge this assumption. He said that the safety of pupils came first, but that the government was also aware of the damage being done to children from their not being in education.
- The spokesman said the government would publish its scientific advice about the safety of children being in school “as soon as possible”. On Friday the government published an overview on this topic (pdf), he said. But the teaching unions want to see the full scientific advice. Asked when they would get it, the spokesman said:
The Sage [Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies] papers are being published in batches, and the DfE papers will be published as soon as possible.
- The government does not necessarily need to have its new contact tracing system operational nationwide for it to move to the “step two” stage of the lockdown relaxation measures set out in its plan, the spokesman suggested. He said various factors would be taken into account before the government moved to step two, such as the reproduction number. But he said the government had not made having the contact tracing system up and running an essential condition.
- The quarantine rules being imposed on new arrivals to the UK will be reviewed every three weeks, the prime minister’s spokesman said. He confirmed that the government is planning to issue more details of how the scheme will work “in due course”. But when the quarantine rules are introduced, they will be “subject to rolling review every three weeks”, the spokesman said, to ensure that they are in line with the latest scientific advice. That suggests that they will be reviewed in parallel with the existing lockdown regulations, which also have to be reviewed every three weeks. Those rules are next being reviewed on 28 May. The spokesman would not say whether this meant the quarantine rules could come into force on that date.
- The spokesman insisted that there had never been an exemption for France. A joint statement from the British and French governments on the night of the PM’s TV broadcast clearly implied that an exemption for France was being planned. But the spokesman rejected this. He said:
There was never an exemption for France. All the statement ever said was that there would be no quarantine in relation to France at this time. It was never correct to suggest that there was going to be an exemption for France only.
The spokesman claimed the original statement had been misreported by the media.
- The spokesman defended the government’s decision to maintain the immigration health surcharge - a charge paid by immigrants to cover their possible use of the NHS. This has become particularly controversial because it applies to people who are actually working themselves for the NHS. Asked to justify the charge, the spokesman said that the government committed to increasing it in its election manifesto and that it had raised £900m directly for the NHS by the end of the 2018-19 financial year.
- The spokesman said that latest data showed that 38% of care homes in England have had a coronavirus outbreak.
- The spokesman said that the decision to add loss of smell to the official list of coronavirus symptoms (see 11.29am) was expected to increase the number of cases by 2%.
- The spokesman said that the NHS Nightingale hospital at the Birmingham NEC was now on standby. Like the one at the ExCel centre in London, it has effectively been mothballed. The spokesman said that the Manchester one has patients. But another three of the seven in England, in Harrogate, Bristol and Sunderland, are open but without patients, he said. He said an eighth was being built in Exeter and would be operational at the end of the month.
- The spokesman rejected suggestions that Boris Johnson was responsible for people not realising that Wales now has tighter lockdown rules than England. At the weekend English people travelling to Wales to walk in the countryside were turned away, even though this is allowed in England. When Johnson announced the rules were being relaxed in his TV address, he was criticised for not being more explicit about how this only applied to England. But, when asked if he was responsible for English people being fined by Welsh police, the spokesman did not accept that. He said:
We were very clear from the outset that people would need to respect the rules in Wales.
- The spokesman said the prime minister was feeling “absolutely fine”. Asked why the PM was not taking more press conferences himself (like Nicola Sturgeon, who almost always leads the Scottish government’s one), the spokesman said: “Not for a specific reason. The PM did the press conference last week and I’m sure you will see him again shortly.”
- Dominic Raab, the foreign secretary, will take this afternoon’s press conference, the spokesman said. Raab will appear with Prof Jonathan Van-Tam, the deputy chief medical officer for England.
- The spokesman indicated that the PM was happy about Sir Mark Sedwill being cabinet secretary and national security adviser. Some MPs reportedly want him to separate the two roles. In the Spectator last week James Forsyth wrote:
One hawk in government says that this issue has been compounded by cabinet secretary Sir Mark Sedwill staying on as national security adviser. They complain that in a well-functioning system the national security adviser would have challenged the cabinet secretary on the Huawei decision, but that can’t happen when the national security adviser and the cabinet secretary are the same person. A break-up of Sir Mark’s empire looks inevitable.
But the spokesman said today that Sedwill had been “successfully fulfilling both roles since June 2018”.
Updated
The Welsh first minister has denied his government has been slow to offer Covid-19 tests to everyone in care homes in Wales.
Opposition politicians said the original decision not to test all residents and staff in care homes should be the subject of a future inquiry.
Mark Drakeford insisted the government’s position had been led by the science and initially the focus needed to be on care homes where there had been confirmed or suspected cases. He said:
Governments act on advice. Ministers don’t pluck policies out of the air. They rely on the advice we are given.
The advice changed on Thursday, we made the decision on Friday, we published it on Saturday.
The advice has changed because up until now our focus has been on responding to those care homes where there has been an actual or suspected case of coronavirus.
But eight out of 10 care home homes in Wales have had no confirmed case of coronavirus. Now with coronavirus declining in the community and probably having peaked and just be beginning to decline in the care home sector too, we want to put more attention on stopping coronavirus from getting into those eight out of 10 care homes where there has been no case.
Updated
Students will have to wait until they complete their online courses to find out whether they are of a high enough standard to justify tuition fees, according to the universities watchdog.
The Office for Students (OfS) will use responses to the annual National Student Survey, published in April, as well as students’ grades and graduate jobs to determine the success of online courses, according to its chief executive, Nicola Dandridge, who appeared before the committee this morning.
“If however it transpires that online learning is not what they expected, not what they wanted, not leading to the outcomes, they will tell us that and we will intervene. Likewise if we find that students who are studying online, don’t get the graduate outcomes and aren’t getting the jobs. [...] But we’re not prejudging online as good or bad until we assess it,” she said.
Dandridge said that because the OfS does not have an inspection system it is unable to directly monitor online courses. She added that the regulator was in dialogue with students’ unions to get real time information on poor-performing courses. “It can’t just be bunging lectures online, it’s got to be more sophisticated than that,” she said.
Many students have complained about their low quality online teaching. OfS chair, Michael Barber, who also appeared before the committee, said that despite the uncertainty students should be expected to pay for now because universities are in a “transition phase”. “We should go into this with a very positive frame of mind that universities are going to do all they can,” he said.
In the meantime, if students have urgent concerns, the regulators said individuals should complain to the Office of the Independent Adjudicator, or seek legal recourse.
Dandridge said that tuition fee refunds would “depend on what is offered to them and whether that represents a breach of contract”.
Updated
Universities could reopen campuses when it is still “dangerous” to do so amid increased financial pressures, MPs have been warned.
Jo Grady, general secretary of the University and College Union (UCU), said leading the decision to institutions could be problematic as competition to attract students may encourage them to reopen prematurely.
Universities have been urged not to make any promises to students that studies will resume as normal in the autumn by the higher education regulator, the Office for Students (OfS).
Addressing a virtual education select committee, Grady called upon the government to publish firmer guidance on universities full reopening campuses next term.
They will be wanting to promise students that they’ll be reopening next semester in order to attract those students rather than them go somewhere else,” she said.
“The idea that we can just sort of leave what that guidance should look like to numerous different universities, when they’re also in competition with each other to try and attract students, I think would be incredibly dangerous.”
Grady also reiterated calls for universities to be given more government funding to reduce financial pressures if students choose to cancel or defer their places in September.
Updated
The Welsh first minister, Mark Drakeford, has expressed concern that police officers have been assaulted and coughed and spat at as they have enforced the lockdown in Wales. “This is simply and absolutely unacceptable,” he said.
Drakeford said that there had been some examples of people breaking the Welsh “stay at home” rules by travelling from England to Wales over the weekend.
He said one family of four from Birmingham had been found on Pen y Fan, a mountain in the Brecon Beacons, south Wales. A man who had driven from Devon to Brecon was also caught. The man claimed he was there to buy dog food.
The first minister said he would look at evidence from the four police forces in Wales about the level of fines people who break the rules should incur. There have been calls from some police chiefs for fines to be increased.
Updated
Jeane Freeman, Scotland’s health secretary, has said that all care home staff in Scotland will be offered testing for coronavirus, regardless of whether there are any cases in the home they work in.
She added that they will have to be tested repeatedly for the measure to be effective. Details of the new advice will be laid out in parliament tomorrow.
Updated
Sturgeon says Scotland could start lifting lockdown from 28 May
Scotland will publish a route map presenting plans to gradually lift the coronavirus lockdown in the country on Thursday, said Sturgeon.
The map “will give a more detailed indication of the order in which we will carefully and gradually seek to lift current restrictions,” she added.
We will continue to take a cautious approach that ensures the virus is suppressed while seeking as much normality as possible when it is safe to do so.
If there is “progress in suppressing the virus”, the first phase of lifting lockdown measures will begin on May 28.
Under the first phase, members of the public will be able to meet up with a member of another household while socially distancing, while some outdoor sporting activities, such as fishing, will be allowed to resume.
Garden centres and recycling facilities will also be reopened, while some of those who cannot work from home will be asked to return to work.
Updated
Coronavirus tests available for anyone over five in Scotland with symptoms, says Sturgeon
From today, Scotland is widening the number of people who can be tested for Covid-19. Anyone over the age of five who has any of the recorded symptoms for the virus will be able to book in for a test.
Tests will be available at drive-in testing sites as well as at 12 mobile testing units across Scotland.
Tests at drive-in centres have already been made available to over-65s, key workers and to anyone who needs to work and who cannot work from home. They are also already available to people who live with anyone in those groups.
For health workers or their household members, testing is available through the NHS.
Updated
Scotland records a further two deaths, taking total to 2,105
Nicola Sturgeon, the Scottish first minister, has begun Scotland’s daily Covid-19 briefing.
As of 9am today, 14,394 positive cases of coronavirus have been confirmed in the country – an increase of 57 from yesterday.
A total of 1,427 patients are in Scottish hospitals with Covid-19 symptoms. Of those, 1,005 people have been confirmed to have the virus, while 422 are suspected of having it.
Last night, 63 people were in intensive care with confirmed or suspected coronavirus.
A further two people have died after contracting the disease in the past 24 hours, taking Scotland’s total death toll to 2,105.
However, Sturgeon urged people to take into account the fact that recorded deaths are usually lower over the weekend.
Updated
The Scottish Human Rights Commission, a statutory body that advises ministers and MSPs, has tabled a complaint that the Scottish prison service is allegedly breaching the rights of inmates during the coronavirus crisis.
The SHRC has told the Scottish parliament’s justice committee it has “serious concerns” the prison service is breaching the European convention on human rights which prohibit inhumane and degrading treatment in prisons.
It told MSPs the commission “has knowledge of” inmates confined to their cells for 24 hours a day for extended periods without access to showers or outdoor exercise; inmates who are confined to cells for Covid-19 reasons given limited telephone access to lawyers; some prisoners “unable to maintain any form of telephone contact with their families”.
In a letter to the committee, Judith Robertson, the commission’s chair, said:
“The commission is deeply concerned about the current conditions being experienced by some people within Scotland’s prisons. People in prison are likely to be more vulnerable to the risks and impacts of Covid-19.
“Measures taken to protect health cannot override people’s fundamental rights. It is not acceptable to confine anyone to their cell for 24 hours a day, with no access to shower facilities or outdoor exercise, and with limited contact with the outside world.
“Given the serious nature of our concerns, we have urged the Scottish government to take action to ensure that all prisoners are being held in conditions which are fully in accordance with the state’s human rights obligations. To date, we have not received the assurances we would wish to see in this regard.”
Only a limited number of inmates and staff are thought to have contracted Covid-19 in Scotland’s prisons, but emergency measures have been put in place to reduce transmission inside prison. Humza Yousaf, the Scottish justice secretary, has authorised the early release of some prisoners to relieve pressure on jails.
Updated
A new survey from thinktank CLASS has found that 60% of workers are three months or less away from defaulting on their recent or mortgage.
The poll of 2,026 workers in the UK also found that further 26% were just one month away from defaulting on their rent or mortgage.
Meanwhile, one in five of those surveyed – including carers, delivery drivers and supermarket staff – feared losing their job within the next months due to the coronavirus recession.
The majority of workers are perilously close to disaster. Extending the furlough is not enough on its own, and that the Chancellor must go further by introducing a new job creation scheme.
— CLASS (@CLASSthinktank) May 18, 2020
Read our new #WorkersEmergency report. #Coronavirus
Dr Faiza Shaheen, the director of CLASS, said:
It is shocking that over half of all workers fear they are so close to being without a roof over their heads. Millions of people – including those now on universal credit and those not qualifying for the furlough scheme – will be increasingly desperate as their mortgage and rent holidays end.
Protecting workers now requires us looking past emergency measures to a recovery plan.
It is up to the chancellor to seize this opportunity, to build a bridge from the furlough scheme and unemployment benefits to green jobs and a fairer society.
Updated
Amid the continued coronavirus crisis, other government business is rolling on – including talks with the US over a new, post-Brexit trade deal. Liz Truss, the international trade secretary, has just released a statement calling the just-ended first round of talks “positive and constructive”.
That is, however, more or less as much as we learn from the 560-word statement on the virtual talks, which took place from 5 to 15 May. It says:
Both sides are hopeful that negotiations for a comprehensive trade agreement can proceed at an accelerated pace. The meetings were positive and constructive, reflecting the mutual commitment to secure an ambitious agreement that significantly boosts trade and investment between our economies, the first and fifth largest in the world.
A list of 30 subjects discussed included “market access for goods, agriculture”, but this was the only mention of what still seems the most difficult subject – whether the US will demand access to foodstuffs produced to lower standards, such as chlorine-washed chicken, which the UK government has so far resisted. There is a long way to go.
Updated
Cyclists have been warned to keep an eye out for thieves after an insurer reported a 46% rise in claims for stolen bikes during the lockdown.
Admiral home insurance said the rise happened over the seven weeks from 23 March, compared with the same period in 2019, despite claims for general thefts falling.
As bicycle sales boom while people try to keep active and avoid using public transport, Admiral urged cyclists to make sure they kept their bikes securely.
David Fowkes, head of household underwriting at Admiral, said bikes had become an easier target than homes during the lockdown.
Our data shows just how more common bike theft has been during the lockdown; in the last seven weeks, 37% of the theft claims we’ve received were for stolen pedal bikes, compared with just 12% last year,” he said.
“We’re warning all cyclists, whether they’ve been cycling for years or have just bought their first bike, to be vigilant, keep an eye out for thieves and step up their bike security.”
Updated
This is from the UK government’s Department of Health and Social Care.
Today the Chief Medical Officers for England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have issued updated advice on #coronavirus symptoms.
— Department of Health and Social Care (@DHSCgovuk) May 18, 2020
Self-isolate if you develop:
➡️ a new continuous cough
➡️ fever
➡️ loss/change in your normal sense of smell or tastehttps://t.co/SW6HlJNiN1 pic.twitter.com/MVMDI62UIq
Self-isolate if you lose your sense of smell, new advice from chief medical officers says
Here is the statement from all four chief medical officers in the United Kingdom saying that anosmia (loss of smell) is now being treated as a coronavirus symptom. (See 11.08am.) That means people who lose their sense of smell should self-isolate, even if they do not have other symptoms.
The statement says:
From today, all individuals should self-isolate if they develop a new continuous cough or fever or anosmia.
Anosmia is the loss or a change in your normal sense of smell. It can also affect your sense of taste as the two are closely linked.
We have been closely monitoring the emerging data and evidence on Covid-19 and after thorough consideration, we are now confident enough to recommend this new measure.
The individual’s household should also self-isolate for 14 days as per the current guidelines and the individual should stay at home for 7 days, or longer if they still have symptoms other than cough or loss of sense of smell or taste.
The statement is from the four chief medical officers in the United Kingdom: Prof Chris Whitty (England); Dr Gregor Smith (Scotland); Dr Frank Atherton (Wales); and Dr Michael McBride (Northern Ireland).
A “mental health minute” recorded by the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge has been broadcast on all UK radio stations to mark the start of Mental Health Awareness Week.
The message, which was aired at 10.59am and encouraged listeners to “reach out to someone”, also featured England football captain Harry Kane, singer Dua Lipa, actor David Tennant and boxer Anthony Joshua.
Prince William told listeners: “We’re all connected and sometimes just talking about how you’re feeling can make a big difference. So right now, let’s join together across the UK and reach out to someone.”
Tennant said: “Right now, we need each other more than ever and in the weeks and months ahead of us, we will all have an important role to play in being there for one another.”
The broadcast, produced by Radiocentre and Heads Together, marked the first time that all commercial, community and national and local BBC stations jointly aired the same message.
I’m Amy Walker. I’ll be joining my colleague Andrew Sparrow to help steer you through today’s UK coronavirus updates.
Updated
UK coronavirus tests advised for people who lose taste or smell
People who experience a loss of smell or taste are being advised to get tested for Covid-19, in a change of guidance from the UK government that experts say is well overdue, Sarah Boseley reports. Her full story is here.
Updated
Hugh Pym, the BBC’s health editor, did not find much evidence of crowding at Liverpool Street station in London this morning.
Liverpool St station at 0900 - v quiet pic.twitter.com/6Oplsi3s9J
— Hugh Pym (@BBCHughPym) May 18, 2020
Prof Tim Spector, the head of the department of genetic epidemiology at King’s College London, has restated his claim that the NHS is under-estimating the real number of people infected with coronavirus. His claim is based on the data thrown up by the Covid symptom app launched by Kings.
Speaking on the Today programme, Spector claimed there were 50,000 to 70,000 people in the UK with coronavirus who are not being told to self-isolate. He blamed Public Health England (PHE) and the wider tracking strategy, saying an insistence that only temperature and cough were the major symptoms was missing thousands of cases.
Spector said 1.5 million people were logging onto the King’s app and tracking a wide range of symptoms and changes. He went on:
It tells us that we’ve got at least 100,000 cases at the moment of people who are infected. And this is from our data, although the NHS would underestimate that because they’re not counting all the symptoms ...
At the moment, people are being told to go back to work if they’re a care worker, and they’ve got something like loss of smell or taste or severe muscle pains or fatigue - things that we know and we’ve shown are related to being swabbed positive.
This country is missing the ball in underestimated cases but also putting people at risk, and continuing the epidemic.
So we really do need to tell Public Health England to get in line with the rest of the world, and make people more aware.
There’s no point telling people to be alert if they don’t know the symptoms.
Updated
Garden centres and recycling facilities open in Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland is taking its first steps in the process of easing the lockdown today. Garden centres and recycling facilities are opening. Angling is also allowed again. Marriage ceremonies involving someone with a terminal illness are also permitted.
The Northern Ireland executive is also expected to announce further relaxation measures this afternoon, with the region set to formally move to phase one of its five-step exit plan (pdf).
As PA Media reports, Ken Mills was first in line for Palmerston Recycling Centre in Belfast ahead of its reopening at 9am this morning. “I’ve had a two-hour wait, but I don’t mind because I am getting rid of a lot of stuff that has been cluttering the garage,” he said.
Updated
This morning the Daily Telegraph has splashed on a story (paywall) saying that a study from Australia suggests that the risk of coronavirus spreading in schools is extremely low. Here’s an extract.
Coronavirus does not spread widely in schools, according to a major study which is being considered by government advisers ...
The study examined by the government advisers was conducted by Australia’s National Centre for Immunisation Research and Surveillance. It was cited by the country’s officials when they announced that children should return to the classroom and found schools had a “very limited” role in transmission of the virus.
The scientists found that across 15 schools in New South Wales, 10 secondary and five primary, 18 people – nine teachers and nine students – had confirmed coronavirus.
Of the 735 students and 128 staff who were in close contact with the virus carriers, only one secondary school pupil caught it from another student and one primary school pupil caught it from a teacher. You can see this in the graphic below.
TELEGRAPH: Risk of virus spreading in schools is ‘extremely low’ #TomorrowsPapersToday pic.twitter.com/QDkze3Yvmd
— Neil Henderson (@hendopolis) May 17, 2020
The Telegraph has splashed the story, obviously, because it is relevant to the dispute between the government and teaching unions about whether it would be safe for pupils in England to start returning to school from next month. (See 9.38am.)
But on the Today programme this morning Prof Kristine Macartney, director of Australia’s National Centre for Immunisation, Research and Surveillance, argued that this study should not be seen as the final word on the matter. It was just a preliminary report and more research was needed, she said.
She stressed that the situation in Australia was very different from the situation in the UK.
It is very important to note that Australia’s epidemic has been different to many other parts of the world. We closed our borders down very quickly, and that was particularly effective for us. In total in Australia we’ve only had a little over 6,000 cases and our curve has really gone down to just a handful of cases per day now. It has been in that context that we’ve been able to keep schools open by and large.
Asked if her study should be used to persuade teachers in the UK that it was safe to go back to work, she replied:
I think it’s important to take our study in the context in which it was done. I think it’s really a complex decision, once you are talking about returning to the workplace, returning to school, opening up transportation. All of these things need to be really carefully considered ... And so no one single piece of information, certainly from another country, can provide the answer to the UK or anywhere else.
Paul Whiteman, the general secretary of the NAHT union, which represents head teachers, told the Today programme this morning that teachers wanted more clarification on whether schools were centres of transmission. He said:
Specifically around the transmission from children to adults, we’ve been told over the weekend - it’s been asserted by the government publicly over the weekend - that there isn’t the level of risk that we fear.
However, we haven’t yet seen the scientific underpin of that. There’s been some commentary and I want to invite the government today to write to me so that I can talk to the 31,000 school leaders that we represent, particularly in the primary sector, and say this is why the government has made that assessment.
Updated
Oliver Dowden, the culture secretary, was doing the morning interview round on behalf of the government this morning. Here is a summary of what he’s been saying.
- Dowden said he did not expect Premier League football to resume until “probably mid-June at the earliest”. He said the Premier League would need to find a way for it to go ahead safely behind closed doors before the government gave approval.
- He said he was looking at increasing the number of free-to-air matches as this could be helpful in terms of discouraging people from leaving their homes to watch football games. He explained:
There is a rule at the moment that at 3pm you can’t show matches on TV because people were watching it in the football stadiums. Clearly that is not going to be the case at the moment, so some of those slots may be available for free-to-air, so we are looking to see whether we could do that as part of the wider broadcasting package.
- He defended the proposals in the immigration bill, which is getting its second reading this afternoon. “This means that finally we determine exactly who comes into this country and we can attract the brightest and the best from around the world - not just from confining it to within Europe,” he said.
Agenda for the day
Good morning. I’m Andrew Sparrow, joining the blog for the day.
Here is the agenda showing what’s coming up.
9.30am: The Commons education committee takes evidence from the National Union of Students, the University Alliance, the University and College Union and the Office for Students about coronavirus.
12pm: Downing Street is due to hold its daily lobby briefing.
12.30pm: The Scottish and Welsh governments are due to hold their daily government briefings.
2.30pm: Rishi Sunak, the chancellor, takes questions in the Commons.
3pm: Grant Shapps, the transport secretary, takes questions in the Commons.
3.30pm: Matt Hancock, the health secretary, makes a statement in the Commons about coronavirus.
Around 4.30pm: MPs begin debating the second reading of the immigration bill.
5pm: Hancock is expected to take the UK government’s daily press conference.
Here’s some reaction to the government’s announcement yesterday that if the Covid-19 vaccine candidate developed by Oxford University proves successful in human trials then up to 30 million doses for the UK could be available by September.
Prof Robin Shattock, head of mucosal infection and immunity at Imperial College London, said he thought a vaccine was not likely to be widely available until next year. He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme:
I think we have a very high chance of seeing a number of vaccines that work because we know a lot about this target and I think there’s good scientific rationale to say it’s not such a hard target as others.
My gut feeling is that we will start to see a number of candidates coming through with good evidence early towards next year - possibly something this year - but they won’t be readily available for wide scale use into the beginning of next year as the kind of most optimistic estimation.
This may come as a disappointment to readers of this morning’s Daily Mail splash, which is suggesting a vaccine could be available for widespread use more quickly.
DAILY MAIL: Half of Britons could get jab in months #TomorrowsPapersToday pic.twitter.com/9CJfH6Hlfs
— Neil Henderson (@hendopolis) May 17, 2020
Updated
Immigration bill 'not in national interest', says Labour
The shadow home secretary, Nick Thomas-Symonds, says Labour cannot support the government’s immigration bill, labelling it a “threat” to the health and social care sector.
The legislation, which will undergo its second reading in the House of Commons today, brings to fruition the promise of an “Australian-style points-based system” first outlined by Boris Johnson and Michael Gove when they were fronting the Vote Leave campaign during the 2016 referendum.
But Thomas-Symonds told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “I think that it is totally unfair on the one hand to be saying thank you to those foreign-born workers we have in our NHS and then charging them for actually using it.
The home secretary has actually waived it for those health care staff who have had their visas extended from October. She then promised to review it for other staff in the NHS. She apparently now isn’t reviewing it. I think that’s the wrong thing to do, and I think it really does speak to whether we value what people have been doing to help us through this crisis or not.
He said the government’s proposals were “not fair” and “not in the national interest”, adding: “That’s because they are deeming people who are low skilled to be unwelcome in this country.”
Updated
As passenger numbers coming into the capital are expected to rise today with extra trains put on, two travellers were this morning on their way out of London at King’s Cross.
PC Jason Kelly, who was on his way to north Hertfordshire after a night shift, told PA Media:
Up until a week ago, in the early morning there were only two people on the train. When they changed the lockdown last week that went up to about 30 or 40 people.
He wasn’t confident passengers would be able to stick to social distancing measures once numbers rise further, adding:
For some people it’s just like a normal day, people have got fed up with it (coronavirus), they’ve had enough.
Meanwhile, another police officer on his way home to Huntingdon in Cambridgeshire from King’s Cross said through a lot of the lockdown he had been the only passenger on his train.
“It’s been marvellous, but now everything is going back to normal,” he said.
He said he did not feel unsafe while travelling but did not think other commuters would try to keep 2 metres apart.
“People can’t even [stick to physical distancing] in the shops,” he told PA Media. “That said, everyone has been very good on the Tube - everyone wears a mask and tries to sit far apart.”
Updated
Thousands expected to return to work as train capacity increases
Good morning, folks. It’s Simon Murphy here kicking off the UK live blog today. Extra trains are expected to take thousands more people back to work under Downing Street’s plan to accelerate economic activity as lockdown restrictions designed to halt the spread of Covid-19 are eased.
But King’s Cross station, one of the capital’s busiest transport hubs, was almost deserted this morning – despite more trains running as part of the effort. Regular announcements urged people to stick to physical distancing measures, while the concourse was dotted with stickers reading: “Protect your NHS, stay 2m apart”, while regular announcements urged people to stick to social distancing measures.
It comes as a new survey suggests that more than a third of people say they could rethink the way they travel after the coronavirus pandemic.
Meanwhile, the culture secretary, Oliver Dowden, has said he is hoping Premier League football behind closed doors will be able to start by mid-June. “I had some very constructive discussions on Thursday with the FA, the EFL and the Premier League. We’re working hard with them to try and get it [football] back, I’m aiming for, for mid-June but the number one test is public safety,” he told Sky News this morning.
It comes after Germany’s Bundesliga restarted last weekend. The Guardian reported last week that a planned resumption of play on 12 June was looking less likely – and kick-off a week later is now a possibility after safety concerns were raised.
Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden tells Sky News the government are aiming for the English Premier League "to finish the season, behind closed doors from about mid-June onwards".#KayBurley
— SkyNews (@SkyNews) May 18, 2020
Get the latest on #COVID19: https://t.co/gmIkUQJMvn pic.twitter.com/9erAx5Ry7e
Yesterday, the government announced that if the Covid-19 vaccine candidate developed by Oxford University proves successful in human trials then up to 30 million doses for the UK could be available by September.
In other news, MPs on parliament’s education select committee will discuss the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on schools and children’s services at 9.30am today.
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