The tide finally appeared to be turning in our battle against coronavirus today as it emerged the disease’s spread was slowing.
Government adviser Professor Neil Ferguson said strict social distancing measures appear to have paid off.
The ray of hope came as the UK death toll hit 1,408, up 180 in 24 hours, but a lower rise than previous days.
Prof Ferguson, of Imperial College London, warned that case numbers are still increasing as the pandemic has not “plateaued”.
He said: “In the UK, we can see some early signs of slowing in some indicators – less so deaths, because deaths are lagged by a long time from when measures come in force.
“But if we look at the numbers of new hospital admissions, that does appear to be slowing down a bit now.
“It has not plateaued, so still the numbers can be increasing each day but the rate of increase has slowed.”
Downing Street praised the nation for sticking to social distancing rules and largely observing the lockdown.
The Prime Minister’s spokesman said: “The PM is very clear of his gratitude to the public for the way they are responding to this health emergency.”
The total number of UK cases hit 22,141 today, up 2,619.
On Friday, NHS England chief executive Sir Simon Stevens said there were more than 6,200 victims in hospitals.
Today, he said there were more than 9,000.
Thousands of airline cabin crew, many trained in first aid, were being offered work at the new NHS Nightingale Hospital in the ExCeL centre in East London.
Virgin Atlantic and easyJet staff have also been invited to volunteer at emergency sites planned at Birmingham’s NEC and the Manchester Central Convention Complex.
Preparations went on amid warnings that changes to the way deaths from the disease are reported will further swell the toll.
So far, most declared fatalities from coronavirus happened in hospital.
But from tomorrow, the Office for National Statistics will publish those recorded on death registrations – including victims who died at home.
Chief Scientific Adviser Sir Patrick Vallance said this would provide “extra numbers” but that they would not be “large”.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who has Covid-19 and is self-isolating in Downing Street, will host tomorrow’s Cabinet meeting via video link.
His top adviser, Dominic Cummings, is also self-isolating amid fears he has the virus.
The 48-year-old was seen running out of No10 on Friday, around the time the PM’s diagnosis was made public, and developed symptoms over the weekend.
No10 faced mounting pressure over testing after Royal College of Physicians president Dr Andrew Goddard said 25% to 30% of its workforce is off – and rolling out testing to frontline NHS staff will make a “big difference”.
Health Minister Helen Whately insisted testing capacity is “ramping up”.
She said: “Within the next three weeks, we expect to get to 25,000 tests a day.
"The really important thing about that – the effort to test NHS and social care staff – is we can prioritise the testing to parts of the health and care system where we have particular staff shortages.
"We can help by testing people to identify if they are negative, so they would no longer need to isolate and can go back to work.”
Downing Street said some 900 frontline NHS staff were tested over the weekend.
The PM’s spokesman added: “We have set out the importance we place on testing and have been increasing our capability.”
Asked why we have set a target of 25,000 daily tests while Germany is working on around 70,000 a day, he said there were difficulties in “getting all the equipment they need to conduct these tests at a time when everybody in the world wants them”.
Figures show we have the capacity to do 10,949 tests a day but had done 9,114 as of 9am on Saturday.
Around 7,000 individuals were tested, including some who were tested twice for “clinical reasons”, No10 said.
It has been claimed the lockdown means it could be years before Covid-19’s true fatality rate is known.
Pathologist Dr John Lee said the actual proportion of people dying of the virus might even be 20 times lower than the figure being reported.
This could mean just 340 extra deaths on top of the 46,000 normally recorded for the first 28 days of March.
Retired academic Dr Lee said the lack of widely available accurate testing for those who only had mild symptoms means statistics are disproportionately high.
The former NHS consultant said in The Spectator: “The more the number of untested cases goes up, the lower the true death rate.”
Meanwhile, Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab urged police to use “common sense” in enforcing the national lockdown.
The plea came after former Supreme Court Judge Lord Sumption blasted Derbyshire Police for using a drone to film walkers in the Peak District – and lacing a lagoon with black dye to deter visitors.
Mr Raab said: “The behaviour of Derbyshire Police in trying to shame people in using their undoubted right to take exercise and wrecking beauty spots in the fells so people don’t want to go there is frankly disgraceful.
“This is what a police state is like. It’s a state in which the Government can issue orders or express preferences with no legal authority and the police will enforce ministers’ wishes.”
No10 was also forced to say it was OK for people to buy Easter eggs after some police and council officials tried to stop stores selling them because they are non-essential items.
The PM’s spokesman said: “We have set out which shops can remain open. If a shop is allowed to remain open, it will sell whatever it has in stock.”
Meanwhile, pregnant inmates could leave jail early to cut infection risk.
And pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson will start vaccine trials on humans later this year, hoping to have a drug ready by early next year.
