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Coronavirus news: Britain needs 'big increase in testing,' says government adviser; Euro 2020 postponed for a year – live updates Coronavirus news: Britain needs 'big increase in testing,' says government adviser; Euro 2020 postponed for a year – live updates
(32 minutes later)
UK measures to last at least ‘several months’; Iran temporarily releases thousands of prisoners; Australia tells citizens to fly home. Follow the latest updatesUK measures to last at least ‘several months’; Iran temporarily releases thousands of prisoners; Australia tells citizens to fly home. Follow the latest updates
Greece’s confirmed coronavirus cases rose to 387 from 352 with the death toll increasing to 5, health officials confirmed.
The French Open has been postponed until late September amid the coronavirus outbreak.
Guardian Sport has the developing story here:
Talks on a post-Brexit trade deal between the UK and EU will not take place on Wednesday as planned.
A government spokesman said: “In light of the latest guidance on coronavirus, we will not formally be convening negotiating work strands tomorrow in the way we did in the previous round.
“We expect to share a draft FTA alongside the draft legal texts of a number of the standalone agreements in the near future still, as planned.
“Both sides remain fully committed to the negotiations and we remain in regular contact with the European Commission to consider alternative ways to continue discussions, including looking at the possibility of video conferencing or conference calls, and exploring flexibility in the structure for the coming weeks.
“The transition period ends on December 31 2020. This is enshrined in UK law.”
Gatwick Airport said it has terminated the employment of 200 staff as part of “decisive action to protect the business”, PA reports.
It will also be closed to flights between midnight and 5.30am with immediate effect, except for emergency landings.
The airport’s chief executive Stewart Wingate and his executive team will take a 20% salary cut and waive any bonus for the current financial year.
The UK communities secretary Robert Jenrick has announced £3.2m of emergency funding to help rough sleepers self-isolate to prevent the spread of coronavirus.
The funding, to be available to all local authorities in England, will reimburse them for the cost of providing accommodation and services to help rough sleepers self-isolate.
Mr Jenrick said:
Apple Inc said it is closing all its retail stores in the Unites States until further notice.
That follows an announcement by the iPhone maker on Saturday that it was closing retail stores globally, except in Greater China, for the next two weeks due to the fast-spreading coronavirus.
The National Portrait Gallery in London will close temporarily from 18 March, it has announced.
A statement from the gallery said: “In line with UK government guidance, the National Portrait Gallery, London, will temporarily close from Wednesday March 18 2020 until further notice, in order to help contain the spread of the Covid-19 virus, and ensure the safety and wellbeing of our visitors and staff.
“We will continue to closely monitor the situation and act on the advice of the UK government and Public Health England. In the meantime, we look forward to staying connected to our audiences online and hope to be able to welcome visitors back to the gallery again soon.”
Saudi Arabia will no longer allow Muslims to conduct their five daily prayers and the weekly Friday prayer inside mosques as part of efforts to limit the spread of coronavirus, the state news agency SPA said on Tuesday.
The prayers will continue only at the two holy mosques in Mecca and Medina, the holiest places in Islam, SPA said, citing a decision from the Council of Senior Scholars, the kingdom’s highest religious body.
A second person in Wales has died after testing positive for Covid-19, the chief medical officer for Wales, Frank Atherton, has said.
“I offer my sincere condolences to their family and friends, and ask that their request for privacy is respected. The patient, who had underlying health conditions, was 96 years old and was being treated at the Morriston hospital.”
Turkey has detained 19 people over “unfounded and provocative” social media posts about the government’s handling of the coronavirus outbreak, the interior ministry has said.
A statement late on Monday said that 93 suspects have been identified for social media posts “targeting officials and spreading panic and fear” by suggesting that the virus had spread widely in Turkey and that officials had taken insufficient measures.
While no deaths have been recorded, since the first case of Covid-19 was reported last Wednesday the number of patients in Turkey has risen to 47.
Ankara has intensified a crackdown on government criticism since a failed coup attempt in 2016. To date, hundreds of people, including prominent political opposition members and journalists, are facing criminal charges under sweeping anti-terrorism laws related to social media posts.
The arrests come as Turkey implements a lockdown across the country to fight the virus, with cafes, restaurants and entertainment venues shut and communal prayers in mosques banned until further notice. Schools and universities were closed last week and civil servants over the age of 60 told to stay away from workplaces.
Turkey has also quarantined at least 5,300 pilgrims returning from holy sites in Saudi Arabia, suspended flights to 20 hard-hit destinations and closed its borders with Iran and Azerbaijan.
Approximately 3,600 Turkish nationals stranded in Europe will be evacuated to Istanbul and quarantined, foreign minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu said on Tuesday.
Turkey, a major economy and tourist hub linking Europe and western Asia, had around 50 million visitors last year. It is also host to the largest refugee population in the world, mostly Syrians displaced by the neighbouring civil war.
The Red Cross, Red Crescent and the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) have said Covid-19 could have catastrophic effects if it reaches vulnerable undocumented and refugee populations in the Middle East, including Turkey.
Islington food bank in north London has announced it is to close after running low on food stocks and losing many of its volunteers who have been forced to self-isolate to avoid coronavirus infection.
The food bank, part of the Trussell trust network, is understood to be the first of the trust’s 426 food banks to close. The trust said no others had yet reported difficulties but it was carrying out a rapid survey of its members to gauge “pressure points”.
In a statement on its website, Islington food bank said:
The health and safety of our volunteers and clients is our top priority, and we feel this is the best way to minimise the risk of infection.
Our food supplies are running low, with donations down and supermarkets limiting how much we can order, meaning that soon we will not be able to give our clients full food bags.
We need a minimum number of volunteers at each session to operate safely. Increasing numbers are self-isolating and this is set to increase further if restrictions on over-70s come in as many of our volunteers are retired.
Many food banks warned last week that they were running out of staple food such as UHT milk and tinned pasta and tinned meat because of increased demand for food parcels coupled with lower donations caused by panic-buying in shops and supermarkets.
Islington food bank said it would close on 23 March until further notice, adding that it would reopen “as soon as we feel it is safe to do so”.
Emma Revie, the chief executive of the Trussell Trust, said:
* Whether you need the support of your local food bank or wish to donate items, find out more here.
Schools across England are announcing full or partial closures because of staff shortages, suggesting that widespread closures and government intervention may not be far off. The UK and Belarus are alone in Europe in requiring all schools to remain open.Among those closing is City of London School for Girls, which announced it would close from Wednesday, “in the face of unsustainable pupil and staff absence from the site over the past couple of days”. Pupils will be given remote learning in all subjects, while those whose parents are “key frontline staff” will be offered supervision at the independent school.Meanwhile, Maiden Erlegh school in Berkshire announced that most pupils will be able to attend only every second day because of staff shortages. “We just cannot operate the school safely with the numbers of staff now absent,” the school’s head has told parents.Headteachers say that the government’s announcements about increased isolation has forced many teachers to stay home, along with other workers such as bus drivers and catering staff, placing them in a difficult position.
Full story here:
A biopharmaceuticals company in southern Germany, which has been working on a coronavirus vaccination has just given an insight into the frontline fight to find a solution to the current global health crisis.
CureVac in Tübingen, held a dial-in press conference for journalists at which it laid out details of its work on a vaccine. Its main challenge is how to mass produce it, and at speed, company bosses told journalists. Trials of the drug, which are necessarily thorough, including checking its efficacy and potential side effects, mean that even if approved, it is not likely to be available until next spring.
It spent the first 15 minutes, though, attempting to quash the reports in recent days according to which the company had been approached by the US government with an offer to exclusively buy up the vaccine it is working on, for one billion dollars.
First, to those rumours, the companies managers said they were just that. They categorically denied there was any truth in them, explaining that company bosses had been invited at extremely short notice to visit the White House last week, and speak to US government officials, along with representatives of other international companies working on coronavirus vaccines. This is despite the fact that the German interior minister, foreign minister, even the chancellor, Angela Merkel, and the owner of CureVac, Dietmar Hopp, had commented on the reports as if they had been true, saying that “Germany is not for sale”.
“This technology (to make the vaccine) can be applicable for anyone and there have not been requests for us to do it exclusively for the US,” CureVac’s deputy CEO Franz-Werner Haas told journalists. “We did not talk to Maas (the foreign minister) or Seehofer (the interior minister) so we cannot comment on that.”
CureVac is a 20 year old company which develops therapies based on the molecule messenger RNA (mRNA) and has specialised in developing vaccines for infectious diseases as well as on drugs to treat cancer. Mariola Fotin-Mletczek, PhD, chief technology officer, explained the vaccine technology she is currently working on. “Nature has very good mechanisms for fighting against pathogens - viruses and bacteria - and with our technology we mimic nature’s approach,” she said. “The way we formulate this messenger molecule means it mimics this virus situation.
This means that we induce the immune response which is very similar to the natural immune response. With our approach, messenger RNA encodes one specific protein from the virus, the critical one, which is sufficient to mobilise the immune system. We do this in such a way that we use this natural mechanism which really helps to induce and to produce huge amounts of potent anti-bodies which neutralise the virus.
And that is exactly what we saw in the trial with our latest vaccine based on exactly the same technology. Also here we see that two doses of one microgram are sufficient to mobilise the immune system in the right way and to induce production of protective antibodies above the defined threshold, which means protection.”She said that laboratory trials on the vaccine would start in April and clinical trials would begin in the early summer.
The company has received an 80 million Euro grant from the European Commission in the last few days, which will enable it to “accelerate the upscaling of a manufacturing unit which would produce the vaccine which is already being built,” according to Florian von der Mülbe, chief production officer and co-founder of CureVac.
This means once it got the go-ahead, the company could potentially produce high quantities of the drug so that it could be made available worldwide. The production facilities could be replicated easily elsewhere, increasing the efficiency and speed with which it could be made available, he added.
Lothar Wieler, president of the Robert Koch Institute, the main public health body in Germany, said earlier today, the concept was based on tumour therapy, with the vaccine “reacting to the protein in the virus and receiving an answer from it”. It is a technology already used to fight cancers, he said. “If it works, it would be amazing,” he said, calling the technology “fast, cheap and efficient”. But based on current information, and he would not expect a vaccine to be ready until next spring.
• The EU is set to endorse the strictest travel ban in its history as France joined Italy and Spain in full lockdown and Donald Trump told Americans to change their behaviour, acknowledging for the first time that beating the coronavirus could take months.EU leaders are expected on Tuesday to suspend all travel into the passport-free Schengen zone by non-EU nationals for at least 30 days in a bid to instil uniformity across the bloc after some member states, including Austria, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Poland, unilaterally began imposing border checks.• The EU is set to endorse the strictest travel ban in its history as France joined Italy and Spain in full lockdown and Donald Trump told Americans to change their behaviour, acknowledging for the first time that beating the coronavirus could take months.EU leaders are expected on Tuesday to suspend all travel into the passport-free Schengen zone by non-EU nationals for at least 30 days in a bid to instil uniformity across the bloc after some member states, including Austria, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Poland, unilaterally began imposing border checks.
• Donald Trump has referred to the coronavirus as “the Chinese virus”, escalating a deepening US-China diplomatic spat over the outbreak.After giving an address on Monday warning of a possible recession, the US president posted on Twitter: “The United States will be powerfully supporting those industries, like Airlines and others, that are particularly affected by the Chinese Virus. We will be stronger than ever before!”China’s foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said Trump should take care of his own matters first.• Donald Trump has referred to the coronavirus as “the Chinese virus”, escalating a deepening US-China diplomatic spat over the outbreak.After giving an address on Monday warning of a possible recession, the US president posted on Twitter: “The United States will be powerfully supporting those industries, like Airlines and others, that are particularly affected by the Chinese Virus. We will be stronger than ever before!”China’s foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said Trump should take care of his own matters first.
• This summer’s European Championship has been postponed until 2021, Uefa has decided, as it contemplates the unprecedented disruption caused by the coronavirus pandemic.European football’s governing body held its scheduled conference call with the continent’s 55 national football associations at noon UK time and 17 minutes later the Norwegian FA was the first to tweet the news that the tournament has been postponed until next year. Shortly after 2pm GMT, Uefa confirmed the news in a statement.• This summer’s European Championship has been postponed until 2021, Uefa has decided, as it contemplates the unprecedented disruption caused by the coronavirus pandemic.European football’s governing body held its scheduled conference call with the continent’s 55 national football associations at noon UK time and 17 minutes later the Norwegian FA was the first to tweet the news that the tournament has been postponed until next year. Shortly after 2pm GMT, Uefa confirmed the news in a statement.
• As Britons were advised agains all but essential travel abroad, the UK’s chief scientific advisor said that around 55,000 people in the country have coronavirus and the aim is for fewer than 20,000 people to die from it.Sir Patrick Vallance said the number of predicted deaths was “horrible” and there would still be a huge amount of strain on the health service from Covid-19. He also suggested people should not take ibuprofen. French health minister Olivier Veran has suggested that anti-inflammatory drugs could worsen the infection.• As Britons were advised agains all but essential travel abroad, the UK’s chief scientific advisor said that around 55,000 people in the country have coronavirus and the aim is for fewer than 20,000 people to die from it.Sir Patrick Vallance said the number of predicted deaths was “horrible” and there would still be a huge amount of strain on the health service from Covid-19. He also suggested people should not take ibuprofen. French health minister Olivier Veran has suggested that anti-inflammatory drugs could worsen the infection.
• Amid massive pressure on the aviation industry globally, Britain’s three largest airports have warned that they may have to close down operations unless there is government intervention to help them weather the coronavirus crisis.The call by Heathrow, Gatwick and Manchester airports came as the International Air Transport Association (Iata) said about only 30 of more than 700 airlines operating commercial flights around the world were likely to survive the next few months without help.• Amid massive pressure on the aviation industry globally, Britain’s three largest airports have warned that they may have to close down operations unless there is government intervention to help them weather the coronavirus crisis.The call by Heathrow, Gatwick and Manchester airports came as the International Air Transport Association (Iata) said about only 30 of more than 700 airlines operating commercial flights around the world were likely to survive the next few months without help.
• Saudi Arabia, the current chair of the group of the 20 most industrialised nations, is to stage a virtual G20 summit in the coming days in a bid to show world leaders have coordinated medical and economic plans to control coronavirus.Members of the G20, mainly western nations and Japan, held a smaller virtual summit on Monday promising to do whatever it takes to bring the west through the crisis. The G20 also brings in China, India, Brazil, Russia, Korea, Turkey, Australia and South Africa, and other big drivers of the world economy.• Saudi Arabia, the current chair of the group of the 20 most industrialised nations, is to stage a virtual G20 summit in the coming days in a bid to show world leaders have coordinated medical and economic plans to control coronavirus.Members of the G20, mainly western nations and Japan, held a smaller virtual summit on Monday promising to do whatever it takes to bring the west through the crisis. The G20 also brings in China, India, Brazil, Russia, Korea, Turkey, Australia and South Africa, and other big drivers of the world economy.
• Iran has temporarily freed a total of 85,000 prisoners, including political prisoners, a spokesman for its judiciary said on Tuesday, adding that the prisons were responding to the threat of a coronavirus epidemic in jails.“Some 50% of those released are security-related prisoners. Also in the jails we have taken precautionary measures to confront the outbreak,” the spokesman Gholamhossein Esmaili said.• Iran has temporarily freed a total of 85,000 prisoners, including political prisoners, a spokesman for its judiciary said on Tuesday, adding that the prisons were responding to the threat of a coronavirus epidemic in jails.“Some 50% of those released are security-related prisoners. Also in the jails we have taken precautionary measures to confront the outbreak,” the spokesman Gholamhossein Esmaili said.
A claim by Britain’s chief scientific adviser in testimony to MPs ( reported earlier) that Taiwan has been successful in containing coronavirus without closing schools is at best somewhat disingenuous, at worst inaccurate.A claim by Britain’s chief scientific adviser in testimony to MPs ( reported earlier) that Taiwan has been successful in containing coronavirus without closing schools is at best somewhat disingenuous, at worst inaccurate.
Taiwan was already on winter break for the Chinese Lunar new year holiday when the scale of the threat became evident to its leadership, which includes an epidemiologist, the vice-president, Chen Chien-jen.Taiwan was already on winter break for the Chinese Lunar new year holiday when the scale of the threat became evident to its leadership, which includes an epidemiologist, the vice-president, Chen Chien-jen.
In response, they extended the winter break. They also promised to extend the summer term, so holidays in July would start two weeks later and as a result children wouldn’t lose any of their classroom time. That may have been the basis of the claim by Sir Patrick Vallance, the UK government’s chief scientific adviser.In response, they extended the winter break. They also promised to extend the summer term, so holidays in July would start two weeks later and as a result children wouldn’t lose any of their classroom time. That may have been the basis of the claim by Sir Patrick Vallance, the UK government’s chief scientific adviser.
But there is no question that schools were closed in February when they would normally have been open. And when the closures were announced, the minister of health and welfare Chen Shih-chung specified that disease control specialists had “suggested pushing back the start of classes to reduce the risk of clustered infections”, according to the Taipei Times.But there is no question that schools were closed in February when they would normally have been open. And when the closures were announced, the minister of health and welfare Chen Shih-chung specified that disease control specialists had “suggested pushing back the start of classes to reduce the risk of clustered infections”, according to the Taipei Times.
The government even brought in a special type of parental childcare leave “to prevent infection”, for those workers who needed time off to care for school-age kids.The government even brought in a special type of parental childcare leave “to prevent infection”, for those workers who needed time off to care for school-age kids.
Julian Assange, the founder of the whistleblowing website Wikileaks, must be released from a British prison before the coronavirus spreads among inmates, according to campaigners for him.Julian Assange, the founder of the whistleblowing website Wikileaks, must be released from a British prison before the coronavirus spreads among inmates, according to campaigners for him.
The Don’t Extradite Assange (DEA) campaign added that prison authorities had signalled that prison inmates will be especially vulnerable to the virus.The Don’t Extradite Assange (DEA) campaign added that prison authorities had signalled that prison inmates will be especially vulnerable to the virus.
WikiLeaks ambassador Joseph Farrell said: “With the authorities about to end social visits it’s essential that Julian Assange be included in any release policy. His health is already in jeopardy and further isolation would be damaging in itself, let alone the threat that he might contract the virus itself.”WikiLeaks ambassador Joseph Farrell said: “With the authorities about to end social visits it’s essential that Julian Assange be included in any release policy. His health is already in jeopardy and further isolation would be damaging in itself, let alone the threat that he might contract the virus itself.”
Assange is fighting extradition to the US, where he faces 18 charges in the US of attempted hacking and breaches of the Espionage Act over the publication of classified US cables a decade ago.Assange is fighting extradition to the US, where he faces 18 charges in the US of attempted hacking and breaches of the Espionage Act over the publication of classified US cables a decade ago.
His defence argues that he should be protected from extradition because the US-UK treaty rules it out for political offences.His defence argues that he should be protected from extradition because the US-UK treaty rules it out for political offences.
Far from taking the coronavirus threat seriously, thousands of Argentinians, rather than going into self-isolation during the government-mandated two-week leave of absence from non-essential jobs, are rushing to the beach in the last days of Argentina’s southern hemisphere summer.Far from taking the coronavirus threat seriously, thousands of Argentinians, rather than going into self-isolation during the government-mandated two-week leave of absence from non-essential jobs, are rushing to the beach in the last days of Argentina’s southern hemisphere summer.
A line of cars two kilometres long queued outside the Atlantic beach resort of Monte Hermoso on Monday, waiting to get in and take advantage of the warm weather.A line of cars two kilometres long queued outside the Atlantic beach resort of Monte Hermoso on Monday, waiting to get in and take advantage of the warm weather.
“There’s a lot of irresponsibility and little understanding by people,” the Monte Hermoso mayor, Alejandro Dichiara,, said in a radio interview.“There’s a lot of irresponsibility and little understanding by people,” the Monte Hermoso mayor, Alejandro Dichiara,, said in a radio interview.
“We need to stay home and not contaminate.”“We need to stay home and not contaminate.”
“Can somebody explain to me why so many people are going to Monte Hermoso at this hour? It’s a quarantine ... not holidays! We never learn,” Leandro Grecco, a resident of the city of Ingeniero White, in the same province of Buenos Aires as Monte Hermoso, asked in the caption to a video he tweeted of the long line of cars.“Can somebody explain to me why so many people are going to Monte Hermoso at this hour? It’s a quarantine ... not holidays! We never learn,” Leandro Grecco, a resident of the city of Ingeniero White, in the same province of Buenos Aires as Monte Hermoso, asked in the caption to a video he tweeted of the long line of cars.
Argentina reported nine new cases of coronavirus on Monday, including a health worker, bringing the total number of cases to 65, including two reported deaths, almost all recent arrivals from Europe, at least one from the US and another from Israel.Argentina reported nine new cases of coronavirus on Monday, including a health worker, bringing the total number of cases to 65, including two reported deaths, almost all recent arrivals from Europe, at least one from the US and another from Israel.
A letter has been sent to UK hospitals postponing all non-urgent elective surgery from the middle of April, reports James Illman of the Health Service Journal.A letter has been sent to UK hospitals postponing all non-urgent elective surgery from the middle of April, reports James Illman of the Health Service Journal.
People need to urgently change their behaviour in order to limit how coronavirus is transmitted, according to academics whose research in the UK suggests that workplaces were “hotspots” for transmission by younger people. But for the over-65s, it’s shops and restaurants.
That comes from a piece in the Guardian by Petra Klepac, assistant professor of infectious disease modelling at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
The sensible thing at the moment would be to avoid ibuprofen in cases of people who have coronavirus amid some uncertainty about its impact, MPs have been told by the UK’s chief scientific adviser.
Take something else such as paracetamol, added Sir Patrick Vallance.
His comments, in answer to a question at a parliamentary committee, come after experts criticised Britain’s NHS advice that people self-isolating with Covid-19 should take ibuprofen, saying there is plausible evidence this could aggravate the condition.
French authorities have warned against taking widely used over-the-counter anti-inflammatory drugs. The country’s health minister, Olivier Véran, a qualified doctor and neurologist, tweeted on Saturday: “The taking of anti-inflammatories [ibuprofen, cortisone … ] could be a factor in aggravating the infection. In case of fever, take paracetamol. If you are already taking anti-inflammatory drugs, ask your doctor’s advice.”
Vallance’s testimony has now ended.
The number of people to test positive for coronavirus in the UK as of 9am on Tuesday is 1,950, up from 1,543 on Monday, the country’s Department of Health has said.
A total of 50,442 people have been tested with 48,492 negative results. The department said an update on the number of deaths would be announced later on Tuesday.
This summer’s European Championship has been postponed until the summer of 2021, Uefa has decided, as it contemplates the unprecedented disruption caused by the coronavirus.
European football’s governing body held its scheduled conference call with Europe’s 55 national football associations at 12pm UK time, and 17 minutes later the Norwegian FA was the first to tweet the news that the tournament had been postponed until next year. Shortly after 2pm GMT, Uefa confirmed the news in a statement.
The proposed new dates are 11 June until 11 July 2021, with decisions on dates for other club and international competitions for men or women to “be taken and announced in due course”.
Meanwhile, on the UK footballing scene National League club Barnet have responded to the suspension of football during the coronavirus crisis by putting all the club’s non-playing staff on immediate notice of redundancy.
The club’s owner, the businessman Tony Kleanthous, told the Guardian there are approximately 60 employees being laid off, and he was holding meetings with them all on Tuesday.
Kleanthous said that as players’ contracts are protected in football and cannot be terminated early, clubs’ general employees are the ones vulnerable, and with no money coming in, he said he had no choice but to lay everybody off.
He called on the Football Association to give more leadership in the crisis, and for the Premier League to set up financial assistance for clubs lower down the football pyramid.
The governor of New York, Andrew Cuomo, has been providing his daily update, which you can follow here:
School closures have all sorts of complicating effects, including leading to children being with grandparents and having an impact on the workforce, MPs have been told by the chief scientific adviser.
He points out that Taiwan - which has been very successful in suppressing the virus - has not closed their schools. But it is still on the table here in the UK and one of the levers which could be pulled.
You can watch Vallance’s evidence here by the way.
Britain needs a big increase in testing, MPs have been told by Britain’s chief scientific adviser, who added that he is “pushing for it very hard”
“The quicker we can get to a true community-based test the better,” said Sir Patrick Vallance.
He went on to say that at the moment entire households are being put into quarantine even if they do not have it, and may have to be put into quarantine again, but that is still the right thing.
On tests, there are lots of laboratory tests being done and lots of people claiming to have them but a lot of work was being done in the UK now on that front.
Vallance suggested that the private sector could play a big part in testing being ramped up.
There was a question from Jeremy Hunt, the former health secretary, about whether Britain could and should follow the example of some Asian countries in using mobile phone tracking to identify movements of people who may have the virus - even though there may be civil liberties implications
That approach would have made total sense back in January, replied Vallance, and may well yet come back into play at a later stage. But he knows that people are working very, very hard in the UK and elsewhere in developing that approach.
The social distancing measures that have now been introduced in the UK should reduce the peak of the spread by around 50%, MPs have been told by Britain’s chief scientific adviser.
Sir Patrick Vallance also answered a particular question that has been exercising the minds of many people: why Britain has not continued with the mass testing in place in some other countries.
Public Health England has done 44,000 tests so far, which is in the top three or four countries and the state body has a capacity of about three or four thousand a day, he said.
He went on to explain that one of the recommendations from the UK government’s “Sage” expert committee is that testing should be put in “the right place”. As capacity ramps up, it will be extended to other groups from the current focus on groups such as those now in hospital.
The second type of testing – which is incredibly important – will be for those who have already had the virus and may be asymptomatic.
“it will change a lot if we can understand that,” he added.
The travel and tourism sector is in a fight for its very survival and governments should pursue a raft of measures to preserve as many as 50 million jobs at risk globally, a global trade body has warned.
The World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) has implored governments around the world in an open letter to take drastic and immediate action to protect and preserve the travel & tourism sector.
The WTTC said that its figures show travel and tourism contributes 10.4% of global GDP, and 320 million jobs.
The WTTC president, Gloria Guevara, said:
In Britain, the archbishop of Canterbury has announced that public worship is “suspended until further notice”, but a Church of England spokesman said weddings and funerals could still go ahead.
Justin Welby, who is the symbolic head of the worldwide Anglican Communion, said in a joint statement with John Sentamu, the archbishop of York, that it was now necessary to put public services on hold until further notice
But they added: “We may not be able to pray with people in the ways that we are used to, but we can certainly pray for people. And we can certainly offer practical care and support.”
This is Ben Quinn picking up the liveblog again.