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UK coronavirus live: Queen urges country to unite; death toll reaches 137
UK coronavirus live: Boris Johnson says country can 'turn the tide' in 12 weeks
(32 minutes later)
Rolling coverage of the latest coronavirus developments in the UK
Rolling coverage of the latest coronavirus developments in the UK
Boris Johnson is due to start his daily coronavirus press conference within the next few minutes.
Johnson says testing is crucial to beating this virus.
Around four in 10 coronavirus-related deaths in the UK so far have been in London, the Press Association reports. Its analysis goes on:
He says tests have an enormous potential to help.
The BFI & Radio Times Television Festival has been cancelled.
Vallance says Public Health England will be ramping the number of tests up to 25,000 [per day].
The festival had been scheduled to take place from April 17 to 19 at BFI Southbank in London, but the venue has been closed because of Covid-19.
If the antibody test works, that will be easy to scale up, he says.
The Queen has issued a message to the nation about coronavirus. She is urging everyone to play their part, saying the nation’s history has been shaped by people “coming together to work as one”. She says “we all have a vitally important part to play”.
Q: Almost half the deaths have been in London. Are you going to go further?
Here is the message in full.
Johnson says there is some evidence that in some parts of London compliance with the social distancing rules is “patchy”. The government may have to go further.
Perhaps “people and communities coming together” is not quite the best way of putting it in this era of social distancing, but you know what she means ...
But he won’t shut the transport network, he says. He says there has been some “misunderstanding” in the media. He is not going to stop people going to work.
Britons stranded in Peru have expressed fury that foreign secretary Dominic Raab said there was no way out of the country because of travel restrictions when the British embassy in Lima sent out a communication last night asking hundreds of stranded Britons to register interest in a rescue charter flight put on by Colombian airline Avianca, at a cost of £3,000 a ticket.
Q: Will people be able to go on their summer holidays?
“This is the only charter option that we are aware of at this moment for a direct flight to London,” said the communique asking people to register their interest. Edd Webster, who has organised a WhatsApp group involving hundreds of stranded Britons said he was deeply disappointed that after three days of pleading with MPs and the embassy they have come up with such a solution.
Johnson says he is very confident that we can turn the tide. But that depends on “collective, resolute action”.
Duncan Sharples, whose 22 year old son is among a small group of medical students from Sheffield stranded in Cusco said Raab should not be denying the existence of the Lima embassy’s efforts to get people signed up to such an exploitative venture. He said:
Johnson is taking questions now.
The Foreign and Commonwealth office was approached for comment. It is understood efforts are being made to put on rescue flights in the coming days.
But he says he does not want this press conference to go on for too long.
A social enterprise restaurant in London Bridge is pledging to give out 500 freshly cooked meals each day to vulnerable and disadvantaged members of the local community affected by the Covid-19 outbreak.
Q: People are worried about what extra measures you might introduce. Will you shut pubs and clubs within days? And businesses say the loan procedure takes to long to enable them to keep on staff.
Following a very busy first day and donations from local kitchens, Brigade Bar + Kitchen confirmed the initiative will go ahead tomorrow and, it hoped, would continue for the foreseeable future.
Johnson says he is guided by the science, and by an assessment as to whether the advice is working. If people are staying away from places where they might pick up coronavirus, he will just want to say thank you.
Sky’s Sam Coates has more on the coronavirus emergency powers bill.
If it is not working, “nothing is ruled out”.
Asda has said it will give full pay for 12 weeks to any of its workers if they need to self-isolate due to coronavirus.
Johnson signals that if people ignore the government’s social distancing advice, it could introduce binding rules.
The supermarket giant also said it had started working with a number of national companies to offer temporary jobs to people, in view of the “significant demands” being placed on supermarkets.
On support for business, he says Rishi Sunak, the chancellor, will make an announcement tomorrow.
Asda also announced it will be paying its small suppliers immediately to help them keep their business operating and is to provide a rent-free quarter to about 250 small business tenants in its stores who are struggling to operate during these unprecedented times.
Sunak to give more details of the government’s economic support package tomorrow, Johnson says.
Chief executive Roger Burnley said:
Johnson ends buy saying the government will stand by business.
Students and people who may have lost their jobs in the hospitality and catering sector in the UK are being urged to apply to make up a shortfall of workers on farms, just weeks before harvests begin.
Johnson says, after the 12-week period, science will be able to help the UK to fight coronavirus.
Next month British strawberries will be ripe; blackberries arrive in May, and raspberries, blackcurrants and blueberries will be ready to be picked from June onwards. But the coronavirus pandemic will leave farmers facing a severe shortage of labour to help pick and pack them.
He says the first British person with coronavirus is undergoing a trial for a new drug.
More than 70,000 seasonal workers are normally required to harvest the UK’s fruit and vegetables. Domestic supplies are critical for soft fruits with around 90% of the strawberries and 60% of the raspberries we eat grown in the UK.
And he says randomised tests for vaccines will start within a month.
There is now uncertainty that overseas workers will be able to travel to the UK over the next month to take up those jobs. There is also worry among the existing overseas labour force working on farms in the UK about whether to stay or travel back home.
He says the UK is in negotiations today to buy an antibodies test that will be able to tell if people have had coronavirus.
HOPS has called for interested applicants to find out more and apply online.
If it works, the UK will buy hundreds of thousands of these. If people know they have had this, this can go back to work, because they are less likely to get it again or infect people.
The British Summer Fruits association said it would be mounting a large-scale recruitment campaign in the next few days aimed at that part of the UK population left out of work by the coronavirus. It said 98% of harvest staff last year were from outside the UK.
Johnson says the government is asking a huge amount of the public.
He says he can see the impact on companies. That is why it is vital for the government to stand behind them.
He says he wants to talk today about the timescale for this.
But that will only happen if we take the necessary steps, he says.
Boris Johnson is starting his press conference now. He will with Prof Chris Whitty, the government’s chief medical adviser, and Sir Patrick Vallance, the government’s chief scientific adviser.
And the Welsh government also supports the coronavirus emergency powers bill. This is from Mark Drakeford, the Welsh first minister.
The Scottish government supports the coronavirus emergency powers bill. This is from Michael Russell, the Scottish government’s constitution secretary.
And this is from the BBC’s Daniel Kraemer on the coronavirus emergency powers bill.
This is from Sky’s Sam Coates, on what to expect from the PM’s press conference.
