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UK coronavirus live: Boris Johnson says country can 'turn the tide' in 12 weeks 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 UKRolling coverage of the latest coronavirus developments in the UK
The NHS is using wartime rhetoric in a bid to cajole retired doctors and nurses to come back to help relieve the massive pressure expected on hospitals from Covid-19.
Ruth May, chief nursing officer for England, said:
The appeal, from their professional bodies - the Nursing and Midwifery Council and the General Medical Council - will go to 50,000 nurses and 15,500 doctors who have left the NHS in the last three years, asking them to re-register.
“By offering to return to the NHS now, these thousands of well-qualified and compassionate people will make more of a difference than ever before - not just to patients, but to colleagues and the wider community,” says Professor Stephen Powis, national medical director for the NHS.Final year medical students and student nurses are also being offered the chance to take temporary, fully-paid roles on the frontline. A variety of jobs - clinical and non-clinical - will be available to any of the retirees who want to come back to help.
The head of the UK’s biggest children’s hospice has warned that frontline charities providing vital health and care services to vulnerable people face financial catastrophe without urgent government aid to keep them afloat.
Toby Porter, chief executive of Acorns hospice in the West Midlands, told the Guardian that smaller charities dependent on community fundraising and charity shop income could be forced to reduce services within weeks.
Charity leaders have estimated the sector as a whole faces losses running into hundreds of millions over the next few months as thousands of fundraising events are cancelled, ranging from the London Marathon through to local fetes and coffee mornings.
Porter said:
Acorns Hospice provides palliative nursing care and support to 800 babies and children with life-limiting or life-threatening conditions every year. Nearly two thirds of its £11m income is dependent on fundraising and from profits from its 54 charity shops. Those £1m profits evaporate if high streets are are locked down, leaving the charity with huge fixed costs.
There is growing anger across the voluntary sector that at a time when they are being asked to step up to deliver local support for vulnerable people affected by coronavirus measures the government has yet to offer them emergency funding in the same way as it has for small and medium sized business.
Karl Wilding, chief executive of the National Council for Voluntary Organisations tweeted:
A winter night shelter run by a Christian charity in Glasgow is to close after a guest and member of staff tested positive for coronavirus.
Glasgow City Mission helps vulnerable and disadvantaged people in the city with situations including homelessness, addiction, poverty, family breakdown, prostitution, persecution overseas and asylum.
People who had been planning to use the facility will now be directed to alternative accommodation.
Continuing advice is being issued by the Scottish Government for those with any symptoms to self-isolate for seven days. The charity has called for funding to help at-risk people do this.
The department of health and social care has announced £2.9 billion of the chancellor’s £5 billion response fund will go to help sort out a long-running problem that is now going to become critical: the “bed blocking” in the NHS caused by elderly and vulnerable people who are fit to go home but have no safe home to go to.
Local authorities will get £1.6 billion to boost the social care workforce - the carers who are vital to look after elderly people and those with other needs once they get out of hospital, whether they are returning to their own home or moving into a care home.
The rest of the money - £1.3 billion - will go to “enhance the NHS discharge process”, so that those who are fit to be discharged can actually leave.
Health and social care secretary Matt Hancock said:
If some elderly and vulnerable people get out of hospital and home sooner, then something good will have come out of this crisis, although the Local Government Association pointed out that the money would just help with the extra impact that coronavirus is having.
Cllr Ian Hudspeth, Chairman of the LGA’s Community Wellbeing Board:
Johnson says he is often accused of sounding “unnecessarily boosterish”.
He does not want to strike that note today, he says.
But he thinks we will start to get through this, he says.
He says companies should “think very carefully” before they lay off their staff.
He says at some point in the future he may start holding these press conferences remotely. But he wants to ensure that he carries on holding these discussions every day.
He says he does not want people to think they are not following their own advice.
He ask the journalists what they want. Someone says it is important reporters can ask him questions. He says he will ensure that happens, although perhaps not all at the same time.
And that’s it.
I will post a summary and analysis soon.
Q: You say you think you can turn the tide in 12 weeks. What does that mean? Does that mean we will be returning to our normal lives?
Johnson says he wants us to get on top of this. At the moment the disease does not seem yet to be responding to the interventions. A combination of the measures taken by the public and better testing will enable us to turn the tide.
But Johnson says he cannot say that by the end of June we will be on a downward slope.
But this will be “finite”, he says.
Vallance says the measures in place should have an impact on the rate of growth of the epidemic.
You would expect the epidemic to come down. Then you can move to a phase where you test and trace.
There are then trials starting, one today, and vaccine trials later.
That is where we need to get to, he says.
Q: Is there any evidence young people are being affected worse than expected?
Whitty says most people who get this experience just a mild illness.
Older people get it more severely, he says.
But he says that does not mean that there will not be severe cases amongst some young adults.
Q: Do you accept that every day you delay announcing business support measures, thousands of jobs will go.
Johnson says it is vital that people understand that government will support business, and businesses should support their workers.
He says he thinks the government will have a “great package” on this. Rishi Sunak will say more tomorrow, he says.
Whitty says the government is confident that antibody tests will become available. But it is not sure yet whether the ones on the market work.
He says, once they are available, NHS staff will be the first priority group to get them.
He says they will help society normalise, even while a relatively large number of cases are still occurring.
Q: Are you worried about people profiteering?
Johnson says he hopes retailers will be reasonable. He really does not want to see any profiteering, he says.
“Please be reasonable”, he says.
Whitty says the pressure on London will rise.
A&E and respiratory care in hospitals will come under pressure.
Even if everyone does what the government is advising, the numbers will still go up for the next fortnight. That is because, even if the social distancing measures work, there will be a lag.
He says there is evidence that a huge number of people are taking social distancing seriously.
But we do not yet know whether that will be enough to work.
Whitty says social distancing measures will not stop coronavirus cases rising for at least two weeks.
He says it is too soon to know whether the social distancing measures will work.
Johnson says testing is crucial to beating this virus.Johnson says testing is crucial to beating this virus.
He says tests have an enormous potential to help.He says tests have an enormous potential to help.
Vallance says Public Health England will be ramping the number of tests up to 25,000 [per day].Vallance says Public Health England will be ramping the number of tests up to 25,000 [per day].
If the antibody test works, that will be easy to scale up, he says.If the antibody test works, that will be easy to scale up, he says.
Q: Almost half the deaths have been in London. Are you going to go further?
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.
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.
Q: Will people be able to go on their summer holidays?
Johnson says he is very confident that we can turn the tide. But that depends on “collective, resolute action”.
Johnson is taking questions now.
But he says he does not want this press conference to go on for too long.
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.
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.
If it is not working, “nothing is ruled out”.
Johnson signals that if people ignore the government’s social distancing advice, it could introduce binding rules.
On support for business, he says Rishi Sunak, the chancellor, will make an announcement tomorrow.
Sunak to give more details of the government’s economic support package tomorrow, Johnson says.
Johnson ends buy saying the government will stand by business.
Johnson says, after the 12-week period, science will be able to help the UK to fight coronavirus.
He says the first British person with coronavirus is undergoing a trial for a new drug.
And he says randomised tests for vaccines will start within a month.
He says the UK is in negotiations today to buy an antibodies test that will be able to tell if people have had coronavirus.
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.
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.