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Coronavirus UK live: Matt Hancock holds daily Downing Street briefing
Coronavirus UK live: hospital death toll rises by record of 980; Matt Hancock holds daily briefing
(32 minutes later)
Boris Johnson ‘in good spirits’ after discharge from intensive care; No 10 defends Robert Jenrick’s lockdown journeys; public urged to stay home over Easter
Boris Johnson ‘in good spirits’ after discharge from intensive care; health secretary says all staff in critical role will get PPE; public urged to stay home over Easter
The government’s daily coronavirus press briefing is due to begin shortly and will be fronted by the health secretary Matt Hancock.
The number of new cases is at a high level and the number is varying day by day.
He will be joined by the deputy chief medical officer for England, Jonathan Van-Tam and the chief nursing officer for England, Ruth May.
Van-Tam is speaking now.
Boris Johnson has “been able to do short walks” as part of his recovery and has spoken to his doctors and medical team to thank them for “the incredible care” he has received, Downing Street has said.
Transport use has stayed at low levels in all forms. This must keep going – “this is not over”, he said.
The prime minister is back on a ward at St Thomas’ Hospital after being discharged from the intensive care unit where he was being treated for Covid-19.
Alongside the new NHS hospitals in London, Birmingham, Manchester, Harrogate and Bristol; Sunderland and Exeter will soon have Nightingale hospitals too.
A No 10 spokesman said:
May is speaking now.
United Private Hire Drivers, the representative body for UK private hire drivers, has initiated a legal challenge against what it has deemed central and local government failure to protect licensed private hire drivers and their passengers from Covid-19 infection.
She says staying at home is saving lives.
Launching an emergency Crowdjustice campaign to raise the funds necessary to apply for a judicial review at the high court, the organisation has called on the health secretary, Matt Hancock, and the mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, to urge the government to introduce safety standards for private operators.
She also thanks key workers for the work they are doing that allows health and social care staff to keep working.
UPHD said the action comes after one member died after contracting coronavirus and another two have become seriously ill. Ayub Akthar passed away last week due to complications relating to Covid-19. Abdurzak Hadi became seriously ill but is now recovering.
Hancock has once again urged people to stay at home this bank holiday weekend.
Transport for London and other licensing authorities have not insisted upon separation distance requirements, PPE, detailed safety protocols and driver training. In contrast, UPHD highlights how the Dutch authorities have introduced emergency regulations to control the risk of Covid-19 infection in cabs by enforcing a 1.5 metre separation, mandatory use of personal protection equipment, sanitation routines and limiting service to one passenger at a time.
The third strand is future supply – ensuring there is enough PPE to see us through the crisis.
Private hire operators such as Uber and Addison Lee have targeted NHS staff with free and discounted journeys during this time of pandemic. UPHD said although this is welcome, it presents significant mutual risk for passengers and drivers and, as a result, regulatory action is needed to reduce the risk of transmission of the virus in licensed private hire vehicles.
New supply lines are being established from across the world, buying directly from manufacturers according to standards.
James Farrar, chair of UPHD, said:
Domestic production will also be ramped up. Many businesses have come forward to repurpose their production lines to meet needs.
Simon Cox, a barrister from Doughty Street Chambers, said:
In particular, Hancock has thanked Burberry, Roll’s Royce and McLaren, Ineos and Diageo for their efforts.
Experts in the US have warned of a potential rise in suicides as a result of public health measures to tackle the spread of Covid-19.
He invites other businesses to contact the government if they can do the same.
Writing in the journal JAMA psychiatry, the team said their warning does not mean such measures should not be used, but it is important suicide prevention is enhanced.
The second strand is distribution – making sure that anyone who needs PPE can get it at the right time.
Among their concerns, the trio of researchers from the University of Washington and Florida State University note the impact of the coronavirus on businesses, writing:
Hancock called this a “herculean logistical effort” bringing together the NHS, private industry and the armed forces to create a “giant” PPE network on an “unprecedented” scale.
Experts have already warned that mass unemployment in the US could result in widespread mental health problems.
That network is now delivering daily to the frontline. So far more than £752m pieces of PPE have been delivered.
The new article also reports that physical distancing could be problematic. “Suicidal thoughts and behaviours are associated with social isolation and loneliness,” they write, adding that approaches to staying connected through technology should be promoted.
Every NHS hospital has received a supply of PPE once every 72 hours – from next week this will be daily.
Among other concerns, the trio suggest measures such as school closures may make it harder for people to keep appointments for mental health treatment – with the team arguing for interventions including better screening of Covid-19 patients for mental health problems, and remote suicide prevention schemes.
In the coming weeks, PPE delivery systems will be scaled up further. Over the next three weeks an online portal will be rolled out allowing primary care and social care a system to request PPE from a central inventory, so demand can be tracked and deliveries made according to need.
Additionally the team say healthcare professionals have an elevated risk of suicide, and call for greater support for those on the frontline of the pandemic.
Today the government has published its PPE plan, which has three strands, Hancock said.
It is not the first time such concerns have been raised. In the UK it was announced this week that NHS staff will be offered free mental health support to help them cope with the situation.
Strand one is on guidance – who needs PPE, when they need it, and who does not.
Responding to the article, an NHS England spokesperson said:
The new guidance included the clinical advice that many items of PPE can be used for a whole session, not be changed after treating each individual patient.
Prof Rory O’Connor of the Suicidal Behaviour Research Laboratory at the University of Glasgow welcomed the study, saying it chimed with ongoing work in the UK. But, he said, mental health consequences of the pandemic will not affect everyone equally:
Outside of health and social care, the best way to protect yourself and others is regularly hand-washing and keeping 2 metres apart – and to stay at home.
O’Connor added that his own team has launched a study to identify who is most at risk of suicide and how to mitigate such risks.
Hancock has set a goal that everyone working in a critical role will get the PPE they need to protect themselves.
In the UK, Samaritans can be contacted 24 hours a day on 116 123 or by emailing jo@samaritans.org, while they have also put together information regarding mental health during the coronavirus outbreak here.
He noted the huge international demand on global supplies of PPE.
Following a degree of backlash after The Times reported (paywall) that our elected representatives are being offered £10,000 for additional office costs incurred as a result of the pandemic by parliament’s expenses authority, several MPs have taken to social media to clarify that this money is not “extra pay” for politicians.
There is also high demand for PPE within the UK, so everyone should use “no more and no less” than what they clinically need.
Rather than being to help MPs work from home – as it has been framed in some reports – the money is available to be claimed in order to buy additional equipment such as laptops and printers for staff who are now having to work from home during the lockdown. This is on top of the £26,000 MPs can claim to cover office costs.
In normal times the NHS supply chain for PPE supplies equipment to 233 hospital trust. Right now, 58,000 separate health and care providers need PPE.
The extra funds will be available until March 2021 and come with a relaxation of the rules on evidence of purchases.
Yesterday, Hancock said he opened a mega-lab in Milton Keynes. Two more are on track, one in Cheshire and Glasgow.
In guidance, published last month, the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA) said it was “committed to supporting MPs and their staff to carry on with their work as far as possible” during this “uncertain and challenging time for the country”.
AstraZeneca and GSK are opening another in Cambridge.
This thread is from the Labour MP Nadia Whittome:
There are now 15 drive-through testing centres for NHS staff including in Glasgow, London and Plymouth.
This is from the Conservative MP Julie Marson:
Hancock said there is now capacity for “all key social care staff and NHS staff” who need to be tested to get tested.
This is from the Labour MP Wes Streeting:
And this is from the Conservative MP George Freeman:
For added context on how parliament works, the Spectator’s Isabel Hardman has also written this:
Another 29 people are reported to have died after testing positive for Covid-19 in Wales, taking the total there to 315.
There have been 502 new cases of the virus, bringing the total number of confirmed positive tests to 4,591, Public Health Wales said.
In other very British news, South Yorkshire police have apologised after a video circulating on social media appeared to show an officer reprimanding a man for using his own front lawn.
The force said on Twitter, where the video has so far been viewed more than 340,000 times, that the officer in the video had good intentions but was “ill-informed”.
It comes on the same day Cambridgeshire police had to clarify that their force was “not monitoring what people are buying from supermarkets” after an earlier now-deleted tweet attracted backlash for appearing to suggest officers had checked “non essential aisles” in a local Tesco.
This is all just a day after the chief constable of Northamptonshire police, Nick Adderley, was criticised for the controversial suggestion that officers could start searching shopping trolleys if people kept flouting social distancing rules.
Adderley has since said his use of language was “clumsy” after being criticised for his remarks, including by the home secretary Priti Patel, who said they were “not appropriate”.
Afternoon! This is Lucy Campbell again, bringing you up to speed with all the latest UK coronavirus developments for the rest of the day.
I’m extremely grateful to everyone who has already been in touch with tips and suggestions. If you’d like to contact me please feel free to email me at lucy.campbell@guadian.co.uk or via Twitter @lucy_campbell_.
Police Scotland has issued more than 500 fines to people ignoring the lockdown since the emergency powers came into force two weeks ago, and arrested others who refused to follow instructions, the chief constable, Iain Livingstone has said.
Taking part for the first time in Nicola Sturgeon’s daily coronavirus press conference, Livingstone said the fines and arrests came after police had to break up house parties or large groups of people gathering outside.
In the first week, the force issued just over 140 fixed penalty notices, implying non-compliance has increased nearly three-fold in the last week. The fines cost £60 or £30 if paid within 28 days.
“With the continued support and cooperation of our fellow citizens, Police Scotland will explain the legal instructions, encourage compliance and when necessary, enforce the law,” he said.
Policing of this would be “fair, reasonable and proportionate,” he said, adding: “Do not make personal exemptions bespoke to your own circumstances.”
Asked by the BBC if she was worried people were growing fatigued by the lockdown, Sturgeon said: “Of course I worry about people tiring of this. I think we all find it more difficult to comply with these rules as every day passes.
“That will get more difficult as we go into spring and the weather gets better, the nights get lighter. Nobody is under any illusion about that. But that is why it remains important for all us in government to be very clear with people: we will not ask you to do this for a minute longer than necessary.”
Asked why the former chief medical officer, Catherine Calderwood, was not fined for twice breaching the lockdown and only given a verbal warning, Livingstone said the police rightly accepted her immediate acknowledgement she had broken the law and would not do so again.
NHS England has announced 866 new deaths of people who tested positive for Covid-19, bringing the total number of confirmed reported deaths in hospitals in England to 8,114.
Of the 866 new deaths announced today, 117 occurred on 9 April while 720 took place between 1 April and 8 April.
The remaining 29 deaths occurred in March, including one on March 5.
A further 10 people with coronavirus have died in Northern Ireland, taking the total number of deaths to 92.
There are 112 newly confirmed cases of Covid-19 in Northern Ireland - now a total of 1,589.
The first minister of Wales said the coronavirus lockdown could be “tightened” in Wales, including people not being allowed outside to exercise, if there was “large-scale flouting” of the guidelines.
Speaking at a press briefing in Cardiff, Mark Drakeford added fines could be increased but said he did not want to toughen measures because the rules are “an enormous burden” already.
He added: “The small minority [who flout rules] need to get the message and get into line.”
The first minister also said he would only relax physical distancing measures “when the evidence shows it is safe”, and that such a decision would not be based on any similar actions in England.
Drakeford also denied announcing an extension of the lockdown in Wales on Wednesday to “get in ahead of Westminster”.
He said: “I wanted to be honest with people here in Wales and did not want them going into Easter believing they were on the final stretch and come next week the restrictions would be all over.”
This is Jessica Murray, taking over the blog while my colleague Lucy has a short break.
A 30-year-old man has been charged with fraud after allegedly spending six free nights at a hotel by claiming to be an NHS worker.
Ben Quince checked into the Casa hotel, in Chesterfield, at the end of March on a floor reserved for NHS staff, Derbyshire police said.
He stayed there for six nights and allegedly told staff he worked in the A&E department at Chesterfield Royal hospital.
The hotel is offering complimentary lodgings for health workers during the Covid-19 pandemic, the force said.
Quince, of no fixed address, has been charged with fraud by false representation.
He appeared at Southern Derbyshire magistrates court on Monday and was bailed to appear again at a later date, police said.
