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| UK coronavirus live: Hancock says vaccine trials start this week but denies 'political decision' not to join EU ventilator scheme | |
| (32 minutes later) | |
| UK hospital deaths up by 823 to 17,337; MPs vote for virtual parliament sessions; Boris Johnson speaks to Trump | UK hospital deaths up by 823 to 17,337; MPs vote for virtual parliament sessions; Boris Johnson speaks to Trump |
| Q: There have been reports the China has run a global disinformation campaign to deflect the blame for its own responsibility for this. What is your response? | |
| Hancock says he has not seen that report. But he thinks there has been disinformation. He says it is vital that people are provided with accurate information about what has been happening. | |
| Hancock says some of the firms offering to supply PPE to the government have not been credible. Some have only just been formed, he says. | |
| He says, in trying to procure it worldwide, the government has tried to go direct to the source. It is more secure if you deal directly with the factory, he says. | |
| Van-Tam says Sage, the scientific advisory group for emergencies, has met today to discuss face mask policy. In time a recommendation will go to ministers, and they will make a decision. | |
| But the government will not do anything that might jeopardise the supply of PPE to medical staff, he says. | |
| Q: Why did the most senior figure at the Foreign Office say it was a political decision not to join the EU’s ventilator procurement scheme, when the government claimed it was a communications mix-up? | |
| Hancock says he has not seen what Sir Simon McDonald said. (See 4.17pm.) But he says he has spoken to Dominic Raab, the foreign secretary. Raab told him there was no political decision not to participate. | |
| But no PPE has been delivered through that scheme, he says. | |
| (Hancock seems to be confusing the EU ventilator procurement scheme with a separate EU PPE procurement one.) | |
| Van-Tam is now presenting the daily slides. | |
| Van-Tam says this next one is particularly important. | |
| He says hospital cases in London did peak, probably on 10 April. Since then they have gone down. But in other regions it has been more of a plateau, he says. | |
| This slide is a new addition. It shows the gap between hospital coronavirus deaths and all coronavirus deaths. | |
| And here is the final slide, with global comparisons. | |
| Hancock turns to vaccines. | |
| He says the UK will throw everything it has at trying to find one. | |
| Two of the leading efforts around the world are taking place in the UK, he says. | |
| He says today he is making £22m available to Imperial to support their phase two trials. | |
| And he is making £20m available to the Oxford team to accelerate their trials. The vaccine from the Oxford project will be trialled on people from Thursday. | |
| Normally it would take years to get to this point, he says. | |
| And he says the government is investing in manufacturing capability so, if it works, it can be produced in scale. | |
| He says nothing about this is inevitable. Vaccine production is a matter of trial and error, he says. | |
| He says the benefits of getting a vaccine are so huge “that I am throwing everything at it”. | |
| Hancock turns to PPE. | |
| He says since the crisis started one billion items of PPE have been delivered. | |
| He thanks firms that have offered to supply PPE. | |
| He says some firms who have approached the government have been unable to provide equipment on scale. | |
| But he says the government is now working with 159 potential UK suppliers. | |
| The government is determined to get the equipment it needs, he says. He says it has been a huge procurement effort. | |
| Hancock says the government will not relax the lockdown until certain conditions are met. Above all, there must be no second peak, he says. | |
| Hancock says the government’s priority has been to stop the NHS being overwhelmed. That has happened. At no point has the NHS been unable to treat a patient needing treatment, he says. | |
| He reads out the latest death and testing figures. | |
| Matt Hancock, the health secretary, is holding the government’s daily press conference. He is appearing with Prof Jonathan Van-Tam, the deputy chief medical officer for England, and Prof John Newton, director of health improvement at Public Health England. | |
| A health board has pledged to look into the availability of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) at its hospitals after staff appealed for help sourcing supplies, writes my colleague Ben Quinn. A post on a Facebook group, which has been widely shared, carried an image of a mask described as an Easimask Duckbill, and claimed that University Hospital of Wales (UHW) no longer had stocks. | A health board has pledged to look into the availability of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) at its hospitals after staff appealed for help sourcing supplies, writes my colleague Ben Quinn. A post on a Facebook group, which has been widely shared, carried an image of a mask described as an Easimask Duckbill, and claimed that University Hospital of Wales (UHW) no longer had stocks. |
| It said: | It said: |
| Contacted about the claims, Cardiff and Vale University Health Board said in a statement that it was aware of concerns raised by some staff in the media regarding the availability and or inaccessibility of PPE.It added: | Contacted about the claims, Cardiff and Vale University Health Board said in a statement that it was aware of concerns raised by some staff in the media regarding the availability and or inaccessibility of PPE.It added: |
| It said that it had enough PPE equipment available and in stock, if the right level of PPE was used in the right circumstances. | It said that it had enough PPE equipment available and in stock, if the right level of PPE was used in the right circumstances. |
| As the mystery of the missing consignment of PPE from Turkey continues, the Guardian’s defence and security editor Dan Sabbagh writes that supplies are edging closer to the plane that will transport them back to the UK: | |
| At last, some of the PPE bought by the NHS from Turkey is clearing customs at Istanbul airport, defence sources report. It’s not clear long it will take to get the single waiting RAF A400M transport plane, or whether it includes of all the 400,000 protective gowns badly needed by the NHS. But after days of delay and broken promises it is possible some PPE will be brought back from Turkey overnight. | At last, some of the PPE bought by the NHS from Turkey is clearing customs at Istanbul airport, defence sources report. It’s not clear long it will take to get the single waiting RAF A400M transport plane, or whether it includes of all the 400,000 protective gowns badly needed by the NHS. But after days of delay and broken promises it is possible some PPE will be brought back from Turkey overnight. |
| Another nine people have died with Covid-19 in Northern Ireland in the last 24 hours, Stormont deputy fist minister Michelle O’Neill said. | Another nine people have died with Covid-19 in Northern Ireland in the last 24 hours, Stormont deputy fist minister Michelle O’Neill said. |
| She said the projected worst case scenario of 1,500 deaths in the first 20 weeks was still “shocking and harrowing” but that had been significantly reduced.“The reduction is because of you and your actions have saved thousands of lives,” she said. | She said the projected worst case scenario of 1,500 deaths in the first 20 weeks was still “shocking and harrowing” but that had been significantly reduced.“The reduction is because of you and your actions have saved thousands of lives,” she said. |
| First Minister Arlene Foster said the ministerial executive at Stormont would have more discussions about whether to reopen cemeteries during the coronavirus lockdown. She said visiting could be allowed over limited hours and making sure social distancing was in place, admitting other colleagues had “justifiable concerns”. | First Minister Arlene Foster said the ministerial executive at Stormont would have more discussions about whether to reopen cemeteries during the coronavirus lockdown. She said visiting could be allowed over limited hours and making sure social distancing was in place, admitting other colleagues had “justifiable concerns”. |
| Downing Street has just released the read-out of the telephone call that Boris Johnson had with President Trump earlier. Here it is in full. A No 10 spokesperson said: | Downing Street has just released the read-out of the telephone call that Boris Johnson had with President Trump earlier. Here it is in full. A No 10 spokesperson said: |
| At the lunchtime Downing Street briefing the prime minister’s spokesman claimed that Johnson was still recuperating and that he was not “formally doing government work”. This is now sounding more and more like the sort of lie many of us tell our GPs (“definitely no more than 20 units a week, doctor”). If discussing a global crisis with the president of the US does not count as government work, it is hard to know what does. | At the lunchtime Downing Street briefing the prime minister’s spokesman claimed that Johnson was still recuperating and that he was not “formally doing government work”. This is now sounding more and more like the sort of lie many of us tell our GPs (“definitely no more than 20 units a week, doctor”). If discussing a global crisis with the president of the US does not count as government work, it is hard to know what does. |