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| Coronavirus UK live: hospital death rate rises by 413 in lowest increase since end of March - as it happened | |
| (32 minutes later) | |
| Vaccine ‘not likely to come to fruition this year’, says foreign secretary; Speculating on how to ease lockdown is not responsible, says Raab; Boris Johnson to return to work on Monday | Vaccine ‘not likely to come to fruition this year’, says foreign secretary; Speculating on how to ease lockdown is not responsible, says Raab; Boris Johnson to return to work on Monday |
| Here are the key points from the Downing Street briefing: | |
| The increase in daily deaths from coronavirus is at it lowest level since the end of March. Environment Secretary George Eustice said 413 people had died taking the total to 20,732. This is the lowest level since 3o March but it is expected to increase during the working week. | |
| Eustice said furloughed workers will be encouraged to take on second jobs as fruit pickers to help farmers struggling with labour supplies. He pointed out that only third of the usual workforce was available to farmers. | |
| Stephen Powis, the medical director of NHS England, said he would have no problem with the government publishing the membership of Sage. But Eustice defended keeping the composition of group secret, he said: “It’s important scientists can have discussions free of external influence.” He also said it was important to protect their security. | |
| Eustice claimed there had been a “dramatic improvement” in food supplies. He said grocery supplies were back to normal levels and panic buying had subsided. | |
| Powis said he was encouraged by the decline in hospital admissions and deaths. “All our efforts, hard though they might be, have begun to pay off,” he said. But he added: “This is not the time to say we’ve done a good job we need to stop complying’ with social distancing.” | |
| That’s it for today. They’ll be more from around 7.30am on Monday. And you can follow the latest on our coronavirus outbreak section. | |
| Q: What extra help can the government give to local councils on social care? What evidence is there that deaths in care home reducing? And was it an oversight not to include care home deaths in the daily figure? | |
| Eustice said the government recognised there were new burdens on councils, which is why they had been given extra cash. | |
| Powis said it was easier to count daily deaths in NHS hospitals. There was a straightforward system already in place, he said. But there are thousands of independently run care homes, which makes it more difficult. There is a longer time for deaths in the community to be reported and recorded, he pointed out. | |
| Q: How will the government enforce quarantine measures for those going on holiday? And are we beyond the peak of the epidemic? | |
| Eustice said international travel could become more of a significant risk that needs to be managed. No decisions have been taken in this space yet, he said. | |
| Powis said over the last few weeks that previously upward curves in infections and deaths had started to decline. That change has happened because people have been following the guidance. He said he feared the curves could go in an upward direction again. This was exactly the time to keep up the effort, he said, and the slight uptick in transport needed to be watched. | |
| Q: Are we going to have to get used to food shortages? | |
| Eustice said there was not a serious interruption to international food supplies. There was a problem with stacking shelves, he said, but there had been a “dramatic improvement” in supermarket supplies. He said he was acutely aware that the British season of soft fruit was about to start, with only a third of the usual workforce available. Furloughed staff could help with picking in June, he said. | |
| Q: When will the PM set out a lockdown exit strategy? What evidence is there for care home deaths coming down? | Q: When will the PM set out a lockdown exit strategy? What evidence is there for care home deaths coming down? |
| Eustice said the lockdown would be reviewed in two weeks. It’s important that we don’t risk a second peak, he said. You’ll be hearing from the PM over the next week, he said. | |
| Powis said the information that was needed to lift the lockdown was not available. He cited research about immunity to the virus. He said this was not going to be binary but was going to be a continually evolving approach. | |
| Q: How can the public get an idea of the balance of Sage without confirmation of the membership? And when will contact tracing resume? | |
| Eustice said it was important that scientists could have discussions free of influence. The composition of the committee also changes, he said. | |
| Powis says he has no problem with the names of the members of Sage being published. On contact tracing, he said it takes a lot of resources. A digital app will help, he said. It is easier to do when there are fewer people, he said. | |
| Q: Could schools open and when will care home patients be tested? | Q: Could schools open and when will care home patients be tested? |
| Eustice said social distancing would need to take place when schools opened, but he gave no commitment to opening schools. | |
| Powis said the R reproduction number needs to be below 1 before schools could be open. It is highly likely that there will be a “combination of measures” to try to keep that number below 1. He said testing was expanding at the moment and that it was important that it continued to expand. | |
| Powis showed encouraging data suggesting that hospitals admissions were down. | Powis showed encouraging data suggesting that hospitals admissions were down. |
| “We now have a very definite trend in the reduced number of people in hospitals with Covid-19,” he said. | “We now have a very definite trend in the reduced number of people in hospitals with Covid-19,” he said. |
| Eustice repeated that it was too early to talk about easing the lockdown. He stressed that the government would need to see progress on its five tests before the lockdown could be eased. | Eustice repeated that it was too early to talk about easing the lockdown. He stressed that the government would need to see progress on its five tests before the lockdown could be eased. |
| Eustice said 413 people were reported to have died with coronavirus in UK hospitals in the last 24 hours, taking the UK’s total of hospital deaths to 20,732. This is the lowest daily rise since the end of March. | Eustice said 413 people were reported to have died with coronavirus in UK hospitals in the last 24 hours, taking the UK’s total of hospital deaths to 20,732. This is the lowest daily rise since the end of March. |
| Eustice said 29,058 tests were completed on Saturday - still way behind the target of 100,000. He said the number of hospital admissions had fallen to 15,953. | Eustice said 29,058 tests were completed on Saturday - still way behind the target of 100,000. He said the number of hospital admissions had fallen to 15,953. |
| The environment secretary, George Eustice, is about to lead today’s Downing Street briefing. He will be joined by Stephen Powis, the medical director of NHS England. | The environment secretary, George Eustice, is about to lead today’s Downing Street briefing. He will be joined by Stephen Powis, the medical director of NHS England. |
| Some rural dwellers in England have turned to vigilantism by attempting to block roads, confront cyclists and erect signs in an effort to deter people from travelling to the countryside for exercise during the lockdown, the Guardian has been told. | Some rural dwellers in England have turned to vigilantism by attempting to block roads, confront cyclists and erect signs in an effort to deter people from travelling to the countryside for exercise during the lockdown, the Guardian has been told. |
| The National Rural Crime Network has received reports of “small-scale vigilantism” by certain residents growing angry at people driving long distances to the countryside and other beauty spots, for walks or cycle rides. The organisation’s chair said people had even been “aggressively driving at cyclists”. | The National Rural Crime Network has received reports of “small-scale vigilantism” by certain residents growing angry at people driving long distances to the countryside and other beauty spots, for walks or cycle rides. The organisation’s chair said people had even been “aggressively driving at cyclists”. |
| Their behaviour has caused concern with those who point out people enjoying the countryside to exercise are not necessarily breaking government rules if they maintain physical distancing, with one police leader telling vigilantes not to take the law into their own hands. | Their behaviour has caused concern with those who point out people enjoying the countryside to exercise are not necessarily breaking government rules if they maintain physical distancing, with one police leader telling vigilantes not to take the law into their own hands. |
| Senior doctors fear that thousands of routine vaccination appointments may be missed or delayed because of the coronavirus lockdown, raising the risk of sudden and potentially fatal outbreaks of other diseases when restrictions on movement are finally eased. | Senior doctors fear that thousands of routine vaccination appointments may be missed or delayed because of the coronavirus lockdown, raising the risk of sudden and potentially fatal outbreaks of other diseases when restrictions on movement are finally eased. |
| GPs and A&E departments have witnessed unprecedented falls in the numbers of people seeking medical care in recent weeks, prompting concerns that vital routine immunisations for infections such as measles, mumps, rubella, tetanus and whooping cough are falling by the wayside. | |
| Helen Bedford, a professor of children’s health at the UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health, said: “We are very concerned. There are no data yet because we have only been in lockdown for a month, but there are plenty of anecdotes from practice nurses and others saying they have noticed a decline in vaccine uptake.” Bedford is also a member of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health’s health promotion committee. | |
| Second home owners in Wales could be ordered to leave their properties under “draconian” measures adopted by the Welsh government, the first minister has said, according to PA. | |
| Mark Drakeford said there were discussions with the police and local authorities about enforcing such a ban. | Mark Drakeford said there were discussions with the police and local authorities about enforcing such a ban. |
| On Friday revised lockdown regulations were published, which made it clear people cannot remain away from the place they live. This was seen in some quarters as a way of clamping down on the use of second homes as there had been calls for a ban on travelling to the properties. | |
| Drakeford told the BBC’s Politics Wales programme: | |
| Last week a group of doctors from across Wales called for second homes to be made illegal during the pandemic and said non-essential travel to them was highly likely to increase the presence of Covid-19 in rural areas. | |
| John Lewis is reopening its textiles factory in Lancashire, which usually makes curtains, pillows and duvets, to make 8,000 clinical gowns for the NHS to help medical staff caring for coronavirus patients. | John Lewis is reopening its textiles factory in Lancashire, which usually makes curtains, pillows and duvets, to make 8,000 clinical gowns for the NHS to help medical staff caring for coronavirus patients. |
| The department store’s Herbert Parkinson factory is bringing back 15 sowing experts from furlough, who will use medical-grade fabric to make washable protective gowns for staff at the Northumbria NHS foundation trust, which runs at least nine hospitals and other clinical centres in the north-east. | |
| The move comes amid a shortage of protective equipment for NHS workers, and particularly protective gowns made with the non-woven, spun-bond laminate called SMMS, which John Lewis will use. | |
| The eminent barrister and writer Philippe Sands, suggests that the attorney general, Suella Braverman, should intervene to stop Dominic Cummings from attending Sage meetings. | The eminent barrister and writer Philippe Sands, suggests that the attorney general, Suella Braverman, should intervene to stop Dominic Cummings from attending Sage meetings. |
| Braverman is best known for her enthusiasm for Brexit and loyalty to the government, so this seems highly unlikely, but it’s an interesting suggestion. | |
| Testing for coronavirus remains a particular problem in Wales. | Testing for coronavirus remains a particular problem in Wales. |
| A reader, who did not want to be named, emailed a photo of an empty testing centre at Cardiff Stadium at 1.45pm on Sunday. | A reader, who did not want to be named, emailed a photo of an empty testing centre at Cardiff Stadium at 1.45pm on Sunday. |
| The reader said: | The reader said: |
| The Welsh government has scraped a target for 5,000 tests per day blaming problems with obtaining supplies. And health minister Vaughan Gething claimed the lockdown had been so effective that 5,000 tests per day were no longer needed. | |
| Despite daily testing capacity increasing to 1,800, the numbers of completed tests fell from 1,301 on Friday to 775 on Saturday, Public Health Wales said. | Despite daily testing capacity increasing to 1,800, the numbers of completed tests fell from 1,301 on Friday to 775 on Saturday, Public Health Wales said. |
| The first minister, Mark Drakeford, has defended the delay in launching an online system for key workers to book coronavirus tests in Wales. | |
| Speaking to the BBC he said he wanted to ensure the online booking system worked before it was launched. | Speaking to the BBC he said he wanted to ensure the online booking system worked before it was launched. |
| Public Health Wales has announced that deaths in Wales have risen by 14 to 778. It also said that infections had increased by 178 to 9,078. | Public Health Wales has announced that deaths in Wales have risen by 14 to 778. It also said that infections had increased by 178 to 9,078. |