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UK coronavirus live: Alok Sharma to lead government briefing as furlough job retention scheme extended
UK coronavirus live: Alok Sharma leads government briefing as furlough job retention scheme extended
(32 minutes later)
UK coronavirus death toll passes 40,000, official figures say; Health secretary dodges questions over people’s legal right to refuse return to work; further lockdowns inevitable without stronger plan, scientists warn
Guidance published for businesses on how to operate safely; UK coronavirus death toll passes 40,000, official figures say; further lockdowns inevitable without stronger plan, scientists warn
Q: Why does your advice treat people under 70 the same, when people in their 20s are at much less risk than people in their 50s?
Sharma says every death is a tragedy. That is why the government advice tries to protect people.
Sarah Albon, chief executive of the Health and Safety Executive, says the guidance for firms makes allowance for who is in the most vulnerable category.
Powis says the older people are, the more at risks they are.
But age is not the only risk factor. Obesity, underlying health and ethnicity are also factors, he says.
Q: At one stage experts were saying there could be between 7,000 and 20,000 deaths. Why did you get it so wrong?
Powis says the original reasonable worst case scenario envisaged 500,000 deaths. He says the UK is doing much better than that.
Q: What can you do to help care homes stay open?
Sharma says the government is providing support to businesses. He acknowledges this is a difficult time.
He says the cumulative value of “bounce back” loans is £8bn. And the business interruption loans scheme has paid out £6bn, he says.d
Q: But care homes don’t need to furlough staff. And their business is not interrupted. Yet they still need help.
Sharma says the business support offered is among the best in the world.
Here is the hospital data slide.
And here is the final slide.
The global deaths comparison chart has been abandoned.
Downing Street suggested this might happen at the briefing early. The figures were a huge embarrassment to No 10, so perhaps it is not surprising that they have been erased from the daily record. (See 2.35pm.)
Prof Stephen Powis, the medical director of NHS England, is now presenting the rest of the slides.
He says there are in an “updated format” compared to how they used to be presented.
Here is the transport use one.
Here is the slide for deaths of those who tested positive for coronavirus
And this slide shows deaths where coronavirus was suspected, as well as where it was confirmed.
He says this shows the death rate falling, including in care homes.
Sharma says the government wants workers to feel safe as they go back to work.
Sharma says he thinks he has reached a consensus with unions and business on the guidelines for safe working. (See 10.30am.)
The messaging has changed too, Sharma says, as he introduces slide three.
The next slide shows the three steps for the way ahead.
Sharma is now reminding people of the strategy.
He introduces the first slide. It shows the alert levels.
Sharma is now reading out the latest testing and death figures.
Sharma is now reading out the latest testing and death figures.
The figures are here.
The figures are here.
Alok Sharma, the business secretary, is here for the daily press conference.
Tomorrow the Office for National Statistics will publish its GDP figures for the first quarter of 2020. Growth was flat in the final quarter of 2019 and the real impact of the coronavirus crisis is not expected until the second quarter of 2020 (April to June), when GDP could fall by 35%, if the OBR is right.
So, technically the UK is not in a recession yet (because economists only define a recession after two quarters of negative growth). But Rishi Sunak, the chancellor, told BBC News that in practice the UK was already in one. In an interview with Laura Kuenssberg, asked if the country was facing a recession, Sunak replied:
Reading and Leeds music festivals have been cancelled due to the pandemic.
A statement from the organisers said:
More than half of Britons feel down, depressed and hopeless over the future, a pan-European study of mental health during the pandemic has found.
The international survey of how the Covid-19 crisis is impacting on mental wellbeing reveals that 57% of UK participants had suffered depression and stress.
Overall the three-country investigation concluded that the mental health of 41% of the UK population is at risk as a result of the coronavirus.
The study collected data on people in the UK, Spain and Italy between 24 April and 17 May.
Just 55 prisoners have been released early under plans to alleviate the Covid-19 crisis in jails in England and Wales for which up to 4,000 prisoners are eligible, a minister has revealed.
Lucy Frazer, the justice minister, told the justice select committee that as of 11 May, 21 pregnant women had been released from jail, five prisoners had been freed under the early release scheme and five inmates released on compassionate release.
The Ministry of Justice announced on 4 April that up to 4,000 prisoners who were within two months of their release date and had passed a risk assessment would be released.
Since the announcement, Public Health England (PHE) modelling has shown the spread of infection and rate of deaths in prison has been much lower than expected. But the containment of the outbreak in prisons has been driven by a highly restrictive regime, which involves increased time in cells, segregation and a ban on all visits, a regime that PHE has said would need to remain in place until April next year.
Penal reform campaigners have warned this approach is not sustainable in the long term and further releases are required.
Justice committee member, Andy Slaughter MP, said the low number of early releases represented a “missed opportunity”.
Here is the official Labour response to the Treasury’s furlough scheme announcement. It’s from the shadow chancellor, Anneliese Dodds.
Rishi Sunak implied in his statement to MPs that firms would start having to make a contribution from August, but the Treasury has not given details. However, sources have been briefing journalists that, even when businesses do start having to make a contribution, the government will continue to meet more than 50% of the cost.
These are from the Press Association’s Ian Jones.
Rebecca Long-Bailey, the shadow education secretary, has been looking at the government guidance for physical distancing in schools (see 10.30am) and she is not impressed. In a statement she said:
