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UK coronavirus live: Grant Shapps leads daily briefing amid calls for No 10 to sack Dominic Cummings - latest updates UK coronavirus live: Grant Shapps leads daily briefing amid calls for No 10 to sack Dominic Cummings - latest updates
(32 minutes later)
Pressure for prime minister’s top adviser to go follows report he breached lockdown rules in March. Follow the latest developments as they happenPressure for prime minister’s top adviser to go follows report he breached lockdown rules in March. Follow the latest developments as they happen
Q. Are you saying that anyone who becomes ill with the virus, they can go closer to relatives – no matter how far away that is?
Shapps says the rules have subsequently changed anyway.
People can now travel, if you’re not symptomatic, any distance to exercise.
If you’re symptomatic, you have to get yourself locked down in the most practical way, he says.
This will be different depending on different family circumstances, he adds.
Q. What are the risks of travelling if you have the virus and would you recommend it?
Harries says if people have symptoms, they should self-isolate immediately and stay in their homes.
The only exception around this is around risk, i.e. the issue of safeguarding for children or adults, she adds.
In relation to travel, if you’re in a private car, transmission within the vehicle is a higher risk but if you’re in a household group your exposure risk is usually the same, as long as you’re not meeting anyone else, she says.
Q. People have had to make very difficult choices throughout this lockdown. Should they have been using their own interpretation of the ‘stay at home’ message?
Shapps says you should of course follow the guidance to the best of your ability.
It’s for an individual to decide if they have enough support around the family, he says.
The decision here [with Cummings] was to go to that location [Durham] and stay in that location, they didn’t move around, he says.
Q. How can you personally be sure that by driving across England, Dominic Cummings didn’t infect anyone else on the way or while he was there?
Q. What do you say to those people who are unable to say goodbye to their loved ones or go to their funerals because they were observing the rules?
Shapps says everyone has tried to do the right thing and has been impacted by the virus.
In this case, a four-year-old needed support so a decision was taken, he says.
The child’s welfare was the important thing here, he adds.
He says Cummings’ niece and sister brought food to the property he and his family were staying in. He stayed in the same place and prevented the possibility of the child not having support, he adds.
Q. If the family was just bringing food to the doorstep, why couldn’t he get that in London?
Shapps says Cummings went to where the family was, which was in Durham, and stayed there.
Q. When have you said it was alright to resort to other family members if parents are unable to look after small children because one of them has symptoms?
Harries says the public health advice is to take yourself out of society if you have symptoms.
If two adults are ill and unable to cope for a small dependant, the guidance has a common sense element which accounts for such safeguarding issues like this, she says.
They are taking questions from the media now. *deep breaths*
Q. Is the advice to parents now that if you don’t have extended family nearby, even when you’re ill with Covid symptoms, you’re allowed to leave your home, travel many miles across the country and isolate closer to your extended family.
Harries says the scientific and medical advice is to take symptomatic people out of the public domain.
The advice is very clear: you self-isolate at home and your household self-isolates with you, she says.
If there is a safeguarding issue, eg with an elderly or clinically vulnerable individual or a sick child, there needs to be some sort of safeguard in place, she says.
Shapps says if younger members of the family can assist then that might be the best place for you to settle and stay while you’re ill.
Harries adds people need to come out of circulation and self-isolate the minute they have symptoms, and stay out of circulation.
Q. Did the prime minister know that Dominic Cummings had travelled more than 250 miles during lockdown and did he approve this?
Shapps says the important thing is that everyone remains in the same place whilst they’re locked down, which is what Cummings did – he stayed put and didn’t come out again until he was feeling better.
Sarah from Newbury asks if under-5s will be able to get tested once early years settings are reopened, to reassure staff and parents it is safe?
Harries says we’re still learning about the disease in children but it is known that children rarely become ill with Covid-19 and there are signals that the transmission from children is reduced.
Testing for under-5s will be progressed going forward, she says.
They are taking questions from the public now.
They don’t know the questions in advance, Shapps notes.
Gordon from Gosport asks how the government is going to prevents travellers from staying a few days in Ireland at the end of a foreign holiday to bypass the government’s 14-day quarantine.
Shapps says Ireland has a form of quarantine in place as well, so it would still apply.
The only positive note on the number of deaths is that it is starting to come down on average, Harries says.
Across the UK’s countries and regions, there is a downward trend in all areas in the number of people in hospial with Covid-19, Harries says.
The “steady, slow” downward trend in hospital admissions in England continues, Harries says.
Across the four nations, the percentage of mechanical ventilator beds occupied by patients with Covid-19 is also falling, she says.
Harries says there is a trend upwards in daily testing, varying over weekends, but it’s encouraging as there is a downward trend in new cases.
Dr Jenny Harries is going through the slides now.Dr Jenny Harries is going through the slides now.
Use of parks has gone up, in line with national guidance, she says.Use of parks has gone up, in line with national guidance, she says.
Using parks is good for mental and physical health but please observe social distancing – stay two metres away from people from outside your household and only meet one person at a time – she says.Using parks is good for mental and physical health but please observe social distancing – stay two metres away from people from outside your household and only meet one person at a time – she says.
She adds that 86% of adults have left their home in accordance with national guidance, i.e. for essentials or exercise. She adds that 86% of adults have left their home in accordance with national guidance, ie for essentials or exercise.
The Covid outbreak must be the catalyst for “levelling up” the country, Shapps says.
Journeys should be staggered and people should avoid rush hour, Shapps says.
Shapps announces £283m to start moving public transport back to a full timetable.
However, those who can should still work from home, and those who can should still avoid all forms of public transport, he says.
Even a fully restored service will only be capable of carrying, at best, one fifth of normal capacity, to allow for social distancing, he adds.
The transport secretary is speaking now.
He is going through the daily numbers on testing, positive cases, hospitalisations and deaths.
He says that 36,675 people have now died across all settings, an increase of 282 fatalities since yesterday.
Amid continued calls for the prime minister’s top aide to resign, the transport secretary, Grant Shapps, appears to have drawn the short straw – he will be fronting this afternoon’s press conference, which is due to begin shortly.
All eyes, however, will be on the deputy chief medical officer for England, Dr Jenny Harries, and what she will make of the government’s insistence that Dominic Cummings’ travelling 260 miles across country during lockdown to stay with his parents, while symptomatic, for childcare was the right thing to do.
This is from Labour’s deputy leader Angela Rayner
The attorney-general, Suella Braverman, is the latest senior politician to support Dominic Cummings’ actions. The most senior law officer in the government, Braverman has effectively gone against what Durham police have said on the matter (see 11.14am.).
She suggested the matter should have been considered closed with No 10’s statement (see 10.25am.) and the issue was being “politicised”.
Her language echoes that of her senior cabinet colleagues, including Michael Gove and Dominic Raab (see 11.08am.), who have said Cummings was only taking care of his family. If reactions on social media are anything to go by, the government’s defence of Cummings has left a sour taste in the mouths of parents across the country who are now asking, is No 10 saying I am a bad parent for following the rules?
One Twitter user, David Penney, wrote:
Another user, Cat Wallis, tweeted:
And Sean Brady, also wrote on Twitter:
As the row over Dominic Cummings continues to unfold, calls for his resignation continue to mount, and government ministers defend his actions, members of the public have many questions.
Among them, why is Cummings being excused for reportedly breaching lockdown rules due to needing help with childcare, when for the last nine weeks parents up and down the country have struggled without help while they suffered symptoms because they didn’t feel they could seek or accept help because it was against the rules? And if it was indeed fine all along, why wasn’t clear guidance on this subject given to the broader population?
The government has insisted that Cummings was well within the rules when he travelled 260 miles from London to Durham during lockdown. Cummings said he wanted help from his family caring for his young son if he and his wife became too ill to do so alone.
When Alex Duell and his wife began experiencing coronavirus symptoms, they turned down the offer of help from her mother, who lives 30 minutes away and was desperate to help looking after their two young children, because it went against government advice. Duell said:
Another couple who fell ill with symptoms in mid-March, said they did not travel the half mile to take their primary-aged children to their grandparents or the 50 miles to take them to an aunt and uncle, because they, too, were mindful of the “stay at home” message. They said it never occurred to them that they could or should do differently.
The government’s guidelines at the time stated:
Here is the moment Dominic Cummings told reporters he did the “right thing” by travelling 260 miles from London to Durham to be near relatives during the lockdown.
Cummings is facing calls to quit over the journey, which he made when his wife had Covid-19 symptoms. Downing Street has defended Cummings’ actions (see 10.25am.).
NHS England has announced 157 new deaths of people who tested positive for Covid-19, bringing the total number of confirmed reported deaths in hospitals in England to 25,544.
Of the 157 new deaths announced on Saturday:- 30 occurred on 22 May - 81 occurred on 21 May - 19 occurred on 20 May
The number of deaths of patients with Covid-19 by region are as follows:
East of England 17
London 19
Midlands 30
North East & Yorkshire 36
North West 23
South East 22
South West 10
Total 157
The figures also show 24 of the new deaths took place between 1 and 19 May, and the remaining three deaths took place in April with the earliest new death on 22 April.
NHS England releases updated figures each day showing the dates of every coronavirus-related death in hospitals in England, often including previously uncounted deaths that took place several days or even weeks ago. This is because of the time it takes for deaths to be confirmed as testing positive for Covid-19, for postmortem examinations to be processed and for data from the tests to be validated.
The figures published today by NHS England show 8 April continues to have the highest number for the most hospital deaths occurring on a single day, with a current total of 891.