Here’s a closing summary of the main developments today:
Johnson pledges UK-wide coronavirus tracing by 1 June
Boris Johnson has pledged to have a UK-wide tracing operation to tackle coronavirus in place by 1 June run by 25,000 contact tracers. His commitment at prime minister’s questions in the Commons came as the Labour leader, Keir Starmer, said there had been no effective tracing in the country for 10 weeks. Johnson said: “I have great confidence that by 1 June we will have a system that will enable us, help us very greatly to defeat this disease and move the country forward.”
Record number of tests conducted
A record 177,216 coronavirus tests were carried out in the 24 hours to 9am this morning. The figures were announced after Johnson restated his ambition to get the daily total up to 200,000 by the end of this month. The figures have often been criticised as misleading. Statistics on the Department of Health and Social Care’s website show that although there were 177,216 tests, only 60,744 individuals actually got tested during this 24-hour period. The figures now also include tests carried out for survey purposes, including antibody tests to see if people have had the disease. These survey tests account for 23,601 of the daily total.
UK death toll rises by 363
A further 363 Covid-19 deaths were announced in the UK, taking the total to 35,704. The number of coronavirus patients in hospital in England had fallen below 10,000 for the first time since March.
Government wants tourism to resume in July
The culture secretary, Oliver Dowden, has said the government plans to allow tourism to begin in July. Speaking at the daily Downing Street briefin he said: “I would love to get the tourism sector up as quickly as we possibly can. We’ve set this very ambitious plan to try and get it up and running by the beginning of July. Dowden also announced plans to up a taskforce to help people in the recreation and leisure industries get their sectors back to work again.
Bereavement scheme extended
The government has bowed to pressure to give families and dependants of migrant NHS support staff who die as a result of contracting coronavirus will be granted indefinite leave to remain. The move follows criticism that care workers, cleaners and porters had been left out of the scheme, which only applied to certain occupations including nurses, biochemists and radiographers. Announcing the move, the home secretary, Priti Patel, said: “We are extending the scheme to NHS support staff and social care workers. We want to ensure families have the support they need and so this will be effective immediately and retrospectively.”
EU response chief warns of second wave
The prospect of a second wave of coronavirus infection across Europe is no longer a distant theory, according to the director of the EU agency responsible for advising governments – including the UK’s – on disease control. “The question is when and how big, that is the question in my view,” said Dr Andrea Ammon, the director of the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control. In an interview with the Guardian she added: “It’s not the time now to completely relax.”
Rolls-Royce plans to cut 9,000 jobs
The Derby based engineering firm Rolls-Royce has announced plans to cut at least 9,000 jobs – almost a fifth of its workforce, with UK factories set to be hardest hit. Negotiations are beginning with trade unions before any figures for job losses in the UK are agreed but Warren East, the company’s chief executive, said most of the cuts would be in its civil aerospace business. Demand for aircraft, and the engines manufactured by Rolls-Royce, have slumped across the world in large part due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Northern Ireland set to track and trace for at least a year
Stormont’s health minister, Robin Swann, has announced the contact-tracing programme for Northern Ireland is set to last for at least a year. He said a pilot programme that began at the start of April to track contacts associated with all confirmed cases of Covid-19 would be ramped up to a seven-day operation and would last for at least a year. Five more people were reported to have died of coronavirus in Northern Ireland taking its total to 494.
Wales rules out setting ‘arbitrary’ date for reopening schools
The Welsh education minister, Kirsty Williams, has said she will not set an “arbitrary” date for when more children will return to school. She said more evidence – and more confidence in the evidence – on Covid-19 was needed before schools would open to more children. Public Health Wales has announced 14 more deaths from coronavirus, taking the total in Wales to 1,238.
Sturgeon denies cover-up over early cases
Nicola Sturgeon has denied the Scottish government tried to cover up coronavirus cases linked to a Nike conference in Edinburgh in late February. In angry exchanges at first minister questions, Sturgeon accused the leader of the Scottish Conservatives, Jackson Carlaw, of unfairly impugning her integrity and that of health officials by suggesting this early outbreak was hushed up. Last week it revealed that there were multiple transmissions of coronavirus in Edinburgh on 26 and 27 February, well before the first confirmed case in the country on 1 March, but that this was not disclosed to the public. A total of 2,184 patients have died in Scotland after testing positive for coronavirus, an increase of 50 since Tuesday.
UK universities facing £760m hit
British universities face a potential £760m blow to their funding after about one in five students said they would not enrol in the next academic year if classes were delivered online and other activities curtailed. A survey of students applying for undergraduate places found that more than 20% said they were willing to delay starting their courses if universities were not operating as normal due to the coronavirus pandemic, which would mean there would be 120,000 fewer students when the academic year begins in autumn. A number of universities including Cambridge have said they will conduct all lectures online throughout the 2020-21 academic year.
Outsourcing firm apologises for sharing details of hundreds of contract tracers
The outsourcing firm Serco has apologised after accidentally sharing the email addresses of almost 300 contact tracers. The company is training staff to trace cases of Covid-19 for the UK government. It made the error when it emailed new trainees to tell them about training. Serco said it had apologised and would review its processes “to make sure that this does not happen again”. Labour said the breach raised serious questions for the government about the capability of Serco to command public confidence.
MoD set to scale down size of Covid support force
The Ministry of Defence is poised to announce a reduction in the numbers of military personnel ready to tackle the coronavirus crisis in the UK to 7,500 from 20,000. These are soldiers and other members of the armed forces “held at readiness” so they can be deployed quickly if needed by civilian authorities, but with only 4,000 currently being used and the national situation slowly improving it has been decided fewer troops are required on standby.
The government has bowed to pressure to give indefinite leave to remain to families and dependants of migrant NHS support staff who die as a result of contracting coronavirus.
The extension of the scheme – which was originally announced last month – to include cleaners, porters, social care staff and care home workers will be effective immediately and retrospectively, the Home Office confirmed.
Every death in this crisis is a tragedy, and sadly some NHS support staff and social care workers have made the ultimate sacrifice in the pursuit of saving the lives of others.
When I announced the introduction of the bereavement scheme in April, I said we would continue to work across government to look at ways to offer further support. Today we are extending the scheme to NHS support staff and social care workers.
We want to ensure families have the support they need and so this will be effective immediately and retrospectively.
Here are the main points from the government press conference.
Oliver Dowden, the culture secretary, said that 177,216 coronavirus tests were carried out in the 24 hours to 9am this morning. That is the biggest daily headline tally so far, and was announced after Boris Johnson at PMQs restated his ambition to get the daily total up to 200,000 by the end of this month. But these figures have often been criticised as misleading. As the detailed statistics on the Department of Health and Social Care’s website show, although there were 177,216 tests, only 60,744 individuals actually got tested during this 24-hour period. The figures now also include tests carried out for survey purposes, including antibody tests (which show if you have had the virus, not if you have it now). These survey tests account for 23,601 of the daily total.
Dowden said for the “vast majority” of people the new government “stay alert” advice means they should stay at home. The “stay alert” slogan only applies to England, because the Scottish, Welsh and Northern Ireland administrations have not adopted it. Dowden said:
Staying alert, for the vast majority of people, still means staying at home as much as possible.
This sounded like an attempt to counter the impression conveyed by some ministerial messages that the government is in a rush to end the lockdown.
Dowden said he was setting up a taskforce to help people in the recreation and leisure industries get their sectors back to work again. (See 5.21pm.)
Prof Stephen Powis, the medical director of NHS England, said the number of coronavirus patients in hospital in England had fallen below 10,000 for the first time since March.
Dowden said he wanted tourism to resume in July. He said:
I would love to get the tourism sector up as quickly as we possibly can. We’ve set this very ambitious plan to try and get it up and running by the beginning of July.
Clearly, we can only do it if it’s safe to do so because I think the worse thing for our tourism sector would be to start, then see the R rate rise out of control, see a second peak that overwhelms the NHS that we then have to slam on the brakes again.
Powis said Sage, the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies, was keeping the two-metre rule under review. He said:
The current advice is two metres. I’m sure that, along with a whole host of other things, that will constantly be kept under review as new evidence emerges.
The number of prisons with confirmed cases of Covid-19 has risen after a fresh outbreak was recorded, daily figures from the Ministry of Justice have shown.
The number of prisons with confirmed instances of coronavirus had remained at 74 for two weeks but new cases were recorded at a 75th prison on Tuesday.
As at 5pm on Tuesday, 432 prisoners had tested positive for Covid-19, an increase of 10 or 2% in 24 hours, while the number of infected prison workers rose 2% to 555 workers across 73 prisons in the same period.
The total combined confirmed cases among prisoners and staff now exceed 1,000.
There are about 80,300 prisoners in England and Wales in 117 prisons, while about 33,000 staff work in the public-sector prisons.
At least 21 prisoners are known to have contracted Covid-19 and died, as well as nine prison staff, including one worker in prisoner escort and custody services.
Q: What is the government doing to prepare areas like Middlesbrough for future spikes? And in the north-east there is a high rate of infection. Does a one-size-fits-all policy work for the whole of the UK?
Dowden says the government is under no illusion about the challenges facing the economy. He says he really hopes that the country can move forward at the same time.
The new track and trace system should make a real difference, he says.
Powis says it is usual in epidemics to see variation by geography. If the UK gets to the stage where individual outbreaks occur, then there will have to be very local responses. He says that is normal with managing infectious diseases. Increasingly these tactics will be used, he says.
Q: And what will the government do to make towns like Middlesbrough a priority?
Dowden says the PM is passionate about this. And Dowden says, as culture secretary, he wants to make sure cultural events are available outside London.
Q: If Premier League matches are played again this summer, should they be shown on free-to-air TV?
Dowden says we have to respect the rights broadcasters have. But there is some flexiblity, he says. He says matches are not shown on Saturday afternoons, when people could be watching in a stadium. That won’t apply. So he thinks there is some opportunity for getting matches on free-to-air TV.
Q: Would you recommend that people use antibody tests that are commercially available?
Powis says he would caution people about using them. He says it is important to know what they are like.
And he says that he would not want people to think that if they test positive for the antibody, they do not need to take precautions. He says at this stage it is not clear what immunity people have.
Q: Does that mean everyone will be able to get them on the NHS?
Powis says the NHS will be using its test first for health and social care staff.
Q: Are you happy for over-75 to lose their free TV licences later this year?
Dowden says the government was clear the BBC should not take away free TV licences from all over-75s. The decision to postpone that until August was the right one. If we are in the same situation then, he says hopes the BBC will rethink
Q: Should the two-metre rule be reviewed?
Powis says matters like this are always being kept under review.
Q: When will tourism return?
Dowden says he is working hard to get tourism back up and running. But that can only be done when it is safe. He says the worst thing would be to open it up, and then have to put the brakes on again.
Q: According to Public Health England, there have been zero new cases in the last 24 hours. Does that mean schools will open in London?
Dowden says those figures are encouraging. And testing figures are encouraging too. He says there were 177,000 yesterday.
We should try and open schools if possible, he says.
Q: So will you let schools open in London first?
Dowden says it would be best to move as one nation.
Q: At PMQs the PM said patients were only discharged into care homes on clinical advice. It sounded like he was blaming doctors. Are you happy with that?
Powis says his medical colleagues would have only discharged patients if that was the right thing to do.
Q: At PMQs the PM seemed to gloss over mistakes with care homes. Is that the government’s views. Or will you be open about mistakes you have made?
Dowden says the government is not glossing over care homes death. Every single death is a death too many. The government has published a plan, he says. And deaths are coming down.
Q: But Robert Buckland admitted this morning that things could have been done differently. Wouldn’t it be better to follow Emmanuel Macron’s example, and admit there have been mistakes?
Dowden says, in any crisis, there will be a time for lessons to be learnt. But at the moment the public wants the government to focus on managing the crisis.
In response to a question from a member of the public about when NHS staff will be able to return to their normal jobs, Dowden says the government has ensured the NHS was not overwhelmed. But now staff can start going back to other tasks, he says.
In his opening remarks Dowden said he was setting up a taskforce “aimed at helping getting the country’s recreation and leisure sector up and running again”.
Dowden will chair it himself. The culture department has released the names of other members. They are:
Tamara Rojo (English National Ballet)
Alex Scott (former England international and Arsenal footballer and now a sports broadcaster)
Sir Nicholas Serota (Arts Council England chair)
Edward Mellors (Mellors Group Events)
Neil Mendoza (commissioner for cultural recovery and renewal, entrepreneur, publisher and philanthropist)
Lord (Michael) Grade of Yarmouth (TV executive and former chair of BBC and ITV)
Baroness (Martha) Lane-Fox of Soho (founder of LastMinute.com)
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