watching on bbc one. in half an hour's time, we're expecting the government's daily news conference, which will be led by the chancellor rishi sunak. first, let's bring you up to date with all the latest developments. the number of people dying in england and wales has reached a record high at the beginning of the month, raising questions over the true number of people dying with coronavirus since the outbreak began. the latest daily figures for uk deaths in hospital show an increase of 778 — bringing the total number of deaths to over 12,000. but new figures earlier today from the office for national statistics, for the week ending april the 3rd, which include deaths in the community, show that more than 16,000 deaths were recorded — the highest number since data of this kind was first published in 2005.

the figure is 6,000 higher than the average for the time of year, when deaths normally start falling after the flu season. the department of health confirmed that there have been outbreaks in more than 2,000 care homes in england alone. in a warning on the economy, the uk's spending watchdog said a three—month lockdown could cause uk growth to drop by 35% byjune, sending the rate of unemployment to 10%. our health correspondent lauren moss is with me. if we can look at the figures we have got today, two sets of figures. talk is through them. the first ones you mentioned were released by the office for national statistics and came out this morning on the spot all deaths that have occurred in the community, not just in all deaths that have occurred in the community, notjust in hospital and they go up to friday the 3rd of april, so there is around a ten or 11 day delay where we are at now, so

like i say, these are deaths that have happened inside and outside of hospitals so include care homes and hospices. they break them down to where covid—i9 has been mentioned on the death certificate. where covid—19 has been mentioned on the death certificate. 16,387 people in total died the death certificate. 16,387 people in totaldied in the death certificate. 16,387 people in total died in that week in england and wales, up to friday the 3rd of april, and 21% of those deaths had covid—19 mentioned on the deaths had covid—19 mentioned on the death certificate, as high as one in five people who passed away in that week. this is honestly a hugely significant number, a stark number, and a very sad number as well and it was even higher in certain areas of the country. 47%, nearly half of the deaths in london in that week, 22% was the next highest in the west midlands, unlike you are saying, it is 6000 more deaths over the five year average than we would have expected for that week ending on the 3rd of april. 5000 more than the week before. this is the time of

year when we have come into spring, and winter flu deaths we would expect to see a decline there, and i think it shows that the uk and the rest of the world is very much in the grip of this pandemic, this coronavirus pandemic, and it is not just taking into account those who have passed away in hospital, this is elsewhere as well. and going as they are, ten days behind, this is a number that realistically is likely to increase. very, very depressing statistics, aren't they? we know of the 16,000 deaths that happened in that week up to the 3rd of april that week up to the 3rd of april that that is about 6000 more than would be expected, yet not all of those 6000 were due to coronavirus 01’ were those 6000 were due to coronavirus or were not recorded as being due to coronavirus. what are people saying about that? this is something we have to be cautious about when looking at cause of death. the deaths we are talking about here is where covid—19 has been mentioned on the death certificate. it does not necessarily mean that a person has

passed away because of coronavirus, it could be a contributing factor, it could be a contributing factor, it could be a contributing factor, it could mean they did not receive other care due to the coronavirus. these have not been broken down, so we have to be somewhat cautious when looking at that but it is still a very significantly high number, and like you say, 6000 more, and in further breakdowns, 217 of the deaths occurred in care homes, and a week before that, it was 20, so that number has increased ten times in that week up to the 3rd of april and there are continuing reports from there are continuing reports from the department of health saying that outbreaks in 2000 care homes are here and this number may sadly continue to rise, like i say. and it's something the government continues to face governments about. cani continues to face governments about. can ijust continues to face governments about. can i just ask you about the figures that we get every day about people who died from coronavirus in hospital, so those are a little short of 800, aren't they? every day in the afternoon, separately to the

0ffice in the afternoon, separately to the office of national statistics figures i was talking about which, once a week, the department of health releases figures on testing, positive cases, and the number of people who have died in hospital up to 5pm the previous day who have tested positive for coronavirus. if we look at those figures, which give 24 we look at those figures, which give 2a hourly updates from hospitals, 717 further deaths recorded, sorry, 778 increased in hospital, which ta kes 778 increased in hospital, which takes the uk total to 12,107 in the figures we were given by the department of health breaks down to the number of people tested to over 302,000 people across the uk have been been tested with 11,000 more donein been been tested with 11,000 more done in the last 2a hours and 5000 of those have further tested positive. 94,000 people in the uk testing positive for the coronavirus, and these are people who have been admitted to hospital

01’ who have been admitted to hospital or nhs key workers that have been tested if they have symptoms or theirfamily tested if they have symptoms or their family members have symptoms as well, so more people being tested and the number of cases potentially flattening out rather than rising on that steep curve which we have seen in previous weeks. but also, we have had a four—day bank holiday weekend with easter and previously, on previous weekends, we have seen a lag in the number of reported deaths and recorded cases. i hate to phrase it like that, but there has been a drop in recorded numbers and then they might raise a few days later. so the numbers we are looking at now appear to suggest a levelling out, we won't know if they are indeed doing that for another 48 hours or so, i would say. we must bear that in mind. lauren, good to talk to you and we will talk to you after the downing street briefing which we know is led today by the chancellor, rishi sunak. thank you very much. outbreaks of the virus have now been detected at more than 2000 care homes in england. 13 residents at one home

in county durham have died, along with nine others at a specialist dementia home in nottinghamshire. a spokesperson from the department of health and social care said the government was determined to give the sector the support it needs. richard galpin reports. in care homes like this in county durham, coronavirus is proving particularly deadly. 13 people have died here. across england and wales, more than 2,000 care homes have faced outbreaks of the virus. but deaths in these homes are not included in the official daily figures for england. somehow care homes have been left behind in this scramble for more ppe protective equipment, for the emergency admissions, ventilation, and for the testing as well. so there are a lot more people apparently dying in care homes. according to figures released today by the office for national statistics,

or 0ns, 217 people died in care homes in the week ending april 3rd. 33 people also died in hospices and 136 at home. many more are thought to have died since then. here at the wren hall nursing home in the quiet nottinghamshire village of selston, they specialise in patients with dementia. over the past two weeks, nine people have died from coronavirus. it is devastating for everyone. we are feeling broken. we are feeling raw. feeling so sorry for the ones that we've lost. these people, yes, they're living in a care home, yes, they've got complex needs, but they have died prematurely, and it's really sad, and it's soul destroying. charities which support the elderly have written to health secretary matt hancock

saying, "we are appalled by the devastation which coronavirus is causing in the care system and we've all been inundated with desperate calls from the people we support, so we are demanding a comprehensive care package to support social care through the pandemic". this isn'tjust about the numbers. behind each of those numbers there is a human life, a human being, a life cut short early, and there is a grieving family, their relatives, and there are care home staff. so by acknowledging the number of people who are dying from covid—19 in the community, in hospices and in care homes, means as a nation we can be much better at supporting care homes and supporting families and those who are dying, so they can die as well as they can do. a former head chef

at the they have their own resources and money to buy the pp at the home but they could not get it.|j and money to buy the pp at the home but they could not get it. i said before my father died on national tv that this was something that was going to become an epidemic across the country, and nothing has been done. these people havejust been forgotten. for care homes, as for front line nhs staff, there are still problems with the supply of protective equipment and now there are reports that the government has missed three chances to link up with the european union in the purchase ofa the european union in the purchase of a huge order of masks, gowns and gloves. worth more than £1 billion. the government says it has a very effective delivery mechanism and overall has been well prepared for coronavirus. richard galpin, bbc news. rachel beckett, chairman of wellburn care homes, which runs

14 homes across north—east england. thank you so much forjoining us, rachel. please describe the situation in your care homes. well, every day is a different day and a new challenge, and i think the first challenge is obviously the ppe equipment, making sure we have enough stock, getting the right equipment, but now every day there is something else that me and my tea m is something else that me and my team are frantically trying to fix, explain and dictate to our teams so they know what to do. the message from public health so far has been very inadequate, and led to a lot of confusion, and i think recently the biggest confusion has been admissions into care homes. we in particular made a bold statement last week to say that in absolutely no terms well be taking any admissions or readmissions for that matter into our care homes unless they have been tested negative for covid—19. it is hard enough for us

to try and protect, the duty of care to try and protect, the duty of care to protect the staff and residents we have, let alone bringing in the possibility of this virus. so that is all we have been asking for, and i think we have seen some very different —— difficult situations off the back of that, due to the fa ct off the back of that, due to the fact that the guidelines, the hospitals are saying we are breaking the law by not taking people in, and we are simply not doing that. we made the decision as a company, a moral decision. a lot of care home providers are making the same decision and people have been working with care england, and that is the stance we are taking but we are getting a lot of difficulty about that. can i ask you, what has the guidance from public health england being? you have to take new residents even if they have not had a test? yes. they are saying that is what we should be doing and, you know, we massively support the nhs and we always have done if we can

clinically do so. we and a lot of my staff feel like we have been the forgotten sector from the beginning. forget that we have had zero financial support, and if we don't soon, i think you'll find care home companies are struggling in the weeks to come. but, yes, the support has been really lacking and i think we are supporting the nhs and we are saying we are happy to help, but please, please, get these people tested before they come back in. let alone the fact that we run care homes and we don't have the nursing facilities, so if someone came into a care home with covid—19 and started to deteriorate, we would not be able to look after them. we don't have the equipment to look after them. do you have access to any covid—19 tests? them. do you have access to any covid-19 tests? so, it's very, very different from borough to borough. we have various boroughs in the north—east and most of the homes are refusing, only if they are admitted to hospital are they tested and other residents in the home if they

are showing signs, and it's a blanket diagnosis and it doesn't matter if they believe it to be covid—19 or not, they say treated that way. we might have people in the homes who have not got covid—19 01’ the homes who have not got covid—19 or others with similar symptoms, but they are not being diagnosed. there was one home where we rang in the morning and someone said they had symptoms in four of the residents and by lunchtime they sent them six tests, but that's all we have received and any further testing will not happen. so to a certain extent you are having to treat anybody who has the symptoms as if they have coronavirus, and you are having to make sure that they are isolated. absolutely. what sort of protective gear do carers have? the guidelines, we got that reviewed and sent to us again two days ago, and even that is a bit woolly and does not define the care and residential

setting in there but we decided what we thought was best, so for us, and this can be single use, this is a facemask, visor, plastic apron, plastic over sleeves, plastic overshoes and obviously the gloves. we fought frantically to make sure we had enough stock of that, and to make sure it is the right equipment. some of the councils have dropped offa some of the councils have dropped off a small amount which probably wouldn't see me through a few days, maybe a week at best with that supply. what we have had to be mindful of is getting the right equipment and the masks are a must and some councils haven't even provided those and sent very simple... they are not protective masks and my staff cannot use them. and we have heard some very strongly worded testimony from people who work ina worded testimony from people who work in a care home sector. they say

that coronavirus is spreading, that vulnerable elderly residents are dying from the virus. we know from the figures that the numbers of deaths have gone up in care homes. what is happening in your care? we have been fortunate so far. we have had seven deaths and about 20 cases of across oui’ have had seven deaths and about 20 cases of across our homes. i am not so cases of across our homes. i am not so naive to think this isn't going to hit us elsewhere. it is everywhere in the community, it is rife everywhere and without testing how can you know who is carrying the virus or not? so we are doing everything we can to contain it, to treat it. we have machines that clea n treat it. we have machines that clean the bacteria in the air, co nsta nt clean the bacteria in the air, constant infection control, so we have been doing that for weeks

before this all started. but it's going to hit care homes and it would be naive to think different. 0k, we are going to have to leave it there. thank you so much for talking to us. thank you so much for talking to us. thank you. there has been a stark warning from the uk's spending watchdog on how coronavirus could impact the economy over the coming months. the office for budget responsibility says a three—month lockdown could see the economy shrink by 35% by the end ofjune, and it would send unemployment to 10%. for context, the most recent figure was just under 4%. the 0br says the economy would bounce back, but still forecasts a 13% fall overall by the end of 2020. the chairman of the office for budget responsibility says the coronavirus shutdown could lead to the uk experiencing the highest budget deficit since the second world war. well, if a three—month lockdown did lead to a 35% decline in gdp,

that would be the largest quarterly fall that we've seen in living memory but the hope is of course that that's a temporary hit and the economy can rebound relatively quickly. in terms of government borrowing, we estimate that the budget deficit could rise to 14% of gdp this year. 0n the same set of assumptions, that would be the highest deficit since the second world war. once again, though, the hope is that the government's policy measures will ensure that this is temporary and that the amount of long—term scarring to the economy and the public finances is kept toa minimum. but quite how bad that's going to be only time will tell. andy verity is our economics correspondent. yes, and you heard robert say it. there's an assumption building which is partly a pessimistic assumption that we have a shutdown for three months, but also there are optimistic assumptions that we bounce back after that. if a lot of

people are thrown on the dole queue, thatis people are thrown on the dole queue, that is not necessarily a safe assumption. to put this into perspective, that 35% in one quarter is huge. even if we bounce back the 0ffice is huge. even if we bounce back the office for budget responsibility is predicting the economy will shrink by 13% compared to last year. that isa by 13% compared to last year. that is a bigger shrinkage in the economy then we have had since britain's worst recession of the 21st century, immediately after world war i, and it is all caused by the government antivirus measures. here is the chancellor, rishi sunak, defending what they are doing. look, it's clear this will have a very significant impact on our economy, in common with economies around the world, and it is important we are honest about that. people should know that there is hardship ahead. we won't be able to protect everyjob for every business, as i've said. and the second point, the report makes clear that the actions we've taken, unprecedented actions, will help to mitigate the impact of the virus on our economy, and that will...

if we hadn't done these things, it would mean that things were a lot worse. it certainly needs some mitigation because at 13% that hit on the economy is about twice what we had in the global financial crisis and of course it means less tax receipts rolling in, people are not spending as much. government expenditure is ballooning so that's why the 0br is that the budget deficit is going to ballooned to five times what they predicted before the march budget, about £273 billion while the national debt shoots up, so we are not ina national debt shoots up, so we are not in a good place for the public finances. extraordinary figures, but they are extraordinary times. thank you so much. andy verity, our economics correspondent. as government scientific advisers meet here to assess how the uk's lockdown measures are working, restrictions in some european countries are starting to ease. a limited number of shops and businesses have been allowed

to reopen in italy and austria, and some people are beginning to go back to work in spain. denmark plans to open some of its schools tomorrow after a month—long shutdown. martin mckee is professor of european health at the london school of hygiene and tropical medicine. hejoins me now. thanks so much forjoining us on bbc news. i guess the british government will be watching very closely to see what's going on in other european countries? well, i hope they will be. one of the problems we have had so be. one of the problems we have had so far is that there has been a disconnect between us and the rest of europe, which is a pity, but it is imperative we do learn the lessons as other countries adopt different policies. i said there has been a disconnect, the accepted view is that the uk has lagged behind other european countries by some two to three weeks and that's why we are

some way behind. we have to look at the mathematics of the epidemic, the pandemic, and we know that with the virus is spread by every one person to typically between 2.5 to three, lets say three, the next time round it is nine, even a change of a few days makes a big difference. if we look at the cross national comparisons, we can see those countries that intervened earlier in the pandemic in their own country managed to keep the death rates much lower, so clearly the timing has been crucial. and how important has testing been or the lack of it? that is really... first of all it would have been nice to be in the situation germany was, but that has been rehearsed many times. i think theissue been rehearsed many times. i think the issue now is to make sure that whenever we do move to a loosening of the restrictions, and i think we need to be very careful because what's been done in other countries

is still very minimal, it's not going back to what was going on before, but as we move ahead we need to make sure we have that testing in place before we do anything, the capacity to do the testing. in addition, as important, we need to make sure we have the capacity to do the contact tracing that will be necessary when a case appears somewhere so that we can swoop in and find out who the contacts were and find out who the contacts were and isolate as appropriate. that will be as important as the testing. so you are working with the world health organization to coordinate the response in europe. what sort of errors are you looking at —— what sort of areas are you looking at? this is a very rapidly evolving situation and we are learning all the time. one of the areas we have been learning about is how to treat people who are seriously ill and that has been a discussion going on with colleagues in the who in the last few days. in particular its a matter of documenting what other

countries are doing. we have created a website where you can look in detail at the responses that different countries are doing, so we can learn from that. then that needs to be combined with other data from the modellers, making sure everyone is talking to one another so we can learn lessons. we have done some work looking at changes in mobility and how they have been influenced by different policies that have been implemented, and what that shows which is really interesting is that the population was ahead of the politicians in virtually all countries. by the time countries introduced restrictions, typically the mobility as measured by various apps had already fallen by 40 or 50%, andi apps had already fallen by 40 or 50%, and i think that will be a consideration as we move out of the restrictions because i suspect that we may not find people particularly willing to go into crowded places for quite some time. fascinating.

how do you think the restrictions, when they are lifted, how do you think they will be... how will they affect the way in which we live? do you think it will be some time before we get back to living what most people would regard as a normal life? there is a question to be asked as to whether we will ever get back to the situation we had before because i think this is causing countries to reassess the process of globalisation. people are learning to have meetings without getting on a plane to travel elsewhere. in the short term however we will see social distancing for quite some time to come, and i think also the evidence of wearing masks is changing all the time. in the way the czech republic, austria, morocco and another of other countries are making it mandatory to wear a mask when you go out in public, i think that will become quite widespread

because the evidence is now accumulating substantially that you are not wearing a mask to protect yourself but to protect other people so it will have to be mandatory. that will be the most obvious change we see in the short term, but in the longer term in the paper we wrote recently we looked at the economic consequences and i think there are lots of ways of life could change for the better. as president macron said yesterday, when he said out of this crisis there is a chance of doing something different. you will be aware about the debate on privacy, but also remember out of every crisis there are people who try to exploit it. there is a danger if we don't do what we are doing in the uk, and i'm glad the chancellor is doing what he is doing of keeping people injobs, paying them, then there is a danger that the family companies, the small shops and cafe is, could easily go out of business and be swept up by the multinational

corporations so you have high streets full of nothing but mcdonald's and kfc, and that would bea mcdonald's and kfc, and that would be a shame as well. so we could see lots of changes coming about. 0k. very good to talk to you. thank you very much, professor martin mckee. lots of numbers are being used to track covid—19 and as we've heard today the office for national statistics published new data for england and wales that showed the number of people dying hit a record weekly high at the start of april. our reality check correspondent, chris morris joins me now to look in more detail at these figures. so, chris, we know that the ons have announced 6,000 more deaths than average in a single week but you've been looking into the regional figures. what have you found? yes, these are sobering statistics, we are setting new and unwanted records. when you dig down the numbers look even worse, in london in particular where the virus first spread rapidly. until the latest figures came out the highest numbers

of registered deaths per week in london since the ons started keeping record in 2005 was 1549. but this year you see the weekly death registrations in london and the latest figures we have for the week ending the 3rd of april 2511, not just a new record high but 62% higher than the previous record high. it is worth saying that this is well before the pandemic reached its current levels and we are not yet at the peak. we are talking about death registered in the week up about death registered in the week up to the 3rd of april and the ons says that means probably most of those deaths were a few days earlier, so in effect we are talking about 2500 deaths just in earlier, so in effect we are talking about 2500 deathsjust in london in the last week of march, far higher than we would normally expect. that's london, what about elsewhere? elsewhere the figures are also looking gloomy. we have figures for

the midlands. the ons splits it into east and west midlands, we put them together. the figures are the highest since records began. only just a bit higher thanjanuary 2015, which was when the most recent really bad flu pandemic was at its height, but still these are record numbers. in the north west for example the numbers from that week ending april three are pretty much the same as the week injanuary 2015. of course places like the midlands and the north—west are behind the curve compared to london. london is more advanced in the pandemic, and sadly where london is leading, it may well be that other regions across the country will follow. we don't know that all of these excess deaths are due to covid—19, do we? no, we don't. of the debts mentioned in london in the week up

the ons mentioned covid—19 and the death certificate —— that means confirmed cases in hospital and also where cases suspected covid—19 is a course. the question is, what about the other 53%? and that is a big issue for policymakers and i'm sure some will have proven to be from covid—19, perhaps many, but they will also want to look into while some deaths are no doubt happening despite the lockdown, are there some happening because of the lockdown, in the sense that people who had other health conditions, having treatment is delayed, or treatments postponed, and that people are dying of mental health conditions, or people dying because of the circumstances surrounding the pandemic rather than directly from the virus itself, and that is one of the virus itself, and that is one of the questions which will obviously inform policy as we move forward. chris, many thanks for the update. chris, many thanks for the update. chris morris there. it is 5pm. in a

moment, the government press conference will get under way. before that, in fact, they are starting. let's go over to them. good evening from downing street where i am joined by steve powis, medical director of the nhs and yvonne doyle, medical director of public health england. earlier today, the government independent fiscal watchdog, the office for budget responsibility, published a report into the impact of coronavirus on the economy and public finances. it is important to be clear that the numbers are not a forecast or a prediction. they simply set out what one possible scenario might look like, and it may not even be the most likely scenario. but, it is important that we are honest with people about what might be happening in our economy. so before i turn to today's health figures, i want to spend a few

minutes explaining what the opr have said and to let me thank them for their continued work. there are three brief points i want to make. first, the figures from the 0br suggest a figures and scale of what we are facing will have serious implications for our economy here at home. in common with other countries around the world. these are tough times, and there will be more to come. as i've said before, we can't protect every business and every household. but we came into this crisis with a fundamentally sound economy, powered by the hard work and ingenuity of the british people and ingenuity of the british people and british businesses. so while those economic impacts are significant, the 0br expect them to be temporary. with a bounce back in growth. the second point i want to make is that we are notjust going

to stand by and let this happen. our planned economic response is protecting millions ofjobs, businesses, self—employed people, charities and households. our response aims to directly support people and businesses while the restrictions are in place, and to make sure that as the restrictions are changed we can, as quickly as possible, get people back to work, get businesses moving again and recover our economy. the 0br today have been clear that the policies we have been clear that the policies we have set out will do that. the 0br today have been clear that if we have not taken the actions we have, the situation would be much worse. in other words, our plan is the right plan. the third point i want to make is this, right now, the single most important thing we can do for the health of our economy is

to protect the health of our people. it's not a case of choosing between the economy and public health. common sense tells us that doing so would be self—defeating. at a time when we are seeing hundreds of people dying every day from this terrible disease, the absolute priority must be to focus all of our resources not just of the state, priority must be to focus all of our resources notjust of the state, but of businesses and all of you at home as well, in a collective, national effort to beat this virus. the government's approach is to follow scientific and medical advice through our step—by—step action plan. aiming to slow the spread of the virus so fewer people need hospital treatment at any one time, protecting the nhs's ability to cope. i said protecting the nhs's ability to cope. isaid in protecting the nhs's ability to cope. i said in my budget a month ago that whatever the nhs needs, it will get. and we have honoured that

promise. yesterday, we published an update showing that we have given our public services and extra £14.5 billion in recent weeks. we are taking action to increase nhs capacity with more beds, more key staff and more equipment on the front line. the secretary of state for health and social care will be updating on our plans for social ca re updating on our plans for social care tomorrow. this is why we are instructing people to stay at home so we can protect our nhs and save lives. i can report that through the government's ongoing monitoring and testing programme, as of today, 302,599 people in the uk have now been tested for coronavirus with 93,873 people testing positive. 19,706 people in the uk have been

admitted to hospital with the virus, down from 20,184 people yesterday. sadly, of those in hospital, 12,107 people have now died, an increase of 778 fatalities since yesterday. our thoughts are with the family and friends of all of those who have lost their lives. these figures are powerful reminders to us all of the importance of following the government's guidance. stay at home, protect our nhs and save lives. thank you. i will now hand over to steve to take you through the data in more detail before we take some questions from the media. thank you. as you just heard, our main strategy in combating this virus is social distancing, so in other words, stay—at—home, avoid social contact, and by doing that we can ensure the

spread of the virus, the transmission from one person to another is reduced so over time we will start to see a reduction in infections from coronavirus, and i'm pleased to say that we continue to see evidence that the great british public are complying with those instructions. you have seen this chart most days, and you have seen we continue to see a much reduced activity in public transport, but also in vehicle transport, and there are other data that we look at on a regular basis that telus that compliance levels —— that tell us that compliance levels in the public are high and we need to keep it that way. we absolutely need to make sure that we keep the benefits of this going forward and we do not take our foot off the pedal and become complacent. of course, a reduction in infection rates in the next slide will then translate to a reduction

in new uk cases, and you can see here our testing has shown a plateau of the number of new cases we are picking up and we are not testing everybody who is symptomatic in the community. so this data will never bea community. so this data will never be a true, complete reflection, but i think be a true, complete reflection, but ithink in be a true, complete reflection, but i think in the next slide you can see that that, in turn, will then translate to an effect on the number of people who require a hospital bed. as we have often said, for the vast majority of individuals, this isa mild vast majority of individuals, this is a mild illness, a flu—like illness, or a bad cold, but is a mild illness, a flu—like illness, ora bad cold, but foran u nfortu nate illness, ora bad cold, but foran unfortunate minority this will require hospitalisation. but you can see there is increasing evidence that the number of hospital admissions is stabilising and plateauing. you can see that in london, but you can see it in other areas such as the midlands. and this is evidence that is now accumulating that the benefit of social

distancing and reducing transmission is now beginning to be manifest in a stabilisation in hospital admissions and then on the next slide, you can see the number of deaths in the uk, and as you have heard, that is continuing to rise. this is the number that will reduce last, u nfortu nately. number that will reduce last, unfortunately. sadly, it is the one that will take longest to change, but those benefits from social distancing will eventually translate into a reduction into the number of daily deaths. so the message is quite clear. we are beginning to see the benefit of the undoubted hardship that we have all been asked to go through in terms of social distancing, in terms of not meeting with friends and family. it's really important that the benefits are maintained and we continue to follow the instructions that we have all been given, and we will then get on

top of this virus. thank you, steve. if we can turn to some questions, first, laura kuenssberg from the bbc. thank you, chancellor people are devastated of course by the numberof are devastated of course by the number of people losing their lives, but tonight we are hearing talk of 2 million extra people unemployed and people desperately worried about their jobs. people desperately worried about theirjobs. if you can level with people, do you think we will be footing the cost of this crisis for a generation, and if i could ask the medics, can you as soon as you possibly can start including the numberof possibly can start including the number of deaths in care homes and the community in these daily statistics so people can have a true picture of what is going on? thank you, laura. ialso picture of what is going on? thank you, laura. i also when i see these numbers am deeply troubled, and i have consistently said at this podium and elsewhere that this is going to be hard. our economy is going to be hard. our economy is going to be hard. our economy is going to take a significant hit, and asi going to take a significant hit, and as i said before, it's not an a bstra ct as i said before, it's not an abstract thing and people will feel that in theirjobs and household

incomes. what i will say and what the 0br report confirms is that the measures we have put in place can significantly mitigate that impact, in particular thejob retention scheme, the following scheme we have put in place and it aims to do exactly that and ensure that fewer people are unemployed but remain attached to their company through the furlough scheme. and as the 0br says, the reason that is a good thing, notjust in the short term, but when we get through this, we can bounce back as quickly as possible. so to your point about a generation, no, i very much hope the measures in place will allow us to do exactly as the 0br said, bounce back. and if you look at their scenario, that is something they talk about in there, something they talk about in there, so it will be difficult in the short term and i'm happy to be honest about that with people but the measures we have put in place will help and as we get through this, it will mean that we can recover quickly and strongly and get our lives and economy back to normal. yvonne or steve? on the data? thank

you. so, the deaths out of hospital, the office for national statistics do actually collect total deaths and we have had a download of that today, but laura, we are working with the ons to speed it up so we get quick information. as you know, the daily deaths, we would very much like to have that but it's a bit more complicated for care homes because although over nine out of ten deaths sadly do occur in hospital, in the community there are a range of places where they occur, including care homes, but also hospices and at home as well. and in these very that is what takes time on the death certificate to get right. but we would like to have more rapid data, preferably on a daily basis, and that is what we are working towards. does that cover it,

laura? can i come back in on the point about the numbers and you hope there will be a temporary bounce back but the expansion of the borrowing the government will do and the predictions for the deficit suggest it will be long—term consequences that your government or future government's choices. do you think we can just future government's choices. do you think we canjust shake this off future government's choices. do you think we can just shake this off for the next few months? there are two separate things. one is what happens in the real economy in terms of business activity, economic growth and jobs, business activity, economic growth andjobs, andi business activity, economic growth andjobs, and i do business activity, economic growth and jobs, and i do hope the measures we have put in place will ensure we can have a reasonably fast bounce back, which is why we are doing what we can. that is a function of when we can. that is a function of when we exit the measures. but your second point about public finances, this year, the 0br is right to say there would be a significant increase in borrowing. we are borrowing a significant amount in order to fund these measures and i think that's absolutely the right decision and as the 0br said, the cost of not doing that would be far worse than if we did do that. if we

think about future public finances, if we get, as the 0br putting it scenario, relatively swift bounce back on the economy recovers, the public finances on a year to year basis should return to a more normal position. the interventions we put in place are largely temporary and do not need to be repeated on a year by year basis and hopefully that will allow us to get to a sustainable position reasonably soon after we exit. thank you. the next question is paul brand from itv? good afternoon. i want to pick up on laura's question about data. we've been filming in a care home in gateshead where they feel that the residents they have lost to covid—19 are being forgotten. given that data does exist, however imperfect it may be, wouldn't it be more respectful to include those deaths in your own statistics? before yvonne talks about the data, let me tell you from

my perspective that i would say to eve ryo ne my perspective that i would say to everyone working in care homes up and down the country, you have absolutely not been forgotten. there has been an enormous amount of focus, whether it's at the nhs or elsewhere to make sure that care homes not just elsewhere to make sure that care homes notjust get the ppe need but they get the support they need in every aspect of the job they are doing, which is extraordinary. when we clap every week, we clap for eve ryo ne we clap every week, we clap for everyone caring. with the data there is no desire not to respect people in care homes. we are working with the ons to speed up the publication of that data. in terms of the data we publish every day and make decisions on, there is a question about making sure we have a dataset thatis about making sure we have a dataset that is consistent and accurate and timely, and there are logistical challenge in being able to collect that data and make decisions based on it. yvonne can maybe elaborate on

that point. absolutely, i would like to have the best possible data on a daily basis and the care sector is very much seen daily basis and the care sector is very much seen as daily basis and the care sector is very much seen as part of the health ca re very much seen as part of the health care family. they are part of the front line and we are very familiar with that sector through our local and national work, with the local resilience forum. we work on the outbreaks, which is even more important to discuss in a sense then anything else at the moment, where we have a number of outbreaks in ca re we have a number of outbreaks in care homes and there is a very active input to ensure the damage and the harm to people is mitigated. and so we work very actively with the care home sector, but it is a dispersed sector. the reason we can provide the data very quickly from hospitals is because there are fewer hospitals is because there are fewer hospitals compared to care homes so we are working with the smaller numberof we are working with the smaller number of organisations. but because

our hospitals are used in the process of supplying data to nhs england on a daily basis, that is something they do during normal times for all sorts of data so in the hospital sector we have an infrastructure and a basis to get the data rapidly. the patients we report from hospitals are those who know have been tested positive, and again that is different from in the community where doctors are registering deaths based on probable diagnosis and not necessarily on a tested diagnosis, so there are key differences in the sets of data and how they are collected. to give some context, there are a couple of hundred nhs trusts existing consistent system for providing data, and tens of tens of thousands of social care settings that one needs to collect data from and that is the challenge that steve is talking about. does that answer your question fully? yes, picking up on

the data again though because there has been discussion that your own slides include data from france, where they do include deaths in care homes in their data, so why would it be fairto homes in their data, so why would it be fair to put that data on your slide but not in the uk? indeed, different countries report in different countries report in different ways. one of the issues we have noticed is sometimes the way the data is presented can cause quite a surprise in the system. so re ce ntly quite a surprise in the system. so recently there was quite a large inject of data from care homes in france which made it look as if there was an alarming increase in deaths on that day which wasn't the case. it demonstrates exactly the challenge of getting this right day on day, and we are very much learning internationally. we are in touch with all our european neighbours. and i think the general point is that it is important we compare with other countries, that

all countries compare with each other and learn from each other but of course there are differences in the reporting of all sorts of statistics from different countries, and it is really important to ensure thatis and it is really important to ensure that is taken into account when you are doing that comparison.“ that is taken into account when you are doing that comparison. if we could turn next to catherine sampson at stv? nicola sturgeon says at her press conference that she wants assurances scottish care workers will not lose out on ppe because of companies that have been told to prioritise nhs england. can you confirm to me no company has been told to do this by public health england? basically is this story rubbish or is it not? thank you for the question. if you look at what the question. if you look at what the national clinical director in scotla nd the national clinical director in scotland said earlier today, he said we have looked into it and we do think it is rubbish. i would say

from our perspective there has been incredibly close coordinated action across our public health bodies and nhs bodies to make sure we have a four nation approach to all of this. there is no truth in those stories that the companies have been told to prioritise ppe equipment, and i think the country is happening in fa ct, think the country is happening in fact, as think the country is happening in fa ct, as steve think the country is happening in fact, as steve will elaborate on in a minute, there has been in close collaboration in this regard. yvonne, can you give examples of that? i can assure you that the four chief medical officers and medical directors, the nursing directors, work very closely if not daily certainly weekly in that group. we are very coordinated, and we want to make sure that each country gets what it needs. that is driven by the intelligence that we get back from each of the devolved administrations, so public health england has not in any sense

directed any of the devolved administrations to be at a disadvantage. we work really closely together. can we turn next to ed conway from sky? there has been quite a lot of talk about how unprecedented the economic impact for covid—19 has been but the scenario we have heard about from the 0br is pretty shocking, the deepest slump since 1709. the national debt at 100% of gdp. did all of that shock you? and even if the economy bounces back, it will have higher debt and be a big estate so are you really suggesting life will simply return to normal?|j would will simply return to normal?” would echo what i have said before and you have given some numbers but i don't believe this is the time for

ideology or orthodoxy. it is unprecedented times and that calls foran unprecedented times and that calls for an unprecedented economic response, so in that sense it is not surprising to see some of these figures because what we are dealing with is not like anything we have seen before, which is why we have put in place the measures we have. i do believe those measures will help mitigate some of the short term impact on our economy and ensure we can try to keep as much of the productive capacity of our economy, as many businesses connected to their employees as possible during this difficult period so that when it is over, and it will be at some point, we can reconnect and bounce back as quickly as possible. that is what the 0br scenario puts in its forecast. i do believe that is possible in that sense when you talk about getting back to normal, but i sensed you might have a follow up on that so please do ask. i'm curious because you talked a lot about

hardship. we are getting some idea about what hardship means for many people in britain for many companies, but i'm also wondering whether the hardship might have to continue after this if we have such a high level of debt that the uk economy will look slightly different thanit economy will look slightly different than it was only a few months ago. once we get through this we will have to take stock of public finances in the economy and make the right decisions at that point. i have talked before about doing whatever we need to to right the ship. we remain committed to the agenda about levelling up, and i believe that can still be a critical pa rt believe that can still be a critical part of how we get back to normal. we are all in this together as we face this public health crisis, it's a collective national effort. we think about our economic recovery, i think about our economic recovery, i think about our economic recovery, i think about it as one where every

pa rt think about it as one where every part of this country is able to share in the benefits of growth and opportunity and improvement in productivity at that point. the agenda about levelling up and investing in infrastructure, that will only become more important as we exit this crisis. it is delivering on that that will help right the ship when we come out of this. as the 0br talks about the possibility for that, and ourjob is to deliver on that once we get through this. i hope that is clear. thank you. shall we move next to francis elliott, the times? it is clear the economic fallout from this will disproportionately hit the young and people joining the labour market. looking forward, can you commit to maintaining policies like the triple lock on pensions for

instance? what is your message to younger people? to the medics, do younger people? to the medics, do you have any data on the proportion of new cases which are hospital—acquired cases or acquired in care homes? could you possibly give some granularity on the data of hospital—acquired infection please. thanks. you are drawing me into writing future budgets here today which is probably a difficult thing to do, but do your general point about young people and their part in this, i pay enormous tribute to them. whether it is very young children who are not able to go to school, take exams, it is disruptive to them and they are trying to operate the best they can and they are doing the best they can in difficult circumstances. then two people in the labour market as you talked about, my message to them

would be thank you for everything you are doing. i see reports of people volunteering, people who have time to help out an elderly neighbour shopping or volunteering on our new nhs app and other systems. that is people in society coming together, everyone realising they can play a different role to help the country get through this and that deserves enormous praise. from an economic perspective, whatever age you are at ourjob is to provide opportunity when you come out of this so to me it doesn't matter what age you are, whether you live in london or in the countryside i live in london or in the countryside ,we live in london or in the countryside , we want to make sure there is economic opportunity for you. that might mean you want to start your own business so i want to make sure this remains one of the best places in the world to start a business, the best place to study and research, the best place to create

the companies of the future. i will look at all of those things and make sure the plans we had in place before are the right ones, what we can do to turbo—charge them even further. because if you are young and entering the labour market, i wa nt and entering the labour market, i want you to see hope for your future and i'm confident we can deliver that as we exit the crisis. on the question about hospital—acquired infections, yvonne might want to talk about care home infections, so the first thing i would say is that we take hospital—acquired infections very seriously. we do at normal times and absolutely do now. we have a strong record in the uk of managing hospital—acquired infections so one example of that is the mrsa blood infections. when i was a young the mrsa blood infections. when i was a young doctor they occurred relatively frequently and due to a huge amount of work, that now happens rarely. so we have very strong infection prevention and control systems within our hospitals so we are in a good place going into

this epidemic. having said that, clearly this is a new virus, one we are still learning about in terms of how it is transmitted, its infection rates, and we are seeing much more of it because it is coming into a population that is not immune then we would for other infections. it's not unexpected we will see hospital—acquired infections relating to coronavirus. we are looking at that very carefully. we wa nt looking at that very carefully. we want to ensure that where we do see it, we get on top of it quickly. our hospitals are separating out coronavirus patients from other patients, using all of the standard infection prevention and control method they used to manage infections, but we do need to make sure we learn from this new virus and if we need to adapt our infection prevention and control policies to manage it differently, we will do that. it is something we are actively looking at, at the moment. i cannot give you the number

you asked for because i don't know what that is, but the message is that we take hospital—acquired infections very seriously and we will continue to look at this and ensure we adapt our policies within hospitals to take account of what we have learned about this virus and how we should manage it. yvonne. equally we are very much cognisant of what is happening in care homes, and each day we get information from our local teams working with directors of public health and the local resilience forum about what is going on in terms of this infection in care homes. it doesn't distinguish the vulnerable and of course they will not be immune either. those situations we call them, but sadly sometimes outbreaks as well, teams will be providing advice, doing testing and arranging for the mitigation of harm to those

vulnerable people. bear in mind it isa very vulnerable people. bear in mind it is a very challenging group because many of these residents may have dementia and it is important that it isa humane dementia and it is important that it is a humane response as well. so this is a different challenge to hospitals but of equal concern. on that r number in hospitals, let me be clear the data is not good enough to get the size of that at the moment but the work will be ongoing as part of how we look at health ca re as part of how we look at health care associated infections. that a nswer care associated infections. that answer is as comprehensive as they could be, hopefully. we have to be clear, there is no number of hospital enquired —— acquired infections? the data is being looked at at the moment and we specifically asked about the number and the infection rate. the data is not clear enough yet to be able to give that number. 0rto clear enough yet to be able to give that number. or to calculate that number. thank you. tom newton dunn?

thank you very much. a question on the furlough schemes, loans and gra nts the furlough schemes, loans and grants that you are supervising. there's been a lot of complaint from sectors like the british chamber of commerce and others that it is simply not happening fast enough and money is not getting out the door faster. payday is coming up on april the 25th for a lot of companies and they will not survive until they have that money and time, so can you give a guarantee today that you will furlough money and the portal will be open by april the 25th and money will start to leave the treasury to the companies by april the 25th. and a quick question to yvonne and steve, going back to the france and uk comparison on daily mortality figures, it is simply unfair to compare them and put those figures on the same chart, is it not,

because effectively you are comparing apples with pears. one with care home deaths and one without. do you accept if you just compare hospital deaths between france and the uk, the uk would be above the french line for some time by now? you mentioned three different schemes, and you are right to do that and do keep pushing, because we need to make sure that the interventions we are pushing —— putting in place reach the people they are designed to help. in terms of the grants for small businesses, that money has left central government and gone to local government and gone to local government who are administering the grant schemes. i think the last numbers i saw showed about one third of it had been dispersed to businesses, around three up to £4 billion, but there is more to go. i spoke to the government secretary of state about that and he is intensifying his efforts and scrutiny to make sure that we can get that money out the door as fast as possible. in terms of the loans, there has been enormous improvement

from where we were at the end of the week before last when there were about 1000 loans issued in that number is now up four times till the end of last week in terms of the millions of pounds who have gone up out of the door, that is about five times. and the changes are making a difference. i'm grateful to all of the banking staff, and i know many other large banks have worked over the easter weekend, to work through the easter weekend, to work through the backlog of applications they had, so thank you to all of them for doing that and i think it will mean we will see an acceleration in those numbers in the coming days as well but we are keeping a careful eye on that, as you would imagine and i'm in close contact with the bank ceos. and lastly on the furlough scheme, what we said when i announced the scheme, to reiterate, we've never had something like this in the uk before. as you seen from the 0br report today, it potentially might cover millions of people and we had to build a brand—new system from scratch to handle that. and that is

what is dictating the timing. the tea m what is dictating the timing. the team have been working night and day since the announcement to get this up since the announcement to get this up and running. what our plan is, andi up and running. what our plan is, and i always said the scheme would be up and running by the end of april, and that is our intention, and where we are at the moment is we are on track to deliver that, and the system is built and we are in the system is built and we are in the process of testing that amongst small groups of employers. the plan is for it to open on the april 20, that it is for it to open on the april 20, thatitis is for it to open on the april 20, that it is the working assumption, of applications, and that sees a period of several days between submitting an application and receiving the cash, comprised of two chunks. one is our desire and need to do some fraud checks, as you would rightly inspect because we need to make sure the taxpayer is protected against fraudulent claims and that takes time to do, and the remainder of the time is the system to get the money back to people. but the portal should be open around the

20th and from there there is a period of days, several days, to get the cash, but you should be able to get it before the end of the month if everything goes to plan. steve, did you want to pick up on that, or was it yvonne? i can start. i completely understand the point about comparing like with like, and there are so many measures even of death, which you might imagine is a fairly straightforward measure, that it can be fairly difficult to understand what exactly you are looking out on one of the things we are doing all of the time is speaking to our european neighbours to understand not just what they are measuring, but what they consider best practice to be and how we can learn together about that. in the early stages of this epidemic it was clear that even with death we were looking at differently denominated populations, so even there we were not able to compare like with like because it was a much younger population which had been tested. so it would be ideal if we were absolutely clear we were comparing like with like and that is what we

endeavour to do, but we are always open for learning on that. tom, i hope that covers everything. quick follow—up if i might? if you don't mind? the loan guarantee scheme has had criticism from people who said you should take 100% of the risk, certainly for the smaller companies. one of your predecessors, george osborne, said today you should do that. would you think about doing it? when people say i should take 100% of the risk, it's not really me, it's all of us, it's the taxpayer taking 100% of the risk of the loans defaulting and removing, at that point, any credit check that the bank might do. having said that, is there an argument for looking at something like that? of course there is. there are systems like that in place in switzerland and germany. germany have just put a system in place at the end of last week that got approval to do and we

continually look at everything other countries are doing to make sure there are things we can learn and improve from. first there is an economic and fiscal question as to whether it would be the right intervention for us and we are doing a lot of direct cash support to businesses through the grants that you asked about and i mentioned, 10,000, £25,000 cash grants. and we have done huge business rate tax cuts in the tens of billions of pounds. those collectively are quite significant. not every country has replicated those direct cash helps to businesses, but we continue to keep everything under review and continue to look for where improvements might be made on the last thing to add on that, as you asked about the furlough scheme, we have to be confident whatever we come up with is actually deliverable. in some of the countries that are put these things in place elsewhere have historic systems that are able to deliver them. that is not the case in this country. we have not done things

like that before which means we do not have the capability and the systems to deliver something necessarily just systems to deliver something necessarilyjust because systems to deliver something necessarily just because you systems to deliver something necessarilyjust because you see it in another country, and on loans in particular, whether it is the us, france, germany as well, in all of their domestic press and media and business organisations you will have seen frustration with the pace of the loan programme, because all of these countries, like us, are doing things they have not done before and it is just things they have not done before and it isjust a things they have not done before and it is just a delivery question about that. thanks. dan o'donoghue? hi, chancellor. there are warnings that unemployment might soar by more than 2 million due to the coronavirus crisis, and given all the problems prior to that, are you open to universal basic income? and a quick one to the medics... glitch.

reports suggest there are just 19 patients at nhs nightingale in london but hundreds are dying in ca re london but hundreds are dying in care homes... glitch. we will try to get dan back, but if ican we will try to get dan back, but if i can answer the first part of the question, which i think, dan, are you there? we are struggling to hear. why don't we try to move on, if we can get dan back, then we will. brilliant. turning next to the next question? i have two questions,

one for the chancellor and we had an idea today of how bad the economic hit from the coronavirus would be, and the treasury has already committed eye watering sums to support the country through it. you said you did not want to write a budget now, but can you give us a rough sense of how you are thinking we might pay for it? will there be tax races? could pensioners help pay question could there be another decade of austerity for public services? can you give us an idea of where the money will come from and how you will run the ship question mark and a question for the medics, you've been guided by science in making decision so far, but now we have the benefit of hindsight for some of this, so can maybe each one of you may be name of the one thing you wish we had done differently? may be locking down the country earlier, getting the testing going earlier, getting the testing going earlier, joining the eu ventilator scheme. is there anything you would have done differently with hindsight or has the uk response been without

fault so far? thanks. i am not able to talk about future tax policy here. what i would say is, the economic priority now is to make sure that we can mitigate as much of the impact that the health interventions are causing. the sums we have committed are worthwhile in that regard, as the 0br report talks about. it would be far worse if we weren't doing what we were doing and ido weren't doing what we were doing and i do believe that is the right decision. in terms of when we come out of this in terms of righting the ship, we have to look at it then. as you are right to point out, this has cost a lot, but as i said before, the best way out of this for all of us is to just grow the economy which is why trying to keep up much of it intact as possible at the moment allows the bounce back when we come out of it and allows us to snap back to normal as quickly as possible. that's the most preferable thing and if that happens, it means the long—term impact on public finances, for example, will obviously be

reduced. the interventions are temporary and the quicker we get back to normal, the quicker we get back to normal, the quicker we get back to normal, the quicker we get back to a sustainable set of public finances. that is very much the priority right now. yvonne did, do you want to go first? it's a good question and will be asked many times. to me it seems as if my colleagues and i have been working since at least mid january, seven days a week, sometimes all night in our labs days a week, sometimes all night in ourlabs and we days a week, sometimes all night in our labs and we have learned so much that i wish i had known injanuary stopped because, undoubtedly, we perhaps could have done things differently stop but we have worked tirelessly, month in, month out, and it's been a privilege to do so. one of the great questions for me is, when was this virus first round? and ifi when was this virus first round? and if i had known that, it would have beena if i had known that, it would have been a wonderful public health gift to have been able to perhaps anticipate what it would do. and thatis

anticipate what it would do. and that is one of the good scientific questions. but it is not that we have nothing to learn, we have so much to learn, but i can assure you we are working so hard that every day, what we do we do in all sincerity for the benefit of the population. and of course we could do things better, and that is why we keep talking to our neighbours, actually, so we can learn that. i am very humble about it, but there is so much to say about this. it's a great question and i spent my medical career as a doctor always looking back on cases i had managed, circumstances i'd been in, asking what we could had —— have done better and clinicians are very self—critical. one thing i know is you can come to those conclusions too early and you have to wait until you have got to the appropriate time to look back and learn the right lessons, and do the right analysis. because, at the moment, we are still very much at the early stages of this and i think the answer to your

question will likely be different when we get towards the end of this thanit when we get towards the end of this than it will be now, sol when we get towards the end of this than it will be now, so i think it is too early to jump to those sorts of conclusions but i'm absolutely confident that we will all want to look back and say, what could we have done differently, or could we have done differently, or could we have done differently, or could we have done it this way, or perhaps in another way? if i mightjust add on that, we are all dealing, whether it's politicians, medical advisers, doctors, we are all dealing with something no one has ever really faced before and we are not alone in that. every country around the world is in the same situation. so when you are faced with such an unprecedented challenge, are we going to be perfect on everything we do and the pace we are doing it at? of course not. but what you heard andi of course not. but what you heard and i would echo from our end, we are constantly being driven to do what is in the best interest of the country and in keeping people safe, and where we can learn, adjust or

iterate, whether it's what i'm doing on economic interventions or loan schemes, or whether it is what steve and yvonne are responsible for, co nsta ntly and yvonne are responsible for, constantly being open to think how we can be better and respond to things as we need to is the approach all of us collectively take as we try and get the country and the economy through this. thanks very much. i think we might have dan back. as has already been said this afternoon, unemployment could soar by more than 2 million. given the problems prior to the outbreak with universal credit, is universal credit inadequate safety net and if not are open to of the proposals? to the medics, it keeps being said how the medics, it keeps being said how the uk won't exceed capacity. there arejust the uk won't exceed capacity. there are just 19 the uk won't exceed capacity. there arejust 19 patients at the uk won't exceed capacity. there are just 19 patients at nhs

nightingale in london, but hundreds are dying in care homes. why aren't they being ta ken are dying in care homes. why aren't they being taken into there is room for them? thanks for your question. i don't think universal basic income is the right answer to this. universal credit is working well. dwp staff are under strain like many organisations across the country as they are dealing with people being sick ina they are dealing with people being sick in a way as well, but given the circumstances they are processing claims efficiently and effectively. we provide some extra resource to dwp to help them with that but i think their staff deserve praise for what they are doing. we have also injected extra resources to deal with the particular nature of this crisis into the welfare system, whether that is strengthening this year, working with tax credits, all of those interventions which totalled £7 billion. because of the unprecedented nature of what we are

facing, that will go to supporting the most vulnerable people in our country and i believe all of those things are getting to the people they need to. yvonne? a quick comment. this is an important question because it brings forward the answer that nobody who needs the nhs care in an emergency should be denied that. i think that is the message steve would want to convey as well. the nhs is therefore people. what we need to understand is the much more analysis and understanding of the deaths as they occur, and that is being done regularly so there might be very good reasons why people from care homes are not being admitted to hospital. i can't answer that here but what i do want to make clear is that at no time has it been said to me anywhere that the nhs would not acce pt me anywhere that the nhs would not accept a patient who needed to be admitted. i think that is right. in normal times when we are not dealing

with a global pandemic, doctors and other clinicians make difficult decisions with families and patients ona decisions with families and patients on a daily basis as to who might get admitted to hospital when there is a serious illness, perhaps someone in a care home who might be admitted to itu. so those discussions are had every day in the nhs, and it should be exactly the same now. one of the purposes of ensuring nhs capacity stays ahead, not just purposes of ensuring nhs capacity stays ahead, notjust in intensive ca re stays ahead, notjust in intensive care beds but in the general beds as well, has been to allow clinicians to make those decisions in the way they always do make those decisions. the chief nursing officer and myself have been very clear that we have written on do not resuscitate orders that we should be dealing with that asa that we should be dealing with that as a clinical body exactly the same way as as a clinical body exactly the same way as we as a clinical body exactly the same way as we always have done. the fact

we have got the additional capacity that we have planned so well for should mean clinicians should be confident that they can have those discussions as they always have done in the current epidemic. thank you. i think we had one follow—up that i may have missed, so apologies. emilio, hello. on the economic impact, obviously one thing that could make the economic situation worse is no—deal brexit, so why is the government willing to put the country through that and it will already be suffering from coronavirus? you talk about no deal and the reality is we have left the european union and we left it with a deal that was negotiated. with regard to our future relationship, thatis regard to our future relationship, that is something that currently those talks are under way. we remain committed to the timeline we have

set out to conclude those by the end of this year. what i can say is david frost, our chief eu negotiator on behalf of the prime minister, was in touch with his deputy counterpart last week and michel barnier this week to make sure we have a timeline in place for this phase of the negotiations which obviously can happen over video conferences and texts a nd happen over video conferences and texts and legal agreements are being exchanged between the eu and ourselves, so i'm confident that work can continue and hopefully reach a satisfactory conclusion, but we remain committed to the timeline we remain committed to the timeline we have set out. thank you, emilio, andi we have set out. thank you, emilio, and i think that brings the press conference to a conclusion. thank you to yvonne, steve, and everyone at home, thank you for complying with the social distancing guidelines on what was a very sunny bank holiday weekend. i know it is difficult for everyone in their own

ways to get through this, but we can look forward to happier times and in the meantime please stay at home, protect the nhs and save lives. the chancellor, rishi sunak, repeating the government mantra. he took lots of questions on the economy as you would expect, but also the latest figures of hospital cases and also of deaths. i am joined in the studio by lauren moss, our health correspondent. what stood out for you? reflecting on where we are at three weeks on from when the lockdown was announced. steve powis said the main strategy is still social distancing, reducing spread of the transmission so over time we will see a reduction of infections. we were shown some slides initially looking at the number of infection rate translating into uk cases, and he said there has been a plateau in the number of new cases as you can

see on the graph. it shows we have around 4000 to 5000 new cases being confirmed every day so this is steadying out. moving onto hospital admissions, these are the sickest people, overall admissions fell by 296 in people, overall admissions fell by 2% in wales and scotland in the last 24 hours and even more steeply in the east of england. we were also shown where the uk is comparing to other countries around the world, looking at the global death rate. we have to be cautious with comparing com pletely have to be cautious with comparing completely like—for—like because, for example, at the moment the uk daily figures don't include those who have passed away in the community and they are on a delay for those who have passed away in ca re for those who have passed away in care homes and hospices. you can see the uk is steadily climbing, whereas countries like france are including those in the community in their

figures. the chancellor and the two advisers faced repeated questions about the number of cases in care homes specifically, didn't they? yes, when we find out about the number of people who have died in ca re number of people who have died in care homes it is on a ten day delay because of the amount of time it ta kes to because of the amount of time it takes to get the deaths certified and registered when they haven't occurred in hospitals. there is a pressing need now raised by many people in the media and family members of loved ones to find out the most up—to—date data on these people who are dying in the community. professor yvonne doyle says they are working to get this information quicker because it can be quite hard to collate and they need to make sure the causes of death or contributory factor are correct, but certainly pressure growing on getting that information out as quickly as possible without the ten day delay i think. ok, lauren, many thanks. our health

correspondent lauren moss. we can cross to vicki young in westminster, and lots of questions about the economy off the back of that research by the office for budget responsibility, suggesting... talking about the hit the economy would take, and the chancellor defending his strategy about trying to protect businesses and people's jobs. but more coy about where it would leave the public finances. he is not shying away from the impact this will have on the economy, and as he said before he will not be able to save every business but he's pointing out the 0br report says the action the government is taking will mitigate some of that. at the end of this is because they don't want businesses to have gone bust. they wa nt businesses to have gone bust. they want people to go back to theirjobs and they want the businesses still to be there. he is hoping that the hit will be temporary and short, and

there will be a bounce back. that sounds optimistic, that is what the 0br are forecasting at the moment, but the longer term impact of what that does to the deficit, what it does to debt, how does he recoup that money if he tries to, will taxes go up? how many years will it last? he cannot answer that and didn't want to, saying he will not write a budget right now, but his tone was slightly different in all of those issues including the one on deaths in care homes, saying clearly you haven't been forgotten. the fact there has been this problem with getting personal protective equipment and testing into the social care sector, and saying we haven't been perfect. we will not be perfect in every aspect of what we do, and he says they are listening to feedback and advice, and want to improve things because he says what they are facing and what the country

is facing is unprecedented. ok. vicki, thank you for that. that is our political correspondent, vicki young. you heard the latest daily briefing from downing street, taken by rishi sunak in which he talked about the economy, the effect this crisis is having on the economy, how he has moved to try and protect people's jobs and businesses, he has moved to try and protect people'sjobs and businesses, but also facing a lot of questions about where eventually this will leave the public finances. we will leave that there now and take a look at the weather. after a chilly start to tuesday, temperatures are recovering nicely now. easter monday's high pressure that brought the cold north easterly wind has drifted further east so the wind has drifted further east so the wind direction changed subtly and you will notice a difference outside. in fact we are enjoying

some lovely spring sunshine and you can see the blossom on the tree benefiting from that. further north, a lot of cloud across the northern isles. if we put these weather watcher pictures on the satellite, you can see what i'm talking about. blue sky and sunshine through the midlands with patchy cloud in east anglia and south—east at the moment but that should break up through the remainder of the day. a quiet story for many. a breeze through scotland with temperatures not quite as high and we should see them through the afternoon with eight to 11 degrees. elsewhere possibly 14. through this evening we keep the clear skies, so the warmer yellow tones disappear once again, and invoked we will see blue on the chart which means frost is not out of the question in some rural spots. again, not as cold as the nightjust rural spots. again, not as cold as the night just past, rural spots. again, not as cold as the nightjust past, but for gardeners worth bearing in mind. as

we move through to wednesday, it will be a quiet story with quite a lot of cloud again through scotland and more of a breeze here, so not quite as one —— not quite as warm but temperatures will recover. there is the potential by the end of the day on thursday to see sharp showers from this area of low pressure. the of it however, see more warmth returning so warmer temperatures potentially across southern parts of england and wales, returning to the low 20s. more cloud through scotland, northern ireland and north of england on thursday with showers arriving across the far south—west by the end of the day. we could get highs of 21 degrees by thursday afternoon. then as we move into friday, that area of low pressure continues drifting up from the south—west and it could influence the story not only for england and wales but potentially into northern

ireland as well, and it could bring heavier outbreaks of rain.

today at six, the latest official evidence of the heavy human cost of the coronavirus pandemic. the latest figures shows a very sharp rise in the number of deaths per week in england and wales — 6,000 more than would be expected at this time of year. there's particular concern about care homes. one charity says the elderly have been forgotten. ministers say it's not true. i would say to all those people working in care homes up and down the country, you know, whether it's the people in them, whether it's the people looking after them, you have absolutely not been forgotten. the economic impact of the crisis could be devastating. an independent body warns the uk economy could shrink by 13% this year. and the longer the lockdown goes on for, the more likely