thank still be learning from home. thank you, vicki young. we willjoin you injust the you, vicki young. we willjoin you in just the second. just to remind eve ryo ne in just the second. just to remind everyone that the latest number of deaths we have had announced in the uk in hospitals is 596 people. can i start for thank you for all the sacrifices that you have had to make and that you have continued to make. i know this has not been easy but this is the surest way that we have to protect the nhs and to save lives. i can report on the government was might ongoing monitoring and testing programme, aged 2000 and 63 tests for coronavirus have been carried out in great britain, including 21,626 test carried out yesterday. under hundred

21,067 people have tested positive. that is an increase of 5000 850 cases since yesterday. 18,000118 people are currently in hospital was coronavirus in the uk when compared to 80,006 on the 17th of april. sadly, others hospitalised with the virus, 16,060 have now sadly, others hospitalised with the virus,16,060 have now died. sadly, others hospitalised with the virus, 16,060 have now died. that is an increase of 596 fatalities since yesterday. we must not forget that behind every single statistic there isa behind every single statistic there is a heartbreaking story and my sincere condolences go out to eve ryo ne sincere condolences go out to everyone who has lost someone they love. these are challenging times for all of us and each of us has a

role to play in fighting this virus. those who are working in the nhs, those doctors and nurses, those clea ners those doctors and nurses, those cleaners and porters and ambulance crews. they are all doing an amazing job. they are truly heroic on the pa rt job. they are truly heroic on the part that they are playing and supporting everyone of us in this nation. today, iwould supporting everyone of us in this nation. today, i would also like to see how enormously grateful we are for those who are working on our nurseries, schools, colleges and universities and children's services. i am universities and children's services. iam profoundly universities and children's services. i am profoundly grateful to the dash for the role they are providing an our communities. they have been keeping schools and nurseries open, including all the easter holidays, so that our most vulnerable children and children of that co—workers can continue to be supported in the cab cared for. people are and —— people are anxious

when we are going to relax restrictions and allow schools to be back at open again. i want nothing more than for schools to be back, get them back to normal, make sure that children are sat around, learning and experiencing the joy of being at school. but i cannot give you a date because before we do we need to meet five tests. first we must protect the nhs‘s ability to cope and be sure that it can continue to provide critical care and specialist treatment right across the. and specialist treatment right across the whole of the united kingdom. second, we need to see daily death rates from coronavirus coming down. third, we need to have reliable data that shows the rate of infection is decreasing to manageable levels. fourth, we need

to be confident that testing capacity and ppe is being managed with supply able to meet, notjust today's demand, but future demand. and fifth, and perhaps most crucially, we need to be confident that any changes we do make will not risk a second peak of infections. when we can be sure we have met these five essential points, we can think about getting children into schools again learning, mastering you ideas and being with their friends once more. —— new ideas. we will work with the sector to consider how best to reopen schools, nurseries and colleges when the time is right. our first nurseries and colleges when the time is right. 0urfirst priority has a lwa ys is right. 0urfirst priority has always been protecting the well—being of children and young people. but particularly those vulnerable young people with special educational needs or a social

worker. schools are open for them and we're open —— working to make sure those who should attend, do so. courses are available for children of critical workers too. there are 30,000 children in school every single day. schools are helping to give the country moving. and we are asking our local authorities and schools to ensure every vulnerable child knows that the school is there to support them, that systems are in place to keep in touch with those children who are unable to attend because of health reasons. i know that families of seriously ill and disabled children are particularly worried at this time. and i'm grateful to all the staff working so ha rd to grateful to all the staff working so hard to support their education, health and care. particularly those in special schools and residential ca re in special schools and residential

care homes. young people who have left care orjust about care homes. young people who have left care or just about to care homes. young people who have left care orjust about to do, whether that is from a foster family 01’ whether that is from a foster family or residential care, the realty vulnerable right now. i am asking local authorities to ensure that no one has to leave care during this difficult time. the 1.6 billion pounds of additional funding announced yesterday will help local authorities to give care leavers and other vulnerable groups the support they need at this difficult time. to further protect children from harm we are continuing to support childline and working with the nspcc to expand and promote the adult helpline by providing them with an extra £1.6 million. this means children have someone to call and more adults will be able to raise concerns and seek advice about the safety a nd concerns and seek advice about the

safety and well—being of any child that they worried about. like the rest of the population, all our teachers have had to adapt very quickly to new ways of working. they've had to move resources online, work remotely, change the way they support their students as well as one another. i'm immensely grateful to them and to everyone who has offered their support, including those who have made resources freely available for schools, parents and pupils to use. we have already published an initial list of high quality online educational resources , quality online educational resources, including how to support physical and mental well—being, and materials for teaching children with special educational needs and disabilities. and yet another example of how we are at our best when we work together. some of our leading state schools have

collaborated to open the oak national academy, which will be launched online tomorrow. this is a totally new initiative led by a0 brilliant teachers who have assembled video lessons and resources for any teacher in the country to make use of if they wish to do so. 180 video lessons will be provided each week across a broad range of subjects for every year group from reception through to year ten. i recognise all the challenges that families will be facing at the moment and we're determined to support parents who are helping their children learn from home. i think we all know how difficult that can be. but bbc has developed resources for families as part of the most comprehensive education package in the bbc‘s history, available on tv and online from tomorrow morning. and to make sure

as many children as possible can access online learning, we are ordering laptops to help disadvantaged young people who sit key exa ms disadvantaged young people who sit key exams next year. we will also provide laptops and tablets for those children with social workers and care leavers, to help them stay in touch with the services they need, keeping them safe as well as supporting home learning. and if disadvantaged secondary school pupils and care leavers who are preparing for exams, do not already have intranet connections, we will provide free ag routers to get them connected while schools are closed. we're also working with major telecommunications providers to exempt certain educational resources from data charges, so that this does not add to household expenses that

may already be very stretched at this moment. before i finish i would like to upload the remarkable way oui’ like to upload the remarkable way our educational community has responded to this outbreak. i'm enormously proud and inspired by the incredible spirit they are showing. schools are supporting the communities in every way from preparing food parcels to sharing their facilities with local hospitals. colleges are manufacturing and donating equipment. and universities are working flat out to develop diagnostic tests. and of course a vaccine, which will help us beat this invisible enemy. and to any young people watching, i wanted to say to you how sorry i am you have been disrupted, you have had your education disrupted in this way. i know how hard it must be and i'd

like to thank you for making the adjustments that you had to make. i know that you will be missing your friends, your teachers, your lessons. and i want you to know that you are such an important part of this fight too. and i cannot thank you enough for all that you are doing. this global pandemic is the biggest threat to our country. it's the biggest threat to this country has faced in modern times. if we all continue to work together as we have been, and if we continue to stick through to the advice of our experts, we will come out of the other side and be able to begin the task of rebuilding our communities. i'd like now to hand over tojenny. and then we will take some questions. thank you. so i am just going to talk briefly through... many of you

will be familiar with it. just to highlight the hard work that you as the public have achieved and the projection ahead as we see it. so the first slide is indicative of the social distancing measures we have all been working hard to achieve. and i think we need to congratulate ourselves but also maintain these measures as we go forward to ensure that we keep control of the pandemic as it is. this slide shows that since february there has been a more than 60% drop in our use of transport, all transport types, and particularly in rail and tube, recognising that it is just our essential workers going to work at the moment and usage on that is down by 95%. we've had a little blip over the easter period where people have been at home anyway, and those

normal levels if you like for pandemic status are now resumed. so i think pandemic status are now resumed. so ithinka pandemic status are now resumed. so i think a lot of really good work, but work that we need to continue. next slide. again, we usually look at the number of uk cases which have been confirmed. these are reported when lab tests are completed. it may come a little time after the initial laboratory test. and what you can see here is a rise in the cases that we reported in march. and although there is some variation on the day to day basis, in general there is a trend for the number of cases to be plateauing out now. and that is despite increased testing capacity. that i think is reflective of the social distancing measures that we have had, but are also reflected in our hospital data as well. next slide, please. and this slide shows

you the number of people in hospital over you the number of people in hospital over the time period since around the middle of march. there is a few dips in this, which we recognise from data collection, for example around the early phase in april, but you need to look at the general trend across the picture. and for london particularly it demonstrates not only the very significant amount of work that our hospitals have been doing, particularly around the first and second week of april, but also the success which is occurring now in the number of cases coming down over in the number of cases coming down over time. again, there will be variation as we go forward. we shouldn't be looking at specific day—to—day variation. it is the trend in that period. equally you can see that other parts of the country have had a slightly different pressures on their

systems. and it is really important that those areas continue to practice social distancing so that their hospital systems as well remain fully able, as they are now, with significant capacity in critical care and in normal bed utilisation, to manage all of the patients who need hospital care. last slide. and the last slide here is around our global death comparison. again this is one which we need to reflect back on many months ahead, because of the difference in the way different countries and different systems collect data, but we want to be able to show you what is happening in the uk and how that relates, as far as we possibly can, to other countries. and you can see there are two lines in this one. the uk hospital only data. this is very robust data which is readily accessible. and you can

see the blue line progressing on the right. but we like to think it's starting to even out a little bit. and then you will see to the left of the slide a uk all settings data line, which is reflecting the fact that we have a lag, if you like, between community death reporting and endeavours to try and display, in line with other countries, how the uk is managing to that extent. thank you. thank you. thank you. thank you ever so much, jenny. the first question we have got is from hugh pym at the bbc. can you comment on reports today that stocks of ppe were allowed to run down and a couple of years before the pandemic? and why was moore not done to get hold of more ppe in march and early february, including using british companies?

well, what we've seen when that... what we've seen over the last few months is an enormous effort, a national effort but also an international effort, to secure ppe from right around the globe, but we have seen so many brilliant british businesses re—purpose themselves in order to provide it, and we have seen many educational settings also being able to do it. but you know the government, from the first moment that we were in a situation where the scientific was highlighting to us that we were facing a real challenge in terms of the coronavirus, and this could potentially evolve into a pandemic, every resource potentially evolve into a pandemic, every resource of government potentially evolve into a pandemic, every resource of government has been deployed to notjust expanding what we need in terms of ppe, but also ventilators. we have seen a massive growth in the number of ventilators available in our hospitals. and keep adding and building to the stock of what we have got. i'm not sure, jenny, if there's anything extra on ppe you

wa nt to there's anything extra on ppe you want to add? i'm happy too. i think we should step back a little bit and start from the beginning of this. the uk, regardless of the position that we may be in now or, three, has been an international example in preparedness. the fact there is a pandemic stockpile is considered a very high quality mark of a prepared country in international terms. what we have had to come as a secretary of state has said and others have noted, is a huge demand on our supply. and i think we have had, if imight say supply. and i think we have had, if i might say from my own personal professional perspective, we could perhaps have a more adult and detailed conversation about ppe supplies. for example, quite rightly, the conversation at the moment is very much focused on gown supplies. earlier, in earlierweeks, iam very

supplies. earlier, in earlierweeks, i am very aware of consideration of eyewea r, in i am very aware of consideration of eyewear, in goggles and masks. and i think it is important to remember that although there may be elements of distribution problems across the uk at different times and in different places, this is a huge pull on services which we have never seen before. we have managed, despite signalling many potential shortfalls, supply going forward. even as i stand here, i know with the gown position, for example, when orders go in overseas supplies may be very different. what is received to what we think we are going to get. we have worked right across the uk to try to manage those supplies based predominantly and a lwa ys supplies based predominantly and always on a risk mitigation method, so this is about patient or whichever health care worker is at

highest risk across the uk requires those ppe. i think we perhaps need to, rather than lumping all of the ppe together, which is not an homogenous mix at all, we need to think carefully through what has been achieved and the challenges that are acknowledged to head. i'm not sure if there is a further question? can i ask a quick follow—up? question? can i ask a quick follow-up? please. some companies are offering to make and supply the ppe but people at the centre are either not replying orjust not coming back to them? we have seen over the last few weeks a massive increase in the amount of resources being put in terms of providing ppe and a billion extra items of ppe have been brought into this country. we recognise to support the nhs and those care homes, we need to be looking at every way we can bring in more. i know that the health

secretary and i know the cabinet office are doing immense work are trying to find british suppliers so i would encourage them, through yourself, to be able to make sure we pick those out and make sure that we get in contact with them over the next 2a hours if they in any way slip through the net. we realise this is a national endeavour and we are so incredibly grateful for so many people who are willing to step forward and make a real difference. we don't want to miss out on those opportunities, so do send that information to us and we will make sure we will chase those up within the next 2a hours. thank you ever so much, hugh pym. if we go to dan hewitt at itv. a question to both of you, the nhs federation which represents hospitals has told itv news it would support any doctor or nurse who refused to go to work

because they feared they were not able to access the correct ppe. are they right to back them? would you both be comfortable working on a covid ward using what is meant to be single use ppe? to the secretary of state come on the 30th ofjanuary the world health organization declared a world health emergency and borisjohnson declared a world health emergency and boris johnson did declared a world health emergency and borisjohnson did not attend a single cobra meeting until march the 2nd. is it acceptable he was being briefed rather than attending those meetings? thank you for that, if i can pick up the latter half of that question and jenny may be able to speak a bit more on the ppe side of things as well. the prime minister, from the moment it became clear there were challenges in terms of coronavirus developing in china has absolutely been leading our nation's ever absolutely been leading our nation's ever to combat the coronavirus. making sure that resources and money is not an issue or a concern for any

department, especially the health service, in terms of dealing with it. as you will well know and i know as an experienced journalist you are many elite macro very aware of this, many elite macro very aware of this, many cobra meetings take place and i spent many hours at cobra meeting is where it is led by the departmental minister. but the focus the prime minister was putting on this and continues to put on this has meant this is a whole government effort. we are making sure we do everything thatis we are making sure we do everything that is required and everything that is needed to make sure we protect the nhs and make sure that we save lives and that is the government's policy and that is what the prime minister has been driving right from the start when those initial concerns about the development of this virus. jenny, i am not sure if you want to pick up on the ppe point? happy too. i am not going to comment on behalf of the nhs federation, i will comment as a

health care professional. if i was working on the front line, i have a responsibility to look after patients to the best of my ability, to protect my colleagues and my staff and manage my practice safely. so all of those in the current climate will mean that i need to understand the agreed guidance on ppe, which has been agreed with all the royal medical colleges and implement that whenever i can. i think this use, and it goes back to my comment earlier to hugh pym, it is very easy to make a throwaway comment about single use ppe. some ppe is single use, some ppe that has previously been used in different diseases in different settings may be single use, but we have very detailed guidance now about what ppe should be used, in which settings.

it is actually quite complex, which is why, as a professional there is a responsibility on me to understand that. it is the fact we are in a global shortage, whether we are in the uk or whether we are internationally, we all need to use this ppe carefully. it is important when you say, if there was a particular intervention and some sessional use is entirely appropriate. for example, wearing a gown for sessional use with a disposable plastic apron on top of it is an entirely appropriate use of ppe. and in that example you can see there is one element of what some people may call reuse and development of what some may call single use. so it is important, not just to consider an item of ppe outside a particular care setting, but be really careful to apply that. i think that is what all

professionals will want to do. i think that is what all professionals will want to dolj i think that is what all professionals will want to do. i am not sure if you want a follow—up question? on the ppe issue, we know the flight from turkey bringing in supplies robert jenrick and the flight from turkey bringing in supplies robertjenrick and i yesterday has been the lie. even if it came in it would only supply the nhs fora it came in it would only supply the nhs for a couple of days, so what is happening now to make sure the nhs isn't going into another weekend running out of certain items of ppe? it is an important question you have raised. we recognise the enormous strain on the whole system and we recognise across the globe people are trying to get the same items of ppe from a limited number of suppliers. it is important to thank the royal air force that is on standby in order to make sure this equipment is brought from turkey and we hope to see that coming into the

country tomorrow. but we do recognise that we need to be working and working constantly in order to boost supplies. that is why we have brought in lord dayton in order to spearhead the government's response in coordinating the actions we want to be taking in order to make sure our nhs staff have everything they want. we don't want to see anyone in a setting that doesn't have the equipment they need to do theirjob. jenny, i'm not sure if you can add anything? i want to add some practical tangibility to that. there isa practical tangibility to that. there is a cross government board which meets and i am part of that board to ensure that clinical prioritisation is there. when i say clinical, it is not just across the is there. when i say clinical, it is notjust across the nhs it is around the social care sector and other parts of the system which need ppe as well. for example, funeral parlour staff, for example. but in the right proportions and we work

right across the uk to ensure that each group of staff is prioritised according to that need. the health minister is updated on a daily basis on some detailed information about ppe run rates and flow rates and we look ahead all of the time. as i have said, although there is massive ordering ongoing it is not always possible to predict the order we think is going to arrive actually appears in quite the same proportions and content as we planned and obviously that is an ongoing monitoring activity. there are meetings going on two or three times a day on a daily basis. next we go to liz bates at channel a. hello, i have two questions, if i may? first of all to doctorjenny harries. do you know what the gap is in survival rates between different hospitals across the country? and

are you going to publish that data? what are you doing to ensure best practice? secondly, another question on ppe. you set out your position many times and we have also heard many times and we have also heard many stories of health workers without the proper equipment that they need. can you say to those people now that are going into work every day, risking their lives, that they will get the protective equipment they need to keep themselves safe and their families safe? or should we expect more cases of front line health workers without the safety equipment they need? thank you ever