borisjohnson is back borisjohnson is back at boris johnson is back at work. there's criticism of the online system for key workers to book coronavirus tests — the bma says it shouldn't be on a first come, first served basis. new zealand's prime minister says her country has stopped community transmission of covid—19 — effectively eliminating the virus.

premier league clubs have started returning to training grounds — arsenal is allowing individual sessions, as talks continue to try to finish the season. and a stamp of approval for captain tom, as he prepares to celebrate his 100th birthday — the royal mail's special tribute to the nhs super—fundraiser. it's 4.30. our main story is that the prime minister, who's back at work today after treatment for covid—19, says keir starmer they're talking has said the united kingdom is at the point of "maximum risk" about the possible path to an exit from coronavirus, and he won't from the convent restrictions. the be easing the current restrictions too quickly. mrjohnson said that although the uk prime minister this morning, by the had flattened the peak, way, going out of his way to say the priority was to avoid

that people should contain their inpatients and just trust the fact a second outbreak. that these measures needed to stay he returns to work as the pressure on ministers intensifies, in place for some time. he says it to deliver much more testing, and from some quarters isa in place for some time. he says it is a period of maximum risk and not to relax the lockdown. mrjohnson just risk to people's health of acknowledged life had been tough over the past month, course but there is a massive but said he refused to throw away economic risk that the government is the sacrifice of the british people and risk a second peak. talking about and the government is the prime minister is being pressed to provide full loan guarantees now to spell out an exit strategy from the lockdown restrictions. to provide full loan guarantees now to britain's businesses and that will help them to keep on their staff of example and to ease their cash flow. chancellor rishi sunak baby announcement in the house of in the past hour, the chancellor has commons in the past hour. my right honourable friend the economic secretary and i have been in close talks of the banks and i'm pleased to say that these loans will be announched a new 100% taxpayer acked available from 9am next monday. there will be no forward—looking loan scheme for small test of business viability, no complex eligibility criteria, just — that small businesses simple, quick, and it form for struggling during the pandemic businesses to fill in. for most firms, loan should arrive within 2a

hours of approval. i have decided will be eligible for new loans worth up to £50,000 backed by a government guarantee. it comes after concerns were expressed about the slow processing of loans under existing that this specific scheme the coronavirus rescue packages. government will support lending by the downing street briefing guaranteeing to the lender 100% of will begin in the next the loan. chancellor outlining to mp 30 minutes and be led by the health secretary matt hancock, alongside the uk's chief medical advisor and the medical director of nhs england. it will feature one question to mr hancock trying to help them access money for submitted by the public — and chosen by the polling those businesses that are struggling company yougov. in other developments, to access money, accessing many much the british medical association has criticised the online system, more quickly and much more for more than 10 million efficiently than they have been in essential workers to book coronavirus tests, insisting there aren't enough to meet the increasing demand. recent weeks, so introducing a new and after seven weeks element, a new breed of scheme if of restrictions in italy, officials there have you like because we have heard many outlined plans to ease the lockdown. parks, factories and building sites times in the last few weeks the will reopen, and people are allowed to visit relatives in small numbers. first money, help framework that was new zealand is also relaxing the lockdown. put in place, a lot of businesses let's get more on the latest from westminster, with our political have not been responsive enough. let us have not been responsive enough. let us go to westminster and talk to our correspondent jonathan blake. political correspondent chris mason. just think about what the chancellor has put in place today and what mps

lots to consider before that news are broadly saying about that. there conference at five o'clock. but has been a positive response to what first, to jonathan we have heard from rishi sunak in conference at five o'clock. but first, tojonathan blake. back to the office, back to work. the last hour and i think it is the prime minister arrived because despite the colossal at downing street last night, having recovered from his own brush with coronavirus. marking his return this morning, borisjohnson thanked colleagues intervention. intervention by any presidents, those people being furloughed from employment and also for the who'd stood in for him, and the public. self—employed, albeit on a lack good morning. before they get hold of any money —— i'm sorry i've been away a lag. there was the sense that from my desk for much longer than i would have liked, small businesses were falling and i want to thank everybody between the cracks, and a backlog who has stepped up. from the banks liable under the previous scheme for an element of once again i want to thank you, the people of this country, the guaranteed loans to businesses, for the sheer grit and guts you have because a lot of checks would being shown and are continuing to show. done. like the rest of us, banks, the uk was starting to turn the tide against coronavirus, he said, engaging in social distancing, many and he used his own experience people working from home, so it was to characterise the struggle taking even longer still. the new in a particularly vivid way. governor of the bank of england if this virus were acknowledged a few days ago something had to be done because of a physical assailant, this backlog. now this intervention from rishi sunak, i think that will an unexpected be welcomed by plenty of mps. it has and invisible mugger already been welcomed by the — which i can tell you from employers' organisation, the cbi. i

think a sense from them that this personal experience it is — problem, because there was a gap, crack, if you like, into which some then this is the moment businesses were falling, a feeling when we have begun together to wrestle it to the floor. that it won't be filled —— it will and so it follows that this is the moment of opportunity, be filled by this intervention, but this is the moment when we can press home our advantage. a huge extra cost for the taxpayer it is also the moment of maximum risk. because they will be backing these after weeks of us all wondering loa ns because they will be backing these loans 100%, the government, and at a how long the lockdown would last, the prime minister said time of huge business uncertainty we he knew how hard it was can't guarantee the survival of all but there was simply too much to of those businesses and therefore all that money will eventually be lose to ease the restrictions now. i refuse to throw away recouped. to pick up on your very all the effort and the sacrifice of point there, clearly people want the the british people lockdown to be eased as soon as and to risk a second major outbreak 00:05:37,676 --> 2147483051:39:33,553 and huge loss of life 2147483051:39:33,553 --> 4294966103:13:29,430 and the overwhelming of the nhs. possible, the prime minister and others, and the prime minister was quite clear this morning that the risk was still at a very high level and that although people had been talking about reaching a peak and possibly passing a peak and it may be that giving mixed messages to people, the prime minister's message today was maybe a little more blunt?

yeah, it was. i thought what was striking about the prime minister, first it was just seeing him and seeing him going back to work, clearly a significant moment, symbolically, but also because the quy symbolically, but also because the guy who is actually in charge is properly back in charge again as opposed to the caretaker arrangement with dominic raab as the first secretary of state fulfilling, and i thought during boris johnson secretary of state fulfilling, and i thought during borisjohnson because my absence what ministers fell back on was simply to say, look, we are in this period of lockdown, it carries on until the first week of next month and that's that, and he said those five tests will be applied on the 7th of may to determine whether there is any listening, but those tests are pretty broad and there was a clear desire from those in government not to entertain any discussion about what might happen after for fear it could contribute to a watering down of people's current adherence to the restrictions. whilst as you say, yes, the prime minister emphasised it is still a crucial stage, that the lockdown continues for some time to come, he was nodding to the reality that at some stage,

potentially in a couple of weeks when the evidence is reviewed, there may be some listening. but he was also doing an element of what is often described in westminster as rolling the pitch, preparing the argument for what we have to get used to in the coming weeks and months. the simple reality of that is that the unravelling of the lockdown is going to happen very, very gradually indeed. it is a huge moment for the government. we often reflect, don't we, the biggest challenge of prime minister can face in office is a decision to send troops to war and clearly that is a huge decision but in modern times it only thankfully involves a very small proportion of the population who sign up for a medical service. in this context, stepping back from the current restrictions is a decision that will have implications for millions, and of course there are competing models within government about what the implications of reopening private schools, for instance, might be, so a huge responsibility on the part of the government in the coming weeks

and also a great responsibility for us as and also a great responsibility for us as individuals because i guess under the lockdown, yes, some have complained about it not being clear enough, but there is a blanket provision, and we cannot interpret that relatively clearly. 0nce provision, and we cannot interpret that relatively clearly. once the rules start listening there will be afar rules start listening there will be a far greater responsibility on us to weigh up the relative risks of particular behaviours. whilst there was a hint that changes might be coming, yes, it is going to be a long road, and for those in government some really tough decisions. indeed, chris mason, with the latest thoughts at westminster, many thanks. we can speak now to the former health secretary and now chair of the health select committee, jeremy hunt. thank you forjoining us. and thank you for waiting. it is good to have you for waiting. it is good to have you with us. can i start first of all with the prime minister's statement this morning and his talk about a period of maximum risk. did you take that to be mrjohnson saying to people, you know, "we are not going to have a relaxation of these measures in any big way

anytime soon"? i did. good afternoon. i think what we heard from that statement was that this is one of most finely balanced and difficult decisions that a prime minister has had to make in living memory, because on the one hand, you have got the fear of lifting the lockdown too early and doing what happened in hoch ido, the northern ireland injapan, happened in hoch ido, the northern ireland in japan, where happened in hoch ido, the northern ireland injapan, where they lifted the lockdown, they went into lockdown early and they were successful in suppressing the virus, and thenjust successful in suppressing the virus, and then just 26 days later, they had to reimpose a state of emergency with enormous economic consequences. that is exact what we don't want in this country, the worst possible thing is a business. 0n the other hand, you have got businesses that are genuinely desperate to get going again. it is a very finely balanced decision. when you have health experts, government health advisers,

you will know them very well yourself, given your past in office, when they use words like, "we have reached the pea k", when they use words like, "we have reached the peak", or we are plateauing or past the peak, is that not a risk in itself in giving people reason to think they can modify their behaviour at this point? are the messages from government consistent enough?” government consistent enough?|j think, government consistent enough?” think, you know, people have debated the government's approach to this but one of the great successes has been the clarity of messages. everyone knows the three messages about staying at home and so on. and you don't want to lose that. but you also have to carry the public with you so they have to understand why you so they have to understand why you are doing these things. that is why, iam you are doing these things. that is why, i am sure over the next few days, we will start to hear a bit more about the potential route out of the lockdown. but the great risk is that if we go too fast in this period of maximum danger, as i think the prime minister rightly said, we will end up paying the price. i think that was most graphically

described by professor neil ferguson, one of the government advisers, who said the reproductive rate of the virus is between 0.6 and 0.7 at the moment. in other words, eve ryo ne 0.7 at the moment. in other words, everyone who gets the virus is infecting less and one other person. so the virus is starting to die out but it does not take very much for that r eight to go above one and evenif that r eight to go above one and even if it goes to 1.1, we are back in the territory of the nhs potentially being overwhelmed with not enough ventilators and so on and so not enough ventilators and so on and so forth. it is a very dangerous period. i think all of us listening to those messages about social distancing and really obeying them is incredibly important. can i ask you about testing? clearly, there has been a huge amount of criticism in this area, not least from people working within the nhs, but elsewhere, too, in the care sector. iamjust elsewhere, too, in the care sector. i am just wondering whether you think as a former cabinet minister, was it wise to set a target of

100,000 tests by the end of the month, which is in a few days' time, which clearly is not going to be met? iam not which clearly is not going to be met? i am not talking about capacity, i am talking about actual testing of people. now, given your experience, do you think that was simply unwise to set such an ambitious and some would say unrealistic target? well, i was one of the people who wanted us to do more testing but i defend matt hancock to the hilt on this one. i think if you set a big target like that, you galvanise the system and your officials and the wider government machine. frankly, if we only get to 80,000 tests per day towards the end of this week, that will be a massive transformation from where we were at four weeks ago. we will be testing at south korean and german levels. we will be able to put in place global best practice come here, notjust for testing but tracking and tracing as well. whether we hit the arbitrary

target or not is much less important than whether we are putting in place what the countries that have shown themselves to be the most effective in the world are doing. that is what is happening. and where would we be had the testing regime been much more impressive or much more extensive, you know, several weeks ago? would we today be, as lots of people think, in a far better place? what is your assessment. well, no one has a crystal ball when you are making these decisions and i certainly did not when i was health secretary. we did not know two months ago that south korea was going to be the country that was the very best in the world at containing coronavirus. and all you can ask of government ministers is do they look at what is happening around the world and are we trying to copy that best practice? i believe we are, not just because of the testing announcement, but because of the contact tracing announcement that we had towards the end of last week,

the army of 18,000 contact razors. what is that —— what that is basically saying it is when we go back to some semblance of normality, people going back to work and school, we are going to track and trace this virus and quarantine people as quickly as possible, if they have it. and if you do that, you can keep the shops, offices, restau ra nts you can keep the shops, offices, restaurants open and it means you don't have to go into the same kind of lockdown we are in now. i think the foundations for that strategy are now in place and obviously, we are now in place and obviously, we are trying to deliver it as quickly as we can. the official report and inquiry which was done in 2016, into how prepared we might be if there we re how prepared we might be if there were a pandemic, clearly set out some demands and set out that we we re some demands and set out that we were not really in a position to be looking confidently at that kind of prospect. 0ne looking confidently at that kind of prospect. one of the criticisms of government, as you know, is that it was not acted upon. with the benefit of hindsight, and given that you

know how governments work and you have worked in the health department, of course, right at the top of it, do you regret that that set of recommendations was not put in place and was not realised? well, the first thing i would say is that, you know, there is going to be an enormous amount to reflect on and learn for all politicians, notjust the current government but the previous health secretaries and previous health secretaries and previous government as well. i will be the first to say that that is the case. with respect to that particular exercise, we learned a huge amount. we learned about the emergency legislation that was going to be necessary, the need to do what is called population triage. but i think in retrospect, what we should have done is, that was a preparation for pandemic flu, and what this virus was was a virus like sars which requires a very different response, lots more testing, tracking and tracing, the kind of things we talked about earlier. i

think one of the questions we will ask ourselves is whether we should have done more big exercises like copyright operation sickness but for —— like that operation but for pandemic sars viruses. and the a nswer pandemic sars viruses. and the answer is? well, we should have learned more from sars and and the reason we can say that —— sars and mers and the reason we can say that is that the asian countries have provided the best response to coronavirus because they had sars in 2003 and mers in 2014, and in fact, the south korean government had a very bad experience with mers, and thatis very bad experience with mers, and that is what caused them to overhaul their testing machinery which made them so much more effective for covid—19. i am sure that is one of the lessons that we will learn. what about lessons on personal protective equipment, which of course, that has been the other issue that has alarmed and angered people in the

health and care sectors? well, i think it has been immensely frustrating, as frustrating for ministers in government. we all have a basic duty of protection for our front line staff, not just a basic duty of protection for our front line staff, notjust in the nhs but in care homes as well. you know, i know that the government has done an enormous know, i know that the government has done an enormous amount, it has brought in the army but i think as dominic raab said yesterday on andrew marr, you know, they also recognise that we have not got there yet, and there is still a huge amount that needs to be done.” yet, and there is still a huge amount that needs to be done. i know you are very supportive of the prime minister, you have made that clear, and of matt hancock as well but what would you say to viewers, just in the spirit of openness, where do you think the government has been facing its biggest problems? what are the areas for you that have been most disconcerting in the approach that we have ta ken? disconcerting in the approach that we have taken? well, i think really,

britain followed the same path as france, italy, spain and many other european countries. what we now know with this kind of virus is that the approach in germany and south korea and taiwan and singapore is the most effective way. i would just say that i think that we have the foundations of that approach in place now. i think that is all you can really ask of people. the great success of this has been that the nhs has not fallen over has been that the nhs has not fallen overin has been that the nhs has not fallen over in the way that the health service did in lombardy in northern italy. but obviously, getting the testing going and the contact tracing going and the ppe out have all been challenges but there has been no country in the world that has not faced absolutely enormous challenges over the last couple of months. i think the question that we should rightfully ask the government, and of course, i'm not

in the government now, is are we looking at global best practice? are we doing what the best countries in the world are doing? are we learning from what is going on? i do believe that we have seen in the last couple of weeks that those foundations have been put in place. and that leads me to the question i was going to put to the question i was going to put to you now which is, the prime minister is clearly concerned to avoid a second peak, understandably, later this year or wherever. —— whenever. what would you expect to see different in the government approach if we were to face that kind of very difficult challenge? well, i think the thing we have to do is to look at the experience of, for example, san francisco in the spanish flu outbreak 100 years ago. they lifted their... they were very early to go into lockdown but then they lifted it a bit too early and it came back in a second wave that was even more deadly than the first.

that is why this is so difficult. i am not one of those people who thinks it is a choice between health and the economy. all the evidence from previous pandemics is that the more effective you are at keeping people healthy and alive, the less the economic damage in the long run. but it is a very finely balanced judgment, because we obviously want people to get back to work and school and out shopping and so on. i think the prime minister has got a truly nightmarish decision to make. he will make it on the very best advice. but he is not going to be in possession of all of the information. in the end, it will have to be a judgment and that is why i think it is such good news that he is back, frankly, and is able to apply his mind to the challenge that he faces. mr hunt, anki for talking to us. —— thank you for talking to us. jeremy hunt, the former health secretary, there, who knows the government side of this

back to front and the former foreign secretary and now chair of the health select committee. a couple of minutes to go before the daily briefing starts in downing street with matt hancock leading the way for the government today, as the health secretary. we can cross live to our political correspondent chris mason at westminster. what do you think this news conference will be dominated by?” think there will be another focus on testing as we head towards that deadline, the government deadline later this week of reaching 100,000 tests per day. the government has already said today that we won't necessarily be able to hold it to account on thursday because of the lag period there is before we find out how people have been tested on any given day. i wonder if there is well there might be some further news around support for health care workers, who have felt that as a result of their work on the front line, they have been exposed to coronavirus and what support they may be able to receive. interesting to see if mr hancock has anything to

say on that vault we will hear from professor chris whitty, who we have got very used as income of the uk government's chief medical adviser and england's chief medical officer and england's chief medical officer and professor stephen powis, the medical director of nhs england as well. and no doubt questions again picking up on what we have heard from the prime minister today and what we have heard in the last half an hourfrom sir keir starmer, the labour party leader, at about what point the government is willing to start talking to us about what kind of unravelling of the lockdown or easing of the lockdown, slow easing, might happen, if the data suggests thatis might happen, if the data suggests that is feasible. so sir keir starmer talked about a desire for transparency, acknowledging the lockdown has got a couple more weeks left in it but wanting the government to articulate publicly what could happen in a couple of weeks' time if, crucially, those tests are met and the curve continues to head down. boris johnson saying this morning at the lectern moment in downing street that there would be some more information to come in the coming

days. quite striking, by the way, that it isn't the prime minister taking to the conference this afternoon, but we have got very used to hearing from mr hancock and the other two gentlemen. they are a regular trio at these daily news conferences. just to pick you up on one thing, this is all to do with clarity of message, really. and by the way, we will be straight into the way, we will be straight into the news conference if it comes. just to think about what chris whitty was saying last week about the fact there would be no return to normality any time soon, and then we have people talking about, maybe relaxing restrictions within a few weeks or something. it is quite easy to see why people might be confused because they are being prepared for something that will last months, and then they are also being told that there might be some relaxation in a few weeks. how on earth do they make sense of that? white, exactly. a lack of clarity

can have profound effects on people's responses —— white, exactly. the lockdown was imposed pretty much in one go, and yet the expectation is that this will be very slow, gradual, done tentatively and will wait on a result and the changing the behaviour filtering through to the medical data and we know from the beginning of this lockdown there is a 2—3 week lag between our behaviour changing and there being less interaction between us as there being less interaction between us as individuals, then the rate went down. it is currently below one so for every person who gets coronavirus they are giving it to less tha n coronavirus they are giving it to less than one other person and the government wants to keep it there. it took about three weeks from us going down into lockdown for that to begin to show through with hospital admissions, those going into

intensive care, and sadly for some those dying as a result of coronavirus. when the easing happens, if the easing happens, whatever that easing is, there is going to be a gap again, isn't there, for a couple of weeks before there, for a couple of weeks before the government can have some sense of the extent to which it is having an impact on hospital admissions. and therefore working out whether it has gone too far and things have to be reined back or whether additional listening can take place. of course, at the heart of all of that is science and disputed science, different advice being whispered into the prime minister's year from different advisors around the government table, but then also our behaviour —— the prime minister's earfrom different behaviour —— the prime minister's ear from different advisers. behaviour —— the prime minister's earfrom different advisers. and perhaps then expecting our behaviour not to be as disciplined as it has been. school attendance has been much lower in these past few weeks than the government had predicted when schools were closed to most people is a few weeks ago. as the chair of the health select

committee, jeremy hunt, was reflecting there, colossal decisions for the government to take on inevitably imperfect data and imperfect advice because scientists, as skilled as they are in the details of this virus, having to learn very quickly. we are still waiting for the news conference to start, chris. just a point again about risk, because clearly the prime minister was concerned about whether or not people would get impatient. the massive risk surely, and they have alluded to this, as soon as you have any hint of any relaxation, no matter how limited, it will give people the signal to kind of return to some kind of normality. and, really, that is not what ministers are talking about. exactly. and there will be a human instinct, won't there, when there is... chris, i am sorry, we will be back with you later. let's join matt hancock and his two colleagues in number ten.

welcome back to downing street for today's coronavirus briefing. i want today's coronavirus briefing. i want to remind you that today's briefing will follow a bit of a new format. following significant demand, as well as questions from the media, we will take our first questions from members of the public. this is going to become a regular feature of these briefings. the questions are selected by an independent polling organisation, and just like the journalist questions we don't see the questions in advance, but we will give them the very best answer is that we can. in the past few hours since we announced this new approach we've had over 15,000 questions submitted, and you can ask a question yourself by going to gov.uk/ask. today i am joined by professor chris whitty and professor stephen powis, the medical director of the nhs.

the government is working through our action plan, and at its core the objective is to protect life and to protect the nhs. both by slowing the spread of the virus, so we flatten the curve, and by showing that the nhs always has more than enough capacity to provide critical care for all those who need it. according to the most recent figures, there have been 719,910 tests for coronavirus so far in the uk. that includes 37,024 yesterday. 157,149 people have tested positive, an increase of 4310 cases since yesterday. 15,051 people are currently in hospital with coronavirus, down from 15,239

yesterday, and sadly of those hospitalised with the virus 21,092 have now died. that's an increase of 360 fatalities, and we must never lose sight of the human cost of coronavirus and the pain and the grief that it causes. and each death serves as a reminder that we must stand firm in our resolve. sadly, these death figures include 82 nhs colleagues and 16 colleagues who work in social care. they dedicated their lives to caring for others, and i feela they dedicated their lives to caring for others, and i feel a deep personal sense of duty that we must ca re personal sense of duty that we must care for their loved ones. today i am able to announce that the government is setting up a life assurance scheme for nhs and social ca re assurance scheme for nhs and social care front line colleagues.

families of staff who die from coronavirus in the course of their essential front line work will receive a £60,000 payment. of course nothing replaces the loss of a loved one. but we want to do everything that we can to support families who are dealing with this grief. asa are dealing with this grief. as a government, we are looking closely at other professions that work on the front line against coronavirus who also do not have access to such schemes to see where this may be required. this crisis has shown this country values so much our health and social care workers, and i want to pay tribute to the perseverance of the british public who, even this warm spring weekend, in theirvast public who, even this warm spring weekend, in their vast majority, did the right thing and stayed at home to protect the nhs. thus far in this

crisis, and every single hour of every single day, the nhs has always had the capacity to treat the people who need that treatment. i'm glad to be able to report there are now 3190 spare critical care beds. indeed, 42% of oxygen supported beds in the nhs now lie empty. in most parts of the country, the numberof empty. in most parts of the country, the number of people in hospital with coronavirus is beginning to fall. 0ne with coronavirus is beginning to fall. one of the reasons nhs capacity has always exceeded need is our amazing programme of nhs 19 gale hospitals. today i was proud to attend, virtually, the opening of the eighth of their ten nightingale hospitals across the uk, again built in the matter of weeks. this nightingale hospital project stands asa nightingale hospital project stands as a monument to the nation's

ability to get things done when it matters. this is one of the most ambitious projects this country has ever seen ambitious projects this country has everseen in ambitious projects this country has ever seen in peacetime, and i'd like to thank the nhs, the armed forces, and all the companies that have worked side by side to make these plans a reality. the nightingale project isjust one of the measures that has boosted capacity all across the nhs, by re—enlisting thousands of former staff, former clinicians, and in rolling early thousands of students, and we have boosted the workforce of the nhs. and we have changed forever the digital capability of the nhs. i think many people who have now used online gp consultations and online outpatient visits won't ever go back. and i pay tribute to the staff who have worked in different ways to how they would ever have imagined, and who have been more flexible and open to change when it was really needed. so where there have been advances amongst these huge challenges of

this crisis we must not lose them. however, we also know that fewer people are coming to the nhs when they need to. a&e attendances have dropped to 221,000 emergency department attendances in the last week, compared to 477,000 in the same week last year. that's more than 50%. now, some of this drop is due to lower road traffic and people following the social distancing rules. some of it will be due to people accessing the nhs in ways that work better to them, like online or through pharmacies, and that's a good thing. but in some cases we know that the drop is due to people not coming forward and using the nhs for critical things that matter. 0ur message is that the nhs is open. help us to help you. if you are worried about chest pains, for instance, or maybe you might be

having a heart attack or a stroke, or you feel a lump and you're worried about cancer, or you are a pa re nt worried about cancer, or you are a parent concerned about your child. please, come forward and seek help as you always would. it is so important that everybody uses the nhs responsibly, and the nhs will always be there for you when you need it. just as it has been their for us all throughout this crisis and throughout our lives. as the numberof and throughout our lives. as the number of hospitalisations from coronavirus begins to fall, i can announce that starting tomorrow we will begin the restoration of other nhs services, starting with the most urgent like cancer care and mental health support. the exact piece of the restoration will be determined by local circumstances on the ground, according to local need and to the amount of coronavirus cases that that hospital is having to deal with

—— the exact pace of the restoration. having written off {13.4 restoration. having written off £13.4 billion of historic nhs debt, i want to ensure that the nhs is always there in a way that doesn't just help us recover from coronavirus as a country, but also puts us in a stronger position for the future. we are coming through the future. we are coming through the speak. we will honour those who dedicated their lives to caring for others, but it will count for nothing if we let things slip now and risk a second peak. i know that lockdown is hard for so many people. but let us all have the resolve to see this through. so, please, stay at home, protect the nhs and save lives. we are now going to go to professor chris whitty, the chief medical officer for the dairy data charts, that we will take questions from the

public. thank you very much, secretary of state —— daily data charts. the first slide is a remember to people of the five tests for adjusting the lockdown. the first three of which are about the epidemic, that the nhs is critical care to provide capacity across the uk, and a sustained and daily fall in deaths from coronavirus, and the rate of infection decreased to manageable levels across the board. then there is an operational point about operational challenges including testing and ppe, in hand with supply able to meet future demand. finally, importantly, confident that the adjustments to current measures will not risk a second peak of infections. next slide, please. the next two slides are really ways of looking at whether people are continuing, as they have been consistently throughout this crisis, to heed the guidance in terms of keeping

pressure of the nhs by staying at home, unless they have to go out for necessary things. as you can see, after a very remarkable fall initially, broadly this has been flat. very slight trending up in terms of motor vehicles, but otherwise really the data remain largely unchanged on these transport metrics. next slide, please. then looking at other forms. we spoke about driving before. very slight increase in walking. public transport remains largely flat. evidence, ithink, that the great majority of people are continuing to honour the lockdown, which is helping us drive the number of cases down and therefore take pressure the nhs. next slide, please. the next few slides are really ones people who watch these briefings will be very familiar with. it is just the most recent data. new cases in the uk. as

you can see, obviously one thing to bearin you can see, obviously one thing to bear in mind is the number of tests is going up overall, but despite that the trend is flat or slightly down, in terms of positive cases. next slide, please. but when we actually look at people in hospital, i think the trends that demonstrate over i think the trends that demonstrate over the country as a whole we are going through the peak are reasonably clear to see. obviously a biggerfall in london, but the rest of the country in different areas are either flat of the country in different areas are eitherflat or of the country in different areas are either flat or decreasing over time. next slide please. then when we turn to one of the most important questions which is critical care capacity, if you look at these trends across england, scotland, wales and northern ireland, these are the percentage of all critical ca re are the percentage of all critical care beds being used for covid—19 patients, and both in absolute and relative terms this is gradually trending down. importantly, and i

talked about this last time i was here, this is a very gradual peak. we are not seeing a dramatic fall of and nor do we expect to in the next short while. next slide, please. finally, sadly, people are continuing to die. as we have said every timejust continuing to die. as we have said every time just after continuing to die. as we have said every timejust after a continuing to die. as we have said every time just after a weekend, there is an artificial drop because there is an artificial drop because there is a less notification over weekends so the number of cases who sadly were reported as having died yesterday was 360 but i do expect there will be a bit of an uptick again later in the week as we catch up again later in the week as we catch up from the weekend drop. nevertheless, the trend overall, as you can see from the seven day rolling average at the top, which smooths out these weekend effects, isa smooths out these weekend effects, is a gradual decline. but we are definitely not consistently pass across the whole country at this point. finally, a slide which

co m pa res point. finally, a slide which compares different countries and again, i would compares different countries and again, iwould be compares different countries and again, i would be really clear that we should not over interpret the absolute numbers, the way these are actually measured in different countries is different. but the trend lines i think are reasonably clear from this. thank you very much. thank you very much, chris. now we are going to go to the first question from lydon in skipton and in going to read out the question —— from lynne in skipton. then i will endeavour to answer it. "i'm missing my grandson so much, please can you let me know if, after the five criteria are met and is being able to hug our closest family one of the first steps out of lockdown?" thank you, lynne, for that question, and incredibly important one, and brings home the emotional impact of the lockdown measures. i think, why don't we take the direct medical

evidence from the chief medical officer? well, very clearly, for most people, the ability to actually interact with families in a way that they have not been able to during this period is absolutely essential. in terms of the direct answer to this lady's question, it depends, if i'm honest, on the situation that she finds herself in. so if she is somebody who has a significant medical problem, in a way that means she would have to be shielding, that is... and she is an older person, some grandparents are younger, some obviously are older, if she is in a group which is vulnerable, then the a nswer group which is vulnerable, then the answer is that it might well be prudent, and this will be dependent entirely on individual circumstances, for her not to get into a situation where she is putting herself at risk. obviously, if she is healthy and younger, that may well not be true but the overall

view, that actually, one of the things that clearly is important to everybody is the ability to get together with families remotely but also physically, everybody fully accepts, nevertheless, it is important that people who are vulnerable continue to be protected, even after whatever the next steps are occur. thank you and i think i would say to lynne directly is that we understand the impact of not being able to hug your closest family. it affects all of us, too. as well as direct health impacts of the lockdown, bringing down the curves and trying to stop this terrible disease, and also the economic impacts which are clearly very significant, there are also the direct emotional bonds, because it is one of the most natural things in the world to want to hug a member of yourfamily. wejust the world to want to hug a member of your family. we just hope we can get back to that as soon as possible,

and the best way we can get their fastest is for people to follow the rules so we can get those five criteria met as soon as possible. i don't know if you wanted to add anything? only to add that we all know how hard it is. my own mother lives hundreds of miles away and i know she is wondering when she will be seeing me and her grandchildren again. this is really tough but as the secretary of state has said, it is bearing fruit in that we are seeing a reduction in the number of hospital admissions, we are seeing a reduction in the number of deaths, and it is only by the british public continuing to comply with that guidance until the time is right, that we will all continue to see a reduction in deaths, which i know have touched so many people around the country in terms of loved ones. thank you very much, lynne, for your question. and for submitting it. i hope that... i think that has shown that the questions from the members of the public can be just as

informative and can bejust of the public can be just as informative and can be just as difficult to answer as questions from journalists who are trained to ask them. talking of which, hugh pym from the bbc. thank you very much, question for the secretary of state about testing, particularly important in the short—term at least, for up to 10 million key workers and their families, we are hearing varying reports on how easy it might be or not to book tests online. what do you say to that? and do you think you will hit your target of 100,000 tests per day by the end of the month, later this week? thank you. we are on track to be 100,000 target. we are broadly where we expected to be. you have seen a big increase over the weekend, to 37,000 tests yesterday. now, we are also enhancing and making it easier to access how you get hold of tests. the home tests

have been particularly popular. we have been particularly popular. we have delivered 5681 yesterday. that is all about being able to make the testing as easy for people, who, if you have got symptoms, by the nature of the thing, you are already ill, and so we want to make it as easy as possible to get hold of those tests, alongside still with opening more and more drive—through centres. so we are broadly where we expected to be, and we have got a lot of work the rest of this week to keep continuing the ramp up to the goal that i so clearly set out. can i ask a follow—up? that i so clearly set out. can i ask a follow-up? of course. beyond this peak, it is very important we escalate testing capacity significantly to prevent or help prevent a second spike. where do you wa nt prevent a second spike. where do you want to be with capacity and testing

ability in a few months' time? how many hundreds of thousands per day? so this is a really important question and of course, the reason that i set the goal and that we are working so hard towards it is because testing is an important part of how we keep the spread of the virus down, especially once we have got the number of new cases down through the social distancing measures. so we want testing to continue to increase. as you will know, the prime minister set a goal of 250,000, some time ago, especially for when the antibody tests co m e especially for when the antibody tests come on stream but so far, there isn't one of those that is clinically valid. so we will keep on increasing. it is important to note that we have already gone past the number of tests per day, for instance, that they carry out in

south korea, and we are approaching the levels that germany undertakes. it isa the levels that germany undertakes. it is a project to keep increasing. also, we need to think very hard and ta ke also, we need to think very hard and take their clinical advice on how to use those tests. for instance, we are putting far more into care homes. we are making sure that now, nhs staff get tested, including when they are asymptomatic, to make sure that we understand where the people who are working in hospitals have got the virus. and we are using the tests for surveys, the office for national statistics have got a survey, for instance, in the field right now, with people being tested this week to find out how many people have got the virus, how many have had the virus, the critical questions that we need to know the a nswe rs questions that we need to know the a nswers to. questions that we need to know the answers to. i don't know if you want to add... anything, chris, but the point is, it is a really important

question because testing is a critical part of controlling the virus once we get the number of new cases down. the only thing to add is that the more testing capacity you have got, the more flexible if you have got, the more flexible if you have to do different things, both for patients and in terms of things like care homes, as the secretary of state was saying. thanks. robert peston, itv. good afternoon. on the life insurance scheme, will overseas health care workers working in the nhs and those who have come back to the nhs temporarily qualify for this life insurance ? the nhs temporarily qualify for this life insurance? right now, they don't qualify for normal death in service benefits. and a question i think largely for chris whitty, more or less the most important test you have set is the transmission rate, the so—called r has to fall to 0.5,

so in language we can all understand, on average, it would ta ke understand, on average, it would take two infected people to infect one other person. what is the magic of the 0.5 and why does it give you comfort? also, a sense we still don't know how people are walking round with funny symptoms or no symptoms at all that have the virus, so how can you be remotely confident that you will get there? niall ferguson said he thinks the number is currently 0.6 to 0.7 but how can we possibly be confident of that?” will take the first question, robert. the answer is yes, this is for front line staff working in the nhs and in social care, who die and our employees within the nhs and social care. as i say, we are also looking at which other groups of key workers that applies to, who don't have a scheme already in place. on 0.5, cani have a scheme already in place. on 0.5, can ijust correct? i don't

recall ever saying that target was 0.5. what i have said is it is in the range 0.5— one at the present time, probably somewhere in the middle of the range. the second thing i have said is that it is really important we don't go above one, that is an absolute target and the reason for that is that once it goes above one, for any prolonged period of time, and it might pick up for a short period, then you go back to exponential growth and sooner or later, depending on how much above one it is, you get back to the situation the nhs is threatened to be overwhelmed because exponential growth goes from very small numbers to very large numbers very quickly. i would like to clarify that it is not going above one, the long—time target, and clearly the level we can get it at the moment, the better. at —— the lower we can get it. it is probably in the middle of 0.5 to one at the moment, bringing down the r which you see which you look at the critical care and other metrics we looked at in the slides. thanks very

much. one extra thing, on the life insurance, just to be clear, there is nothing in this life insurance scheme that would waive their rights of families of individuals who get covid—19 and either die or are seriously injured from suing the nhs in the traditional way they feel they have not been protected, particularly in the absence, they might feel, of appropriate ppe? they don't wave their standard employment rights at all? no. beth rigby, from sky. thank you, professor whitty, at the beginning of the lockdown, sir patrick suggested a death toll below 20,000 was a good outcome. now hospital deaths are sadly above 21,000, and that does not even include care home or community gets. how have you had to change your expectations as the disease has

regressed? —— community deaths. can you provide an updated expectation of what you think a more realistic number is now? and secretary of state, you have promised 100,000 tests by thursday, last week, you said trace and track was key to easing social distancing measures. what level of testing do you need to get track and trace up and running? and what is your timeframe for that? go—ahead. and what is your timeframe for that? go-ahead. the first question, the number will definitely exceed 20,000, so even with hospital deaths, as you say, sadly it has gone above that. once we look into direct and indirect, and gone above that. once we look into directand indirect, and i gone above that. once we look into direct and indirect, and i will co nsta ntly ma ke direct and indirect, and i will constantly make this point, it is really important, direct and indirect deaths, we sadly expect it to exceed that. i think my view is actually we need to view this epidemic over the long run, and this

has got a very long way to run. i am really cautious about putting out, andi really cautious about putting out, and i have said this again repeatedly, these kind of absolute numbers because this could go in a lot of different ways over the next any months, until such time as we have a clear exit that has a vaccine or drugs or some other route that allows us to be able to say, look, we can now stop people dying from this. this is going to be true, to be clear, in every country around the world. i am really cautious about putting absolute numbers but i am absolutely clear also that the 20,000 number is not where we will be once we add in direct and indirect causes, both in and out of hospital. the lower the number of cases, the

more successful a system of testing and tracking is. if it gets bigger, the system can work on a higher numberof the system can work on a higher number of cases and be more effective. south korea is a really good example, where they peaked in terms of tests a day at just over 20,000, and they have now brought that down because they are a number of new cases is so much lower. they can test everywhere they want, and they still don't need to use up all they still don't need to use up all the tests that they have the capacity for. and we've seen over the last few weeks the gaps between capacity and the number of tests donein capacity and the number of tests done in this country as well, and, you know, on sunday the new german ambassador to the uk was explaining the test capacity in germany is 800,000 a week, and they use 450,000

of that capacity each week. so we have a similar pattern of the capacity being higher than tests used all around the world, and the capacity that we are building is big enough to get started on test, track and trace. we need to get the track and trace. we need to get the track and the trace part my my aim has a ways been to try to get the minimum numberwe my aim has a ways been to try to get the minimum number we can manage but this has got a very long way to run andi this has got a very long way to run and i think, just thinking about the

first peak, which due to the fantastic work nation has done and the work of the nhs, we have actually managed to go through, still some way before it is falling right off, but there is a long way to go beyond that, and i think it is a big mistake in my view to consider just the first phase. we need to look at the epidemic as a whole. thank you. gary gibbon from channel 4 news. professor whitty, could i follow u p 4 news. professor whitty, could i follow up on what robert peston was asking about on the infection rates? if we are in the middle of the 0.5 one range, will that do? if we are in the middle of the 0.5 one range, willthat do? is if we are in the middle of the 0.5 one range, will that do? is that good enough? or is it actually that the rate that you need to give clearance for a relaxation of the rules is lower than that, is perhaps around 0.5? i think... rules is lower than that, is perhaps around 0.5? ithink... clearly, the lower the r, just to remind people who don't watch this programme the

whole time, if r is one, one person gives it one person and the disease is stable, if it is 0.5, ten people give it a five and so on, going down and if it is two, one person gives it to two, two give it to four and so on, a clarification for people watching. the further away r is from one on the downside, so the lower it is, the better, for two reasons, the first of which is that it will mean that the peak will fall away faster, and we will get down to small numbers at a quicker rate and that isa numbers at a quicker rate and that is a good thing, clearly, but the second thing is, the larger the gap between where the r is, the current rate of transmission and one, the greater room for manoeuvre rate of transmission and one, the greater room for manoeuvre there is in terms of trying to think through when ministers have to look at things, in terms of what could be reintroduced without threatening the risk that we could go back above one and start going back to exponentially gross. we know what we

have currently measured indirectly, but there is a reasonable degree of confidence that it is in a broad range of 0.5 one and i think it is probably a narrower range in a love that. if it was lower, it would give us more room for manoeuvre but this gives us some but it does not give a huge amount of room and that is one of the things ministers are going to have to consider, if you how to make sure we keep r below one given where we are at the moment thanks to what everybody is doing. there isn't a magic number here, lower is better but it is not that there is a specific number that has to be the right one. can i ask a quick supplementary? what is the current estimate of what the measurement is in hospitals and care homes?” estimate of what the measurement is in hospitals and care homes? i think at the moment, it is quite difficult to separate those two out. my expectation is that... it is clear it is falling in hospitals, and where it is intensive care homes is less easy to work out at this point,

ons less easy to work out at this point, 0ns data coming out tomorrow may help a bit but we are not measuring that directly. i have to say that. what i think we are seeing across the country is some care homes where there are significant outbreaks and others which are unaffected. it is not likely community i which is more heavily influenced by the whole of the population, it is much more localised to particular areas and ca re localised to particular areas and care homes. may be steve good answer on the nhs. in hospitals, it is clear the number of people who are testing positive in hospitals is falling and therefore infection rates are falling. we would expect that because we are now in a position where the community spread of the virus is less and therefore, that will translate into lower spread in people coming into hospital, therefore in hospitals as well. as chris said, i think care homes are different in terms of the approach but in hospitals, it is clear that the infection rate is falling.

thanks, gary. the financial times... thanks, gary. the financial times... thanks, mr hancock. there were reports on the second phase of fighting the coronavirus that the government will plan to quarantine people arriving in the uk for 14 days. i wonder what changed your mind about tighter border restrictions and does that mean you will be encouraging british families to holiday at home this year? if i can aska to holiday at home this year? if i can ask a question for professor whitty, can you give an update on antibody tests, please, and whether the government has seen any breakthrough in its assessments for those tests? thanks very much. on the borders, we have been very clear that we follow the science, and given the current level of infections, level of new cases in the uk, and the very low amounts of international travel going on right now, it is clear that the impact on the epidemic as a whole of the

number of people coming through the borders, as a proportion, is very low. but as we bring the number of new cases down in the uk, that proportion coming from those who are travelling internationally will rise, and that means the judgment on the measures you need at the border changes. and we seen a number of countries go through this process. and we'll have more to say about it in due course. on the testing point, i don't know whether you want to go into that, but the antibody test is still something we are working on. we now have land—based antibody tests. in fa ct, have land—based antibody tests. in fact, in the field now the office for national statistics survey is based on lab —based antibody tests, but we are yet to find what's called a lateral flow, which but we are yet to find what's called a lateralflow, which means a test you can tech where you don't need to send the sample to the lad because

it gives you the result on the stick. we are yet to find one of those that has a clinical level of results —— you don't need to send the sample to the lab. my view, news followed by small incremental changes over time that significantly improve things, more than breakthroughs, i think that is what will happen with this antibody tests. we currently have a test good enough to give a shot on surveys to give a feel for how many people in the community overall may have been effected, some without knowing it, because there is certainly some transmission without people actually getting symptoms. but an antibody test that is good enough to go, say, to an individual, we are confident that either, yes, you have had it or no, you have not, we have not yet got to that stage and i think it is unlikely to happen in a single week. it is likely to happen in a series of small improvements to get us to a point where we feel sufficient confidence we can do that. could i

just ask a follow—up, please? mr hancock, you said earlier you are encouraging people if they have heart pains orare encouraging people if they have heart pains or are worried about serious illness, to go to hospital. has the government done any work to measure the health side effects of the lockdown, its impact on mental health or domestic violence? and will that play any part in your decision on when to ease the lockdown measures? yes, we have, and one of the striking things around the world is that far fewer people are coming forward to use health services, including here, farfewer people coming forward to use non—covid—19 services in the nhs. i will ask professor powis to elaborate because he has been doing a lot of work on this. yes, as the secretary of state said, and as chris said earlier, one of the things we have concerns around other indirect deaths, ie death not

specifically related to infection with covid—19. that is why for some weeks now we have been reminding everybody that if you do have a condition which might be a heart attack, chest pains, symptoms that might be a stroke, then don't forget that the nhs is still there for you, the emergency services are there and always have been throughout this. also, these are conditions where it is important not to wait, because treatment, diagnosis and treatment, speedis treatment, diagnosis and treatment, speed is of the essence, and we can do many things for those conditions, but we need to do it quickly. the message to the public is come forward. the nhs is working. if you have a sick child, or if you have the symptoms. i think in the long term we will only be able to tease this out as we start to look at excess deaths overall. chris has mentioned that earlier today. and of course comparisons between countries in terms of excess deaths will be important as well. but we do know

attendances in a&e departments are down. there are reasons that might be the case, but there are reasons why people don't like why we want to encourage people to come forward if they have emergency symptoms that might need emergency treatment —— which is why we want people to come forward. the message for the public is the nhs is there for you, come forward as you always would if you've got symptoms or one of your loved ones has symptoms that might need emergency treatment. thanks very much. gordon raynerfrom the telegraph. thank you, secretary of state. professor whitty, you said in march that children only got mild symptoms of coronavirus, which you said was a silver lining. while sir patrick vallance said closing schools would have a minimum effect on the spread of the virus so it was safe to keep them open and there was zero chance of children avoiding contact with each other anyway. to what extent has your advice on

sending children to school changed? have you worked out the effect on the r value of any children back so? have you work to children can spread coronavirus to other children? they we re coronavirus to other children? they were per “— coronavirus to other children? they were per —— there were reports over the weekend that perhaps they couldn't. you have just announced good news for hospitals to start taking in cancer patients and doing other nonemergency work. can you give more detail of that, and would people watching this be wrong to interpret that as the start of an easing of the lockdown? you want to ta ke easing of the lockdown? you want to take the first one, chris? it remains the case that the great majority of children either don't get coronavirus or if they do the symptoms are minor. that doesn't mean, sadly, that is absolutely true. there are still a small number of cases, including some very severe cases, but they are relative to adults much less than... much less

than adults. so that remains absolutely the case. so the first reason for not sending children to school, that it is particularly dangerous for them, that would not be true in the case of coronavirus. secondly, there is no doubt that they contribute. if you have schools open, it does contribute to increasing the r. if you close schools, the r goes down. it is part of the collection of things that we re of the collection of things that were done in march to try to pull the r from where it was, near three, to where it is now, below one. it is only one of. on its town, it wouldn't be enough, but if you stop doing it you would actually lose some of the benefit we have currently got. now, there is quite a debate at the moment around the world in science what contribution children make to the actual spread of this virus between families around the country, wherever we are talking about, and is it different, for example, between young children

and older children? which it may be. unfortunately, we do not yet have direct data that would really help us. remember, this is a new disease. we can give a reasonably accurate answer for a disease like flu. we really understand how children help drive flew but we are still learning on this one. whilst i think it remains the case that we think that the contribution of children at school to the spread of this virus is probably less than, for example, for flu, we do think it certainly contributes, and what we are trying to work out is what proportionality it contributes and therefore if children went back to school how much closer to one, in a bad way, would we be, and could it even tipped us above one? and if so what can we do to minimise that? so it is a very good question, to which there is unfortunately not a really clear answer, but we are getting closer, i think, to having a slightly narrower range of uncertainty around this. thanks, chris. on the restoration of

the nhs, we have always said throughout that people should come forward for medical treatment. so people's access to the nhs, access to medical treatment, has never been locked down. indeed it is one of the four reasons that you should leave your house if you need to. what we can do, though, is because we now have the capacity in the nhs to be able to start reopening some services, we can do that, and i will ask steve to answer the question about, about that, with more detail, but it will be locally determined according to what capacity there is locally. but our message to people watching this and reading the daily telegraph is that the nhs is open and they are to help you, as it a lwa ys and they are to help you, as it always is, and so people, if they think they need medical treatment from the nhs, then they should come forward , from the nhs, then they should come forward, in the first instance, by

phoning up their gp or going to theirgp phoning up their gp or going to their gp online, phoning up their gp or going to theirgp online, and phoning up their gp or going to their gp online, and calling 111. phoning up their gp or going to their gp online, and calling 111m their gp online, and calling 111m the secretary of state says, we are now in the position to start undertaking some of the services we may have had to have stepped down to manage the surge in coronavirus cases, or occasionally where services have become disrupted. so, for instance, i know cancer patients, there may be good clinical reasons why treatment might be delayed during a time when there is a lot of circulating virus in the community. and, again, as we have both said, emergency services have been there all along and it is with the important people access them. but i think, to add to your question directly, it is not at all a sign that the lockdown is likely to be relaxed. in fact, i think it is the reverse. it's a sign that the lockdown, and the measures that have been taken, and the fact everybody is following them, has meant we are now seeing a decline in patients in

hospital with covid—19 and it is exactly that that is providing the capacity once again that means that we can get back to restarting services such as elective surgery. sol services such as elective surgery. so i think the message shouldn't be now is the time to relax. the message should be that by continuing to comply with these instructions it will continue to help the nhs as we start to get over the peak and the plateau —— and it plateau to a point where we can get much more back to the services that unfortunately we had to delay over the last weeks as we managed this surge.” had to delay over the last weeks as we managed this surge. i think a lot of people listening to this would interpret that as there still is not a plan in place for how schools are going to go back. would it be wrong to infer that from what you are saying? what i will say is that it

is still as we have said over and over again, too early to make decisions on this, and people should follow the social distancing rules of staying at home to protect the nhs and save lives. in a way, what we have been saying today about the restarting of hospital treatments, nhs treatment and the encouragement of many people to come forward when they have not been coming forward with non—covert macro health problems, is all part of protecting the nhs -- problems, is all part of protecting the nhs —— with other health problems that are not covid, it is all part of protecting the nhs and being able to flatten the curve thanks to the social distancing measures. it should be seen in that light and context. at on schools of specifically, do you want to answer? starting with the obvious point that obviously, the final decisions will be for ministers and this is not a scientific decision, but what we can

contribute from the science side is to say, look, we have got this room for manoeuvre between where the r is now and one. there's a lot of things that are contributing which everybody is doing to putting that down. schools are contributing some of that, and it may be different between different schools, and what we are trying to do in very short order is try to give a kind of feel for what are the combinations of different things which actually still keep the r below one which is the absolutely critical thing but allow opening up the different bits of society and different bits, of which schools is one. i think the decision about how the different combinations go together, that finally is one for ministers and i know the secretary of state will com pletely know the secretary of state will completely agree with that. what we can help do is provide some data to say here are some combinations of things we can do but, and i really wa nt to things we can do but, and i really want to be clear about this, there is no perfect solution where we are going to end up being able to do all

the things that people want and at the things that people want and at the same time keep r below one. there will have to be some very difficult choices between different things, all of which, ideally all of us would love to open up but we can't do them all and therefore there will have to be difficult choices and choices around schools clearly will be one of those. is that 0k, gordon? clearly will be one of those. is that ok, gordon? yes. great, we have got david walsh from the sheffield star. hello, secretary of state. the raise the barcampaign star. hello, secretary of state. the raise the bar campaign wants to increase the threshold of the £25,000 retail hospitality and leisure grants from £51,000 rateable value, £250,000, and in sheffield city centre, this would mean a further 157 businesses would benefit from an additional £3.9 million of support. this would save businesses ofjobs —— and support. this would save businesses

of jobs —— and jobs. support. this would save businesses ofjobs —— and jobs. can this be actioned? and another one for the secretary of state, please? sheffield is famous for its independent breweries, it has more per capita than anywhere in the country and was enjoying a golden age prior to the crisis. the government support as a time but with no opening date yet for pubs and bars, theirvery with no opening date yet for pubs and bars, their very existence is under threat. to get them back on their feet, will the government cancel beer duty for six months when they are allowed to restart operations? thank you, david. i understand especially coming from a small business background myself, just how important these questions are to the businesses in the centre of sheffield and the breweries which have, as you say, been flourishing right across the country over the past few years and have obviously been very hard—hit by social distancing, by its nature, which

ta kes distancing, by its nature, which takes away the ability to go for a pint with your friends. i will take these away and talk to the chancellor about them. what i would say is announcement today of 100% guaranteed loans for smaller businesses is another important step in supporting businesses to get through this. we recognise the importance of supporting businesses right across the board, whether they are ina right across the board, whether they are in a town centre, breweries or others who are badly by this —— badly hit by this. supporting businesses through it is critical because both the health impact of the measures and the economic impact of both —— are both best served by people staying at home because that saves lives but it will also get the rate of transmission down as fast as possible, which will then allow us to get through this as soon as possible. we want to get through it

as soon as possible and we want to support businesses on the way through and those two specific ideas, it is tempting to say yes to them as health secretary, but i think i need to talk to the chancellor. thanks very much. dave west from the hs j. chancellor. thanks very much. dave west from the hs]. hello, thank you. first question for mr hancock, could you tell us a bit more about the restoration of services, general plan services in the nhs? there are millions of people on the waiting list for general operations or appointments, hip replacements or cataracts and things. when would you expect, what sort of timeframe would you expect that kind of general activity to be getting back to normal? might it buy region by region? what role do those nightingale hospitals have to play in that, which you mentioned? the second question if i can for chris or stephen, this morning, we revealed the warning to doctors

about the small numbers of children who are coming seriously ill with an unusual set of symptoms, which the experts believe may be an emerging symptom linked to coronavirus. do you think this may be a new future of the outbreak or are you pretty confident these are simply cases of the very small number of serious cases of coronavirus which we see in children? thank you, i am very worried about the latter and we are looking into it closely. i will ask steve to answer that. on the restoration, this will be a locally driven approach. system by system. of course, the principles are that the most urgent treatment should be brought back first, and also, that it needs to be according to the local demands on the system. you know, there's parts of the country where the number of covid patients asa where the number of covid patients as a proportion is much lower than in other parts. it has to be locally

driven. that means unfortunately i can't give you a concrete single number answer to when and it is gradually, over weeks, number answer to when and it is gradually, overweeks, but starting from tomorrow. steve? thanks, dave, yes, as you have referred to, we have become aware in the last few days of reports of severe illness in children which might be a kawasaki —like disease, so kawasaki disease isa very —like disease, so kawasaki disease is a very rare inflammatory condition that occurs in children, and the cause is not often known. it can be related to a number of things. it is only... we will pause there because the news conference is going on for quite a long time in downing street and the coverage continues on the news channel. george is coming up on bbc one with the bbc news app 6pm. stay with us for that. in the meantime, thomas ruffenach with the weather. hello. well, it's been so dry for so very long that it's high

time we got some rain, and rain is on the way, a fair amount, for southern parts of the uk — and i'm sure our gardens will love it as well as our parks. and, let's face it, most of us are stuck at home. the rain clouds are visible on the satellite picture coming in from the south. that's tomorrow's rain and this band of cloud, that's the weather front that will come our way on wednesday. you can see how over the next few days one weather system moves across southern parts of the country and this next big area of low pressure swings in front in our direction as well. the forecast for the coming hours, then. through the night, we expect the clouds to thicken across the south. it will start raining almost anywhere from cornwall to the tip of kent there, into the midlands quite possibly in the early hours of tuesday morning. not particularly cold here because we will have the cloud and a bit of a breeze then the rain, so 10 degrees. whereas in scotland, where we will have had the clear skies overnight, a touch of frost. so here's that rain, and the thing about this rain

in the south is it will be very slow moving, so hanging around in any one place for a considerable amount of time, which means it could be a wash—out in some parts of southern britain. and chilly too — the temperatures will be supressed. nine or 10 degrees in some spots. but different across the lakes, northern ireland and scotland. you can see here all through the day, bar the odd shower here and there, it will be mostly clear. then towards the end of tuesday that rain should clear a way out into the north sea. this is what is happening through tuesday night into wednesday. one weather front moves away then this bigger area of low pressure comes in. the different with this weather front mid week will be rather than it being slow moving like tomorrow's rain, on wednesday this weather front is going to rush through a little bit quicker. for example, in birmingham we might get a couple of hours' worth of rain, then behind it we have showers coming in as well. and this rain will spread a little bit further north on wednesday. so, for example, glasgow will get some rain too. beyond that, it looks as though

the rain is going to remain unsettled, perhaps an indication things will be turning less chilly towards the end of the week. around 16 in london. that's it. bye— bye. we have got to make sure we don't have that second peak. therefore the nhs is of course making sure that it can reopen. where that locally is

appropriate given the local amount of pressure on the system. it also taking into account the nightingale hospitals and in fact i will answer a question that was asked previously but by beth rigby but i did not a nswer but by beth rigby but i did not answer which the nightingales are not going to be used for non—coronavirus purposes because they are precisely set up and designed to deal with people who are intubated designed to deal with people who are intu bated and are designed to deal with people who are intubated and are sedated. but the fa ct intubated and are sedated. but the fact that they are there does help us to restore it more of the core nhs and get that going as much as possible. did you want... were you coming in again? would you see all seven of the nightingale hospitals to be used in that way? in the first

instance, yes. but as we go through this, we always keep things like this, we always keep things like this open to review to work out what is the best way to use the resources at the nation's disposal.”