here comes alok sharma.ness secretary alok sharma with professor stephen powis and sarah albion from the health and safety executive. alok sharma:: i'm joined the health and safety executive. alok sharma:: i'mjoined by professor stephen powis and sarah albion. first i want to update you on the latest data from the coronavirus response. 2 million tests for coronavirus have now been carried out in the uk,. 226,463 people have tested positive. that's an increase of 3403 cases since yesterday. 11,605 people are currently in hospital with coronavirus, up from 11,465 the previous day. sadly, of those tested positive for coronavirus across all settings, 32,692 have now died. that's an increase of 627 fatalities since yesterday. this is of course devastating news for families across the united kingdom. we all need to stay alert and control the virus. i wa nt to stay alert and control the virus. i want to remind people of the details of the next phase of our fight against coronavirus that will be set out this week. w

alok sharma, the business secretary. that is it from me.ual for a sitting president to be rebuked by a predecessor, but mr obama said the pandemic had shown that those in charge don't know what they're doing. our washington correspondent david willis sent this report. class of 2020, this is for you... in the age of the coronavirus, this is what it means to come of age. graduation ceremonies, a rite of passage for youngsters here, now virtual, rather than actual experiences. the future for those graduating more uncertain than at any other time in modern history. the world is yours now. this star—studded televised event had as its keynote speaker the 44th president of the united states, and he was withering in his criticism of his successor‘s handling of the crisis. more than anything, this pandemic has fully, finally, torn back the curtain on the idea that so many of the folks in charge know what they're doing. a lot of them aren't even pretending to be in charge. since leaving office injanuary 2017, barack obama has largely avoided criticis

uk business secretary, alok sharma, praised the work being done by scientists in britain, to try to findtoday's downing street briefing. the speed at which oxford university has designed and organised its complex trials is generally unprecedented. imperial college are also making good progress and will be looking to move into clinical trials by mid june, larger scale trials due to begin in october. so far, the government has invested £47 million in the oxford and imperial vaccine programmes. today i can announce an additional £81; million of new government funding to help accelerate their work. this new money will help mass—produce the 0xford vaccine so that if current trials are successful we have dosages to start vaccinating the uk population straightaway. the funding will also allow imperial to launch phase three of clinical trials for this vaccine later this year. i can also confirm that with government support oxford university has finally finalised a global licensing agreement with a company for the commercialisation and manufacture of the oxford vaccine. this means that if the vac

street news conference on the government's coronavirus strategy was led by the business secretary alok sharma. it followed the announcement by the chancellor rishi sunak that the uk scheme to pay wages of workers on leave because of coronavirus will be extended to october. let's listen to what the business secretary had to say. good afternoon. i'm joined today by professor stephen, national director of nhs england and the chief executive of the health and safety executive. first i want to update you on the latest data on the coronavirus response. 2,007,146 test for coronavirus have now been carried out in the uk, including 85,293 tests carried out yesterday. 226,463 people have tested positive. that's an increase of 3403 cases since yesterday. 11,605 people are currently in hospital with coronavirus. but from 11,465 the previous day —— up from. sadly, of those tested positive across coronavirus across all setting, 32,619 have now died. not an increase of 627 fatality since yesterday —— that's an increase. this is devastating news for families across the united kingdom. we all need to stay ale

the uk business secretary, alok sharma, praised the work being done by scientists in britain to try tocessful vaccine at today's downing street briefing. the speed at which oxford university has designed and organised complex trials is unprecedented. imperial college are also making good progress, and we will be looking to move into clinical trials by mid—june, with a larger—scale trial planned to begin in october. so far, the government has invested £47 million in the oxford and imperial vaccine programmes, but today i can announce an additional £84 million of new government funding to help accelerate their work. this new money will help mass—produce the oxford vaccine so that, if current trials are successful, we have dosages to start vaccinating the uk population straightaway. the funding will also allow imperial to launch phase three clinical trials of a vaccine later this year. i can also confirm that, with government support, oxford university has finalised a global licensing agreement with astrazeneca for the commercialisation and manufacturing of the oxford vaccine. this means

the business secretary, alok sharma, has announced that the drugs company astrazeneca will make 30 millioncoronavirus vaccine by september if it's proven to work. the vaccine is being developed by a team at oxford university and is currently part of a clinical trial. the government has put an additional £81; million towards accelerating trials and mass production of potential covid—i9 vaccines. the scottish government has announced it will begin testing contact—tracing technology in three health—board areas from tomorrow. it's the first step towards an extended test, trace and isolate approach to be rolled out across scotland by the end of the month. anyone testing positive will be asked to isolate and a system used to identify and contact people they have been close to. leaders of some of the largest councils in england have appealed to the government for emergency financial support to prevent them becoming insolvent during the pandemic. the county councils network says that without a £5 billion income guarantee, many non—essential services will have to be cut. there could also be an impa