i will now hand over to drjenny harries. thank ou. could hand over to drjenny harries. hand over to drjenny harries. thank you. could i have _ hand over to drjenny harries. thank you. could i have the _ hand over to drjenny harries. thank you. could i have the first _ hand over to drjenny harries. thank you. could i have the first slide, - you. could i have the first slide, please — you. could i have the first slide, please. what we can see is the number— please. what we can see is the number of— please. what we can see is the number of people, testing positive for covid—19 in the uk. and of course — for covid—19 in the uk. and of course we _ for covid—19 in the uk. and of course we can see there has been a sustained _ course we can see there has been a sustained and sharp decline in cases from a _ sustained and sharp decline in cases from a peak— sustained and sharp decline in cases from a peak of over 60,000 in the middle _ from a peak of over 60,000 in the middle of— from a peak of over 60,000 in the middle ofjanuary on towards may. if i middle ofjanuary on towards m

i'm pleased to be joint here today by dr_ i'm pleased to be joint here today by drjenny harries and paulhis _ border force. we have made enormous progress this year tackling the pandemic across britain. we are not at the _ pandemic across britain. we are not at the end _ pandemic across britain. we are not at the end of— pandemic across britain. we are not at the end of it,

i would like now to turn to drjenny harries to cover— now to turn to drjenny harries to cover the _ nowcture across the uk at the moment. what we see here is the number of people testing for covid—19 in the uk. thankfully the new cases have continued to decline right across all four nations and you can see that from a peak at the start of the year, around 60,000 cases, our latest figure is 2060 and thatis cases, our latest figure is 2060 and that is actually a decline ofjust over 300 from this time last week. the case rates per 100,000, which have been up in the hundreds, are now down on average two to 23 per 100,000. there is some variation across the country and there is an element of plateauing here, and it has plateaued at 0.8%. next slide, please. moving on to hospital data, you will see that as we know, the curve shifts a little bit to the right, people tend to be hospitalised slickly later, about two weeks into infection, and again, in the uk hospital bed occupancy for covid—19, patients have peaked in the middle ofjanuary at around 39,000 beds in usage, and since then it has con

deputy chief medical officer professorjonathan van tam 0fficer professorjonathan van tam and drjenny harries, the chief executive of the uk health security agency. i would like to update you on what we are doing to fight the virus both at home and abroad. first, turning to what is happening here in the uk. i will ask professor van tam to set out the numbers and the details in a moment. but overall, hospitalisations and deaths remain very low. meaning that we have been able, carefully, to take away more restrictions this week as we have taken step three of the roadmap. but we must proceed with vigilance and with everyone taking personal responsibility. we've always known that one of the things that has the potential to knock us off track would be a new variant. that's why we made the presence of a new variant that could do that one of our four tests when we set out the roadmap, which is the tests we must pass before going down each step of the roadmap. the early evidence suggests that the new variant first discovered in india passes more easily from person—to—person than the b.ii7 variant whi

the health secretary, matt hancock, and drjennie harries, the uk health security agency chief executive from 5pm. gps in england say they're facing a "tsunami of patients," as the country emerges from lockdown. nhs figures show more than 28 million appointments were made in march — that's one of the highest on record. the royal college of gps is warning that without more resources they'll no longer be able to meet demand. here's our health correspondent, dominic hughes. the start of another busy day and dr dean eggitt is already feeling the pressure. it's 8.30, bang on the dot, which is great, which means that we can start consulting now. and i've got one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine patients waiting for me. phone rings. hello? morning. it's dean speaking, dr eggitt. are you still seeing the guys up at the hospital? the easing of lockdown has released a huge amount of pent—up demand from patients needing help, many of them with multiple complex health problems. i've never experienced anything with the workload pressures that i've got at the moment, over the number of

it has been coordinated by drjenny harries, the chief executive of the new uk health security agency,e everyone in bedford to exercise caution and engage in testing where it is available. i also want to tell the house the latest scientific assessment of this variant, the early evidence suggests that b.1.617.2 is more transmissible than the previously dominant variant, and we do not yet know to what extent it is more transmissible and while we also don't have the complete picture on the impact of the vaccine, the early lab data from oxford university corroborates the provisional evidence from bolton hospital and the initial observational data from india that vaccines are effective against this variant, and this of course is reassuring. but the high transmission poses a real risk. all this supports our overriding strategy which is gradually and cautiously to replace the restrictions on freedom with the protections from the vaccines. the data that suggests that the vaccine has already saved over 12,000 lives and prevented over 33,000 people from being hospitalised and we are protecting p