Andrew Sparrow 

Boris Johnson warns Britons to avoid non-essential contact as Covid-19 death toll rises – as it happened

PM tells Britons to avoid pubs, restaurants and non-essential travel but school stay open for now as chief medical officer says ‘next few months are going to be extraordinarily difficult for NHS’
  
  


The Creative Industries Federation has described today’s announcement as “a crippling blow to the UK’s creative industries”, my colleague Mark Sweney reports.

In his response to Matt Hancock, Jonathan Ashworth, the shadow health secretary, said the government should come up with a package of measures to protect workers and businesses that would lose out from these measures. He said:

The poorest who struggle to pay the rent, those who struggle about putting food on their table, those who have no savings who dip into will be faced with impossible choices between hardship or health.

From sick pay and lost earnings protection to Universal Credit changes to rent and mortgage payment deferrals - we need a package of financial support and we look forward to working with him on that front.

And Ed Miliband, the former Labour leader, asked Hancock “to match unprecedented public health measures he has announced today with unprecedented economic measures to support all the businesses large and small, their workers, the self-employed who will be affected”. Miliband went on:

It is no fault of the chancellor of the exchequer that his budget was last Wednesday and it is now out of date, but can I use the secretary of state to urge him to come back to the House with economic measures that match the gravity of the moment.

Hancock replied:

Of course these are matters for the chancellor of the exchequer rather than me and there was a G7 call today which the prime minister participated in, in which the economic considerations like this were considered.

He also said that the government has their “eyes wide open” to the economic consequences of coronavirus.

Hancock says non-urgent NHS operations being cancelled

Here are two new points from Matt Hancock’s opening statement to MPs.

  • He said the government would soon be contacting people with significant health conditions who should be “largely shielded from social contact” for three months under the PM’s plan. (See 6.15pm.) He said:

For those who have significant health conditions, the NHS will be in contact with you over the next week. We’ll publish a list of those conditions and if you think you should have been contacted and you haven’t by next week, then get in contact with the NHS.

  • He said non-urgent operations were being cancelled. He said:

We will be cancelling or postponing non-time sensitive elective surgery and the NHS will make a statement about this later today.

In the Commons Theresa May, the former prime minister, and Jeremy Hunt, the former foreign secretary and Boris Johnson’s main rival for the Tory leadership, both challenged Matt Hancock over the government’s coronavirus testing policy.

May said the WHO advice was very clear that their guidance was “test, test, test” for coronavirus. She asked why the government changed its testing requirements recently so people with mild symptoms self isolate. She said surely the testing has to be very significantly increased and know exactly who is going to be tested.

And Hunt asked why the government was not testing for coronavirus and isolate every single case of the virus, as per World Health Organisation advice.

Hancock replied:

I strongly agree with the WHO about the need for testing.

The question is how fast can you ramp up testing capability when the tests you need, which are the blood tests to know who has had coronavirus, and the bed-side test, or the home test, so these tests can be expanded rapidly across the whole country. The first of those is yet to be invented, although we hope that it is fairly soon. The second of those has just been invented in the last few days and we are in intense negotiations about rolling those out very rapidly here.

From ITV’s Paul Brand

In the Commons, where Matt Hancock, the health secretary, has been making a statement about the PM’s announcement, Labour’s Ian Murray has just asked the point made by the landlord who called the Guardian (see 6.22pm): Murray asked the government to order pubs to close, so that they would be able to claim on their insurance.

Hancock said he would consider this point.

I will post more highlights from the session shortly.

Boris Johnson's statement - Snap verdict

Boris Johnson, whose political outlook was summed up by one of his biographers as Merrie England Conservatism, will have never imagined that he would end up being the prime minister who should shut down much of Britain by telling people to stay at home and avoid the pub for the foreseeable future. In his closing comments he said that no PM has every delivered such a statement in peacetime, and he is surely right. People are inclined to support their leaders at times of crisis and, given that the news has been dominated in recent days by reports of countries around the world going into effective lock-down, Johnson was addressing an audience who may at least have guessed that something like this was coming.

But no one can really know how long consent for these measures will last. What people may feel tonight may have changed in a week’s time, and in a month’s time. Johnson made a reasonably good fist of explaining what his proposals were, and why he thought they were necessary, but there was an enormous gap in the statement that a more experienced or strategic prime minister would have addressed. Johnson announced measures that could close down parts of the economy, particularly in the hospitality sector, and pitch hundreds of thousands of people into worklessness, but he had almost nothing to say about what the government might to to help. The fact he seemed to think the national living wage might make a difference (see 5.36pm) was indicative of how little thought he had given to this, and his prediction about the economy “roaring back” (see 5.33pm) came over as naive utopianism. Some sort of correction seems likely, probably quite soon.

Gareth Bentham, a joint pub landlord in Altrincham, said Boris Johnson’s decision to urge people to avoid pubs means he and thousands of other landlords won’t be able to claim for the coronavirus outbreak on business interruption insurance. Speaking from the Old Roebuck pub, he told the Guardian:

Because the prime minister is just advising the public not to go to pubs and restaurants, our insurance won’t cover us. If he had said that we cannot open, then we would have been able to claim. But this has left us in limbo and struggling to cover our costs and overheads without any insurance cover. It is not good enough.

Total number of UK deaths from coronavirus rises to 55

A further 19 people have died after testing positive for Covid-19, bringing the total number of deaths in England to 53, NHS England said. There has also been one death in Wales and one in Scotland bringing the total number of deaths in the UK to 55.

Boris Johnson's opening statement - Summary

Here are the main points from Boris Johnson’s opening statement.

  • Johnson said everyone in the UK was now being asked to avoid all “non-essential contact” with other people. That meant they should be working from home if possible and avoiding pubs, clubs and theatres etc. He said:

Now is the time for everyone to stop non-essential contact with others and to stop all unnecessary travel. We need people to start working from home where they possibly can. And you should avoid pubs, clubs, theatres and other such social venues.

It goes without saying, we should all only use the NHS when we really need to. And please go online rather than ringing NHS 111.

  • He said the advice to avoid unnecessary social contact was particularly important for the over-70s, people with underlying health conditions and pregnant women. He said:

This advice about avoiding all unnecessary social contact, is particularly important for people over 70, for pregnant women and for those with some health conditions.

  • He said the government was now advising entire households to self-isolate for 14 days if someone developed a fever or a persistent cough. On Thursday last week the advice was just that the person with the illness should stay at home for seven days. He said:

We need to ask you to ensure that if you or anyone in your household has one of those two symptoms, then you should stay at home for fourteen days.

That means that if possible you should not go out even to buy food or essentials, other than for exercise, and in that case at a safe distance from others.

If necessary, you should ask for help from others for your daily necessities.

And if that is not possible, then you should do what you can to limit your social contact when you leave the house to get supplies.

  • He said there would be specific advice soon for people with the most serious health conditions. He said:

In a few days’ time – by this coming weekend – it will be necessary to go further and to ensure that those with the most serious health conditions are largely shielded from social contact for around 12 weeks.

And again the reason for doing this in the next few days, rather than earlier or later, is that this is going to be very disruptive for people who have such conditions, and difficult for them, but, I believe, it’s now necessary.

And we want to ensure that this period of shielding, this period of maximum protection coincides with the peak of the disease.

  • He said the measures were particularly important for Londoners.

It’s now clear that the peak of the epidemic is coming faster in some parts of the country than in others. And it looks as though London is now a few weeks ahead.

So, to relieve the pressure on the London health system and to slow the spread in London, it’s important that Londoners now pay special attention to what we are saying about avoiding non-essential contact, and to take particularly seriously the advice about working from home, and avoiding confined spaces such as pubs and restaurants.

  • He said from tomorrow the UK government would not support mass gatherings. He said:

It remains true as we have said in the last few weeks that risks of transmission of the disease at mass gatherings such as sporting events are relatively low.

But obviously, logically as we advise against unnecessary social contact of all kinds, it is right that we should extend this advice to mass gatherings as well.

And so we’ve also got to ensure that we have the critical workers we need, that might otherwise be deployed at those gatherings, to deal with this emergency.

So from tomorrow, we will no longer be supporting mass gatherings with emergency workers in the way that we normally do. So mass gatherings, we are now moving emphatically away from.

  • He said the UK was now approaching “the fast growth part of the upward curve” for coronavirus.

According to SAGE [the scientific advisory group for emergencies] it looks as though we’re now approaching the fast growth part of the upward curve. And without drastic action, cases could double every five or six days.

Updated

Johnson is wrapping up now.

He says he does not remember government announcing a change like this in his lifetime. He does not think there has been one since wartime, he says.

He accepts it will be difficult. But he says he is confident that the UK can bounce back.

He thanks people for their patience, and says he will be back tomorrow.

That’s it. The news conference is over.

I will post a summary, reaction and a verdict shortly.

MPs and peers who are over 70 will have to stay away from parliament, Johnson says

Q: Are you saying elderly MPs and peers must stay away from parliament?

Johnson says this is a universal announcement, intended for everybody. There are no exceptions, he says.

  • MPs and peers who are over 70 will have to stay away from parliament, Johnson says.

Q: What do you mean by saying you will stop unnecessary visits to care homes?

Whitty says this is very difficult. People in care homes are vulnerable. They need visits

Q: When will we know this is going to be over?

Whitty says this will run for some time.

This is not two weeks and we’re done. This is a significant period of time.

Q: It is important that you take the public with you. Do you need to do more to stay in lockstep with Scotland?

Johnson says at the Cobra meeting there was a very good discussion between the four nations.

Q: Can Westminster stay open to July?

Johnson says he wants to ensure democracy carries on. But those who are vulnerable, and lots of members of parliament are in that category, should receive the protections they need.

He says there may be more to come on this from the Speaker.

  • Johnson suggests elderly MPs and peers could be asked to stay away from parliament.

Updated

Q: The Irish government has introduced more aggressive measures, but Northern Ireland is following UK rules. Are you confident the people of Northern Ireland are being protected.

Johnson says he is confident about that.

Whitty repeats the point about how this virus seems to spare children.

Q: Will you take more action to help low-income households. Statutory sick pay is less than £100 a week?

Johnson claims he is doing a lot already. The living wage is being lifted by a huge amount.

He says no one should be penalised for doing the right thing.

Vallance says this is a brand new disease. The experts need to learn as they are going along.

He says the seven-day advice stays. If someone lives alone and gets a fever or a persistent cough, they should stay at home for seven days.

But if they live with other people, the government is now advising the whole household to isolate for 14 days.

Updated

Johnson says coronavirus will be 'severe blow' to economy, but he claims it could come 'roaring back'

Q: How long might this go on?

Whitty says sustainability is critical. He goes on:

People should be thinking of a minimum of weeks or months and, depending how it goes, it may be longer.

Q: Do you accept the economy won’t grow by 1.1% this year, as the chancellor said in the budget last week?

Johnson says it is “perfectly obvious” that this is going to be a “severe blow” to the economy.

But if we get it right, we can ensure it is a short-term problem, he claims.

He says if the peak can be flattened, then there is “no reason why economies worldwide should not come roaring back”.

Everybody sees that this is going to be potentially a severe blow for the economy.

Everybody can see the risks that this situation imposes, the risk to demand, the risk to supply, but if we get it right and if we get the right response and if we work together then we can ensure that it is a short-term problem because the fundamentals of the UK economy are very strong.

This is unlike 2008 - there isn’t a systemic problem within the economy ...

If we can get the disease under control in the way that we’re describing, if we can flatten that peak and it starts eventually to decline [then there is] absolutely no reason why economies worldwide should not come roaring back.

Updated

Q: There has been a case today from Japan of someone getting coronavirus twice. Does that mean herd immunity is no longer achievable?

Vallance says the objective is to flatten the curve.

In any infectious disease, there are cases of people catching it again. But that is rare.

He says there is nothing to suggest that it would be common in this case.

In normal diseases, the body generates immunising antibodies, he says.

Whitty says in diseases, even if there is no long-term immunity, there is normally some short-term immunity.

Johnson says the government’s overriding objective has been to safe lives.

Vallance says research is very important. And the UK is outstanding at the biological science behind this, he says.

Q: Is there case for a global fiscal stimulus?

Johnson says there is widespread agreement in the G7 that people need access to liquidity. He says they should act jointly. There is a lot of work going on.

Q: Do you think you should have started work on getting more ventilators more quickly?

Johnson says “huge strides are being made right now’ in delivering on this.

Q: What are you going to do to support businesses that will collapse when these measures are introduced?

Johnson says this will be a very considerable challenge for businesses big and small.

He says the government will give them liquidity, so they have time to pay. He wants to give them the space to come back from this.

Q: Are we still four weeks behind Italy?

Vallance says at the early stage the numbers are small, and so it is hard to say where you are with precision. Now he says he thinks we are three weeks behind Italy.

Q: Will you introduce criminal sanctions?

Johnson says the government has huge powers. Under 1980s legislation a secretary of state can ban hand shaking, he claims.

He says he thinks the public understand the need for these measures.

Q: Will you allow health service workers to be tested so they can return to work early if they do not have coronavirus?

Whitty says the next stage will involve testing health workers. If it turns out they do not have coronavirus, they will be able to go back to work earlier. This will be rolled out as quickly as possible.

Q: What do you say to people who say you should be taking even more drastic measures, as other countries are doing?

Johnson says other countries are “further up the curve”. He says the government only wants to introduce measures at the right time.

He says at the moment he thinks it is best to keep schools open. But that is being kept under review, he says.

Q: How many people do you think have coronavirus now?

Vallance says the numbers can double over five days. So you can work it out from last week, he says. (Last week he said there could be 5-10,000 cases in the UK.)

He says what would make a huge change would be being able to tell if people had had coronavirus without being aware of it.

Q: Are you forcing people not to go to theatres etc?

Johnson says the government is giving “very strong advice” that places like theatres should close. The government has the power to force closures, he says. But he says he does not think it will be necessary to use those powers.

Q: What are you going to do about care homes?

Johnson says he does not want to see people unnecessarily visiting care homes.

Q: Why are you not testing more, as the WHO recommends? (See 4.51pm.)

Whitty says the government agrees with the WHO on the basis of testing. He says the government is giving up testing based on geography. But it will be scaling up testing, he says.

He says what would be transformational would be the ability to test to see if people have had the disease. At the moment the test only identifies if they currently have it. But that may change, he says.

Whitty the social distancing measures announced today will protect the NHS.

He says people who are over 70 or who have a significant health condition are being asked to take even greater care. That is to reduce the risk of their having to go to hospital and to protect their health. He says these are people over 70 and people who would normally be asked to have flu injections.

Women who are pregnant are also being included, he says. He says that is because the government wants to minimise risk and does not know much at this stage about the impact of coronavirus on pregnant women.

(Previously the government has played down the prospect of pregnant women facing increased risk.)

Prof Chris Whitty, the government’s chief medical adviser, is speaking now.

He says older people are more likely to die.

But older people will not necessarily get it worse. He says Nadine Dorries, the health minister, wrote an article at the weekend saying her coronavirus was worse than her mother’s.

He says there are three groups of deaths and health impacts to be considered.

First, those who die directly.

Second, and this is important, he says, there are other deaths that could occur through the NHS being overwhelmed.

And the third factor relates to negative health consequences of the decisions taken by the government.

Updated

School closures have not been ruled out, chief scientific adviser says

Vallance says the measures outlined already should have a big effect on reducing the peak and reducing the death rate.

But they will not be easy, he says.

He says in future other measures may be necessary, like school closures. But they would need to be introduced at the right time.

  • School closures have not been ruled out, Vallance says.

(I have corrected the previous post because it said Whitty was speaking, not Vallance.)

Updated

Sir Patrick Vallance, the government’s chief scientific adviser, is speaking now.

He says the government is implementing measures it expected to implement. It is implementing them earlier, relative to the spread of the disease, than in some other countries, he says.

He says there are two reasons for these measures: to protect people, and to reduce the spread of the illness.

He says the government is recommending “whole household isolation”. This should last for 14 days. That is because individual isolation should last for seven days, and another seven days is added to allow for other people being affected.

Updated

Johnson is still giving advice.

  • Johnson says people over 70 are being asked to avoid unnecessary social contact with other people.
  • He says the situation is particularly serious in London, which is several weeks ahead of the rest of the country in terms of the spread of coronavirus.
  • He says the government will no longer support mass gatherings.

Updated

Johnson says everyone is now being urged to avoid non-essential contact with others

Boris Johnson is speaking now.

He says we need to go further.

  • Johnson says it looks as though we are approaching the “fast growth” phase of the curve. That means cases are expected to double every five days.
  • Families are being urged to stay at home for 14 days if any member of the household is ill, Johnson says.
  • He says it is time for everyone to stop non-essential contact with others. That means people should work from home where possible and avoid pubs, clubs and theatres.

Johnson says the advice on people avoiding non-essential contact is particularly important for people who are over-70, for people who are pregnant and for people with underlying health conditiions.

Boris Johnson is likely to be asked about what the head of the World Health Organizaion, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said at a press conference a few minutes ago. He urged governments to test more suspected cases, warning that they cannot fight the pandemic blindfolded.

There are more details on our coronavirus live blog.

Boris Johnson's press conference

Boris Johnson is due to start his coronavirus press conference shortly.

Prison officer tested positive for coronavirus, Ministry of Justice says

From the BBC’s Danny Shaw

At Westminster “Mr Stop Brexit” has been replaced by someone with an alternative message of hope, the former Tory MP Nicholas Soames points out.

Andrew Gwynne, the shadow communities secretary, says he is self-isolating because he has flu-like symptoms.

How Johnson has changed his tone on coronavirus over last fortnight

Boris Johnson is due to hold a press conference soon following this afternoon’s meeting of Cobra, the government’s emergency committee. It is the first of what we are told will be daily press conferences, fronted by either Johnson himself or a senior minister, to explain what the government is doing about coronavirus. Johnson is due to be appearing with Prof Chris Whitty, the government’s chief medical adviser, and Sir Patrick Vallance, the government’s chief scientific adviser

Johnson’s first press conference with Whitty and Vallance was on 3 March, just under two weeks ago. It coincided with the government publishing the coronavirus action plan, and Johnson’s overall tone was intended to be reassuring. He said the country would get through this “in good shape”.

Two days later Johnson gave an interview to ITV’s This Morning in which he said it should be “business as usual” for the overwhelming majority of people in the country.

On Monday last week Johnson gave a press conference during which he revealed that he had given up shaking hands, and that in due course people with a fever would be asked to stay at home for seven days.

And then the tone changed very abruptly on Thursday last week, when Johnson said at a press conference that “many more families are going to lose loved ones before their time”.

Updated

Ben Wallace, the defence secretary, has dismissed as “entirely fictional” newspaper reports, like this one, claiming there are plans for the army to be called in to guard supermarkets in the event of coronavirus leading to social breakdown. Speaking during defence questions in the Commons earlier, Wallace said:

I have to say to the house that some of the media stories are entirely fictional.

There is no Operation Hades as was reported in one media.

There are absolutely no plans to send military personnel to guard supermarkets.

However, despite trying to clarify that with the media, there is still an intention in some parts of the media to continue to write these stories.

Updated

Having to stay at home would make my health deteriorate, says David Blunkett, 72

David Blunkett, the 72-year-old former Labour home secretary who sits in the House of Lords, told Emma Barnett on Radio 5 Live earlier that if the government said he had to stay mostly at home because over-70s were particularly at risk of coronavirus, he would quickly deteriorate. He explained:

I would deteriorate. I’ve seen people do it when their work has been their focus. The minute they’ve come out of that they’ve started to deteriorate. It happens to be the case that I love work, I want to carry on working as long as I can. That’s my choice. Not being engaged in the way that I am at the moment, would be really detrimental to my health and well-being into my future. I don’t want to grow old, suddenly, overnight.

The government’s finance bill - and potentially next week’s emergency legislation - appear likely to speed through the House of Commons without being pressed to a vote, after Labour took the decision to allow them to pass “on the nod”.

Labour sources confirmed that while the party will table an amendment to tomorrow’s ways and means resolution, calling for more action to help the low-paid weather the crisis, they will not press it to a vote. And they will take the same approach to their opposition day on Wednesday.

Leader of the Commons Jacob Rees-Mogg insisted last Thursday there was no additional risk from MPs crowding into division lobbies, though he did say an expert from Public Health England had advised him to open the windows.

However Labour have decided not to exacerbate the anxiety of MPs concerned about the risks of contracting or passing on the virus by calling for votes. “The Labour party thinks this is a time for grown-up politics,” the source said.

These are from Robert Jenrick, the housing secretary.

Jenrick may find there are different definitions of “the support they need” ...

Labour calls for ban on evictions of tenants affected by Covid-19

Labour is urging the government to introduce a ban on evictions for tenants whose income is hit by the coronavirus, as it presses for more action to help the lowest-paid weather the outbreak, my colleague Heather Stewart reports.

The ban on travel to the EU announced by the European commission this afternoon will not cover the UK, Ursula von der Leyen, the commission president, has just confirmed. That is because during the Brexit transition Britain still counts as an EU member.

Green party calls for Brexit transition to be extended by one year

The Green party is calling for the government to extend the Brexit transition, which is due to end on 31 December 2020, because of coronavirus. In a statement the Green deputy leader Amelia Womack said:

At a time of national emergency it is vital that the government puts every ounce of its time and energy into protecting the public.

The urgency with which the government wanted to leave the EU was for a period of relative stability. During a time of global crisis we need to be working as closely as possible with our closest allies rather than being at loggerheads over a trade deal.

If we are delaying elections then we are acknowledging we need to work to protect the public first and foremost rather than stick to political timetables, and Brexit is no exception.

Womack says the transition period should be extended for a year. This is allowed under the withdrawal agreement, provided a decision is taken before July.

It seems inevitable that the transition will have to be extended, although ministers are not saying that at this point. Only last Thursday Michael Gove was telling MPs that an extension was being ruled out. (See 11.22am.)

According to Sky’s Sam Coates, the government is considering implementing a scheme being tried in Ireland that would involve flat-rate payments to workers whose employers can no longer carry on paying them because the economy has ground to a halt.

Torsten Bell, chief executive of the Resolution Foundation, a thinktank focusing on low pay issues, thinks the Irish scheme has merits.

Northern Ireland has recorded seven new cases of Covid-19 since Sunday, Stormont health minister Robin Swann has said.

If the over-70s are told to mainly stay at home in future, there are 24 MPs who will be covered by the advice, according to the Election Maps UK Twitter feed.

Boris Johnson will be under pressure to clarify what the government’s advice for the over-70s will be in the weeks and months ahead when he holds his press conference later. It has not been very clear over the last 48 hours or so. (See 9.56am.) Simon Hewett-Avison, director of services at the Independent Age charity told the Press Association that this was causing confusion for the elderly. He said:

If this is all [the elderly are] seeing, this conflicting advice, opinion and guidance, it’s understandable that people are going to feel anxious and worried and not really understand what it is that they’re supposed to be doing to look after themselves, and also look after people around them.

The government’s attempt to get manufacturers to switch their production lines so that they can start making ventilators for the NHS has a touch of desperation about it. Here is Matt Hancock, the health secretary, putting an appeal on Twitter.

Campaigners from Pause the System have staged a protest outside No 10. They want a more proactive response to coronavirus, including the closure of all schools and non-essential businesses and the introduction of a universal basic income.

From the BBC’s Mark Easton

For the first time a coronavirus patient has died in Wales, the country’s chief medical officer, Frank Atherton, has announced.

Angela Rayner, favourite in the contest to be next deputy Labour leader, has a suggestion for Richard Branson.

Thousands of people have called for frontline NHS workers to be tested for coronavirus as a matter of priority, the Press Association reports. An online petition has earned more than 34,000 signatures calling for health workers to be tested, so they can keep on working instead of going into isolation if they have a cold. Junior doctor Rebecca McCauley, who wrote the petition, said staff wanted to work with “a clear conscience”. She explained:

My cough is minor, and it’s March, so quite common to get a cough ... but how do I know it’s not Covid? The truth is I don’t.

So now I have to ask ... do I stay off work for seven days, leaving a shortfall of staff and putting further strain on the already strained NHS, when the likelihood is that I don’t actually have Covid-19?

“Or, do I go to work with my minor cough (as I would normally) and risk potentially spreading Covid-19 to all of the sicker patients I see on a daily basis?

Currently, tests are only being done on patients who require a hospital admission ...

I am petitioning for prioritisation of testing for NHS staff... so that those who need to stay away do so, with a clear conscience, and those who can work can do so, with a clear conscience.

Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland’s first minister, says the Scottish government and the UK government (which doubles up as the English government for health policy purposes) are not giving different advice to elderly people.

As explained earlier, the impression that Edinburgh and London are giving conflicting advice has been created largely by news reports and Matt Hancock using the term “self-isolate” in a loose, general sense, rather than a narrow, specific sense. (See 9.56am.)

Updated

Downing Street lobby briefing - Summary

Here are the main points from the Downing Street lobby briefing.

  • The prime minister’s spokesman said the government does not expect 8 million people to be hospitalised because of coronavirus. Asked about a Guardian story quoting a confidential Public Health England briefing saying “as many as 80% of the population are expected to be infected with Covid-19 in the next 12 months”, the spokesman said:

I think what the documents reflect is the reasonable worst case scenario which we have set out very clearly in the plan we published a week ago now.

It does not mean that is what we expect to happen ... a reasonable worst case scenario is what we are planning for and that is what any responsible government would do. But that does not mean that’s what we expect to happen.

  • The spokesman said Boris Johnson has asked Rishi Sunak, the chancellor, to chair a cabinet committee meeting to consider the impact on business of coronavirus. See 11.46am.
  • The spokesman defended the government’s coronavirus testing policy. Last week it said it would prioritise testing people admitted to hospital, instead of testing those with milder symptoms. There has been particular concern about NHS workers not being tested. But the spokesman said key workers such as NHS staff were an “important focus” for the coronavirus testing regime. He added:

We have carried out more tests than most countries in the world. We continue to increase our testing capacity.

  • The spokesman said George Eustice, the environment secretary, will hold a conference call with food suppliers and supermarkets early this afternoon.
  • The spokesman said there was no need for shoppers to panic buy. He said:

Representatives of our leading supermarkets have been clear that people should shop as they normally do and have asked everyone to be considerate in the way they shop.

Retailers are taking all the necessary steps to ensure that consumers have the food and supplies they need and we are working closely with the food industry to ensure that there is resilience of the supply network.

Asked if Johnson believed some shoppers were being selfish, the spokesman said:

The prime minister, medical and scientific advisers have said there isn’t a need for people to buy more than they would usually use.

Updated

The FTSE 100 was down 7.2% at midday, my colleague Graeme Wearden reports on his business live blog. At 4,976 points it’s at its lowest point since late 2011, and down from 7,404 points just over three weeks ago.

Updated

Scotland to significantly extend surveillance testing for coronavirus

Surveillance testing for coronavirus in Scotland will be significantly expanded to GP practices covering a total of 1.2m people to give a clearer picture of the spread of the disease, authorities have announced. According to the Press Association write-up of the briefing mentioned earlier (see 12.39am), the number of GP practices taking part in the “sentinel” surveillance system will be expanded from 41, covering 240,000 people, to 200 around the country this week to help experts track how the situation is developing.

The Scottish Government announced at the weekend that people showing coronavirus symptoms will no longer be routinely tested for the infection, PA reports. Only those admitted to hospital with flu-like symptoms and breathing difficulties, NHS staff and “key workers” will be routinely tested for Covid-19 as part of the updated testing policy.

Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland’s first minister, said:

People with symptoms in hospital will continue to be tested but also our GP sentinel surveillance system, which we use routinely to monitor flu, is being significantly expanded.

At the moment it’s 41 GP practices across the country doing sample testing.

These GP practices cover about 240,000 people in the population.

We are expanding that system to cover about 200 GP practices which cover a population of 1.2m.

Updated

In fact, we should get the Matt Hancock statement at around 5.30pm, the leader of the Commons’ Twitter account says.

According to Labour whips, the Matt Hancock statement may come later than 3.30pm, to allow him to update MPs on the conclusion of the Cobra meeting, which will start at 3.15pm.

Matt Hancock, the health secretary, will make a statement to MPs about coronavirus. It is due at 3.30pm.

Here are the latest coronavirus figures from Public Health Wales.

Scottish government to hold daily, on-camera coronavirus briefings

The BBC’s Lorna Gordon has a good Twitter thread starting here giving details of what was said at Nicola Sturgeon’s off-camera coronavirus briefing this morning. Sturgeon, Scotland’s first minister, was speaking, alongside Jeane Freeman, the Scottish health secretary, and Catherine Calderwood, the Scottish chief medical officer. It starts here.

And here are some of the main points.

At the briefing Sturgeon said that, like Boris Johnson, she will now schedule daily government on-camera briefings. She will do her first this afternoon, after the Cobra meeting.

Updated

BBC postpones ending free TV licences for all over-75 by at least two months

The BBC was due to end free TV licences for all over-75s at the end of May. After that, pensioners on pension credit were going to still qualify, but other pensioners were going to have to pay.

Now, in the light of coronavirus, the BBC has delayed the end of free TV licences for all pensioners by at least two months. It says the current plan is to bring in the new system on 1 August, but that this will be kept under review.

With the government soon to advise the over-70s that they will have to stay mostly at home to avoid the risk of getting coronavirus, the case for over-75s being able to have free access to TV has become stronger than ever.

Oliver Dowden, the culture secretary, said in response:

I am pleased the BBC has worked with us and agreed to delay their licence fee changes for over-75s from coming in and will keep this under review.

It will be welcome news to millions of older people who now don’t need to worry about their TV licence during this challenging period.

It is right that the BBC have recognised the exceptional circumstances posed by the coronavirus outbreak and the need for the whole country to pull together in the national effort.

Updated

Q: Is the PM chairing this G7 call?

The spokesman says the US is in the lead, as chair of the G7 this year.

Q: Will oil prices come up in the G7 call?

The spokesman says he can discuss this further after the call.

And that’s it. The briefing is over.

Q: Are there any plans to change the way cabinet meets to reduce the risk of coronavirus transmission?

The spokesman says it is important for cabinet to continue to meet.

Q: What will the PM be saying in his G7 call?

The spokesman says the PM has already spoken to all G7 leaders individually in recent days.

He says bringing together leaders in this way will help coordinate a global health response, and a global economic response.

And it will look at measures to promote economic stability.

And it will discuss coordination with the IMF, the World Bank and the World Health Organisation.

Q: Isn’t there a contradiction between wanting to promote economic stability and closing borders?

The spokesman says border policy is a matter for individual countries.

Updated

Q: Why did we not have more ventilators in the first place?

The spokesman says we are facing an unprecedented situation.

Q: On ventilators, is there a national standard design?

The spokesman says there has been a very strong response from industry. Further details will be discussed in the call this afternoon.

Q: What does the PM think of the US banning travel from the UK? What will he say to Trump about it?

The spokesman says the PM spoke to the president at the weekend. Ultimately this is a matter for the US, he says.

Sunak to chair new cabinet committee to consider business impact of coronavirus

Q: Will there be an inner war cabinet?

The spokesman says he would not use that term.

Q: What about the new business response committee mentioned by Grant Shapps this morning? (See 9.20am.)

The PM has asked the chancellor [Rishi Sunak] to chair an economic and business response committee. The business secretary will be the deputy chair. It will consider the business impact of coronavirus.

Q: Will it consider bailouts?

The spokesman says more details of what it is looking at will be set out shorlty.

Updated

Q: Is the government going to offer state support for airlines?

The spokesman says the government recognises how difficult the situation is for airlines. It is working with the industry on measures to help airlines with temporary difficulties.

And he says last week the UK government influenced the EU into relaxing its rules around flight slots.

Q: Has the government discussed the need for some legal form of rationing?

The spokesman says that is not part of the legislation coming forward.

Q: Is the government organising repatriation flights?

The spokesman says flights to the UK are available from most countries.

Q: Are you doing anything to stop panic buying?

The spokesman says the government wants people to shop reasonably. Retailers are doing what they can to ensure consumers have the supplies they need.

Q: Does the PM think people are being selfish?

The spokesman says the PM has said there is no need for people to buy more than they need.

Q: What do you say to people who say the UK is not doing enough testing?

The spokesman says the UK has carried out more tests than most countries in the world, and it plans to increase its testing capacity.

Q: Yesterday Hancock said the elderly would be asked to self-isolate, implying they should not leave their homes. But Scottish officials are talking about social distancing. Which is it?

The spokesman says people should wait until the guidance comes out, so they can see what it says.

He says it would be better for us to wait until the press conference later.

Q: What does the PM feel about so many people working from home when the government is not advising that?

The spokesman says the government will be setting out details of its response later. But firms are making their own contingency plans. That is understandable.

Updated

Q: What has changed between Friday, when the chief scientific adviser said the government wanted to build up herd immunity, and Sunday, when Matt Hancock said that was not policy?

The spokesman says he does not accept the premise of the question. He says going for herd immunity has not been government policy. He says he made that clear at a briefing on Friday.

Q: The document reported in the Guardian says the government does expect as much as 80% of the population to get coronavirus. But the chief medical officer and the chief scientific adviser say that is not what they expect. Who is right?

The spokesman says the 80% figure is a reasonable worst case scenario.

Updated

Q: Is the PM concerned that people are giving different messages about what the over-70s will be advised in Scotland compared with those in England?

The spokesman says the UK government will be clarifying what the advice is soon.

Updated

No 10 says '8m hospitalised' is planning assumption, not what government expects

Q: Do you recognise the 8m figure for the number of people who may require hospitalisation, according to today’s Guardian story?

The spokesman says this is a reasonable worst case scenario. A worst case scenario is a planning tool. It is not the same as what the government expects to happen, the spokesman says.

The spokesman also says Sir Patrick Vallance, the chief scientific adviser, will be able to say more about this this afternoon.

Updated

The spokesman confirms that the measures in the emergency legislation being published later this week will be time-limiting. He says he thinks most of the proposals have been publicised already.

Ministers to discuss further 'social distancing' proposals at Cobra, No 10 says

This is what No 10 said in an overnight briefing note about this afternoon’s Cobra meeting.

On Monday afternoon the prime minister will also chair another meeting of the [Cobra] emergency committee to coordinate the government’s ongoing response to coronavirus. The meeting is expected to include discussion on current modelling of the outbreak and next steps on plans around shielding elderly and vulnerable people, household isolation and mass gatherings.

The lobby briefing is starting. The embargo has been lifted.

The prime minister’s spokesman starts by saying it might be best not to spend too much time asking about what happens next, because this morning’s briefing will be overtaken by this afternoon’s Cobra meeting.

The PM started the morning with a meeting with the chief medical adviser and the chief scientific adviser, the spokesman says.

The PM then went into a meeting with the chancellor and the governor of the Bank of England. That is happening now.

At 2pm the PM will take part in a conference call with G7 leaders.

This afternoon, at 3.15pm, he will chair a meeting of Cobra, and then hold a press conference, alongside the chief medical adviser and the chief scientific adviser. At Cobra, ministers will discuss potential new social distancing measures.

After that the PM will hold a conference call with manufacturers to discuss the need to make more ventilators. After the PM opens the conversation, Michael Gove, the Cabinet Office minister, will take it forward.

Updated

These are from my colleague Heather Stewart.

Downing Street lobby briefing

I’m at 9 Downing Street for the regular morning lobby briefing. The prime minister’s spokesman should be arriving shortly.

I can start posting as soon as the embargo gets lifted, which tends to be about 10 minutes after it has started.

Gavin Williamson, the education secretary, has a meeting with teachers’ groups today to discuss calls for the Easter holidays to be extended. Ahead of the meeting Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said:

We welcome the opportunity to speak to the secretary of state for Education today about the implications for schools and colleges of the coronavirus emergency with the aim of working together to support the learning and wellbeing of children and young people during this crisis.

The concerns we will be raising with him are the challenges of keeping open schools and colleges when a growing number of staff are away from work because they are self-isolating; the potential for disruption to GCSE and A-levels and what contingencies will be put in place; and how we ensure children in poverty do not go hungry and that vulnerable young people are safeguarded if schools are closed.

We aim to work through these issues in order to arrive at constructive solutions about the way ahead.

School and college leaders are showing calm and assured leadership in these difficult times and we can reassure the public that everything that can be done to support young people will be done.

Over-70s asked to 'stay at home' should get more family contact, not less, says Scottish health chief

Echoing a point made by Grant Shapps in his Today interview this morning (see 9.20am), Prof Jason Leitch, the Scottish government’s national clinical director, told BBC Radio Scotland’s Good Morning Scotland today that the government advice to the over-70s, which is due soon, would not include telling them to cut off all contact with others. They should have more family contact, not less, he said.

And, even though this has been characterised as people being asked to stay at home, he said that people would not have to stay at home all the time: He explained:

We will almost certainly, as a four-country UK, we will move to a position in the next few weeks where we will ask those groups [the over-70s and those with pre-existing conditions] to not stay at home in the social isolation way that we are telling the symptomatic to do so, but to reduce their social contact.

It might be mosques, it might be churches, it might be bingo ... and pubs [that people have to avoid]. What we are not suggesting, unlike those with symptoms, is that those people would cut off family contact and not be able to receive visitors.

In fact, quite the opposite, we expect family contact to increase in that group so that those people will be looked after. The last thing that we want is four months of loneliness.

They are not going to be asked to stay at home, they are going to be asked to reduce social contact and to be careful and to use common sense.

There has been a lot of confusion about the ‘stay at home’ advice because in interviews about the proposal yesterday, Matt Hancock, the health secretary, and people interviewing him referred to staying at home as self-isolating. Some people use the phrase in this way, but the term has also been used to apply to a much stricter, no-contact regime meant to be followed by people with coronavirus.

Labour MP Kate Osborne diagnosed with coronavirus

The Labour MP Kate Osborne, who represents Jarrow, says she has been diagnosed with coronavirus.

Rail firms could be allowed to run fewer trains because of coronavirus, Shapps suggests

Politicians like to maintain some semblance of control but in recent days it has become clear that the coronavirus outbreak is threatening to overwhelm public health systems, the economy and even everyday life to a staggering extent. Only 11 days ago Boris Johnson was saying that as far as possible it should be “business as usual for the overwhelming majority of people in this country”. Only five days ago Rishi Sunak delivered a budget that featured a total coronavirus rescue package worth £30bn. Less than a week later, with sections of the economy grinding to a halt, that is starting to look well short of what’s needed. Mel Stride, the chair of the Commons Treasury committee, said as much on the Westminster Hour last night. He told the programme:

The forecast upon which the budget rests is already well out of date, it doesn’t show booming growth over the following years anyway. If this continues and there is a fundamental and deep and longer term impact, there will be some very difficult decisions to take around borrowing, taxing and spending.

It must be serious because No 10 let Grant Shapps, the transport secretary, give an interview to the Today programme this morning. Here are the main points he made.

We are working with [the rail companies] to see what it is that we need to do to sustain them. People still need to be be able to travel. Some of that is about how many trains are put on the line at any one time. I’m meeting with the train companies this week.

Asked if that meant companies being freed from some of their current obligations, he went on:

It is quite clearly an exceptional international moment in time, international crisis. And we need to be flexible as a country to react to that. And I’ll be driven by, amongst other things, the demand. There is no point running ghost trains any more than there’s any point in running ghost planes. But those are conversations which are ongoing.

By “ghost planes” Shapps was referring to rules that require airlines to fly planes, even if they were empty, just to preserve their landing slots. He claimed that he had been successful in obtaining a dispensation from these rules from the EU.

  • He said the government would be considering measures to help the airline industry. He said that he had been speaking to the aviation industry over recent days, and that he would be taking their proposals to an economic business and response committee being chaired by the chancellor to discuss what the government could do to help. Asked what the government would do, he said the industry had “a variety of different asks”. He did not say how the government would respond, but he said the industry was “clearly right at the forefront of this”.
  • He stressed that the advice to the over-70s would not rule out their going out in any circumstances. Asked if people would be free to go out, for example, to walk the dog, he said:

That’s exactly right ... It is the case that people will be able to go out and walk the dog. It’s about being sensible but not mixing in crowds.

Here is the agenda for the day.

9.15am: Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland’s first minister, holds an off-camera briefing on coronavirus.

11am: Downing Street lobby briefing.

12.30pm: The Welsh government holds a briefing on coronavirus.

Early afternoon: Boris Johnson chairs a meeting of Cobra, the government’s emergency committee, to discuss coronavirus.

Late afternoon: Johnson holds a press conference after the Cobra meeting.

As usual, I will be covering breaking political news as it happens, as well as bringing you the best reaction, comment and analysis from the web, although I expect to be focusing mostly on the political aspects of the coronavirus crisis. But this is a global story that goes well beyond Westminster politics, and even politics generally. For the full picture, do read our general coronavirus live blog, which is here.

You can read all the latest Guardian politics articles here. Here is the Politico Europe roundup of this morning’s political news. And here is the PoliticsHome list of today’s top 10 must-reads.

If you want to follow me or contact me on Twitter, I’m on @AndrewSparrow.

I try to monitor the comments below the line (BTL) but it is impossible to read them all. If you have a direct question, do include “Andrew” in it somewhere and I’m more likely to find it. I do try to answer questions, and if they are of general interest, I will post the question and reply above the line (ATL), although I can’t promise to do this for everyone.

If you want to attract my attention quickly, it is probably better to use Twitter.

Updated

 

Leave a Comment

Required fields are marked *

*

CAPTCHA

*