Boris Johnson today urged Britons not to ‘ease up’ on lockdown measures too early
Britain’s preliminary daily coronavirus death toll today rose by 229 – the lowest since March, as the UK’s crisis continues to slow down.
The Department of Health – which announces an official daily snapshot of deaths in all settings – has yet to provide today’s COVID-19 update.
The preliminary toll is counted by adding up all the numbers provided by the health officials of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
NHS England declared 204 COVID-19 fatalities in hospitals – but some of the deaths may have been included in previous daily totals.
Scotland had five deaths in all settings, while Wales and Northern Ireland recorded another 14 and six victims in hospitals and care homes, respectively.
It means at least 28,675 Britons have now died from coronavirus, Europe’s second worst death toll – second only to Italy (28,884). But top statisticians say thousands of British care home victims are still being missed because the figures only include patients who have tested positive in a laboratory.
Yesterday’s official count of 315 new deaths was the lowest recorded in Britain since March 29 (214), before the coronavirus outbreak spiralled out of control.
It comes after it was revealed that England’s excess death rate amid the pandemic is the worst in Europe, higher than Italy, Spain and France.
Data compiled by officials on the continent shows England’s spike in excess deaths has also lasted longer than any of its coronavirus-ravaged neighbours.
In other developments to the UK’s coronavirus crisis today:
- Boris Johnson urged Britons not to ‘ease up’ on lockdown measures too early, saying it could ‘allow a second peak of coronavirus’;
- Nicola Sturgeon gazumped the Prime Minister again by revealing that there won’t be ‘meaningful’ changes to lockdown this week;
- Ministers revealed they were trying to get Britain ‘as many masks as possible’ as the Government prepares to change its official advice;
- Britain’s main commuter roads started to jam up again with London seeing another 2 per cent rise in traffic;
- London’s NHS Nightingale hospital will be mothballed to new patients and kept as backup in case of a second wave of COVID-19 in Britain;
- A contact tracing app to track the spread of coronavirus will be trialled on the Isle of Wight before being rolled out more widely later this month;
- Heathrow Airport has warned travellers could face queues more than half a mile long to board flights;
- Rail unions said it was ‘premature’ to open up the country’s public transport network when the lockdown eases;
- Officials caved in to pressure to name the secretive SAGE panel, naming all but two of the scientists who helped shape the UK’s response.
Data shows how the coronavirus death toll in Britain has risen at a much quicker rate than that of Italy – but it has slowed down in the past two days
More than 4,000 care home residents in England and Wales have died during the pandemic up until April 17, official data shows, 19 per cent of the total on that date. This compares to Germany’s 2,401. A third of its total deaths have been in care homes, but that includes prisons and other community settings. Adelina Comas-Herrera, an author of the report, said she expects half of the UK’s deaths to have taken place in care homes, suggesting the true death toll could be in the region of 50,0000
But the final count, which should have been released at 2pm, may be lower because of a change in how deaths are recorded in England.
Ministers finally caved in to mounting pressure to include COVID-19 fatalities in care homes in the daily updates last week.
It came amid fears thousands of victims were being missed because the daily figures only took into account patients who died in hospitals.
Care home deaths make up almost half of all deaths in some neighbouring European countries, according to estimates.
And official data from Scotland suggests around 40 per cent of all victims die in care homes, suggesting Britain’s true death toll could be in the region of 50,000.
Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales all now include care home deaths in their daily COVID-19 situation updates, which they announce individually.
But their tallies do not always line-up with the official count provided by DH because of how they are recorded.
For instance, Scotland’s death toll stands at 1,576 – but the Department of Health had only registered 1,559 fatalities for the country yesterday.
No overall daily update is given by England, with NHS bosses only offering a count of how many patients have died in hospitals.
But because of DH’s new reporting system, some of the deaths NHS England reports each day have already been included in previous tolls.
Officials do not provide an in-depth breakdown to show how many COVID-19 deaths occurred in hospitals compared to care homes and other settings.
A report today warned COVID-19 deaths in care homes are not inevitable, amid fears the virus has claimed the lives of thousands of Britain’s most vulnerable.
Researchers at the London School of Economics highlighted exactly where the UK had fallen short of protecting some 400,000 care home residents and staff.
At least 5,000 care home residents are thought to have died from COVID-19. Official data shows care home deaths account for around a third of all fatalities.
The LSE report claimed Number 10 has followed a ‘reactive’ response to the COVID-19 crisis, rather than preventing the outbreak from the outset.
In some cases, swab tests have been limited to six residents with symptoms per care home, forcing staff to make assumptions on who may have the killer infection.
In contrast, Hong Kong – which took action to prevent a crisis early on – has recorded no official deaths in care homes.
But Adelina Comas-Herrera, an author of the LSE report, said she expects half of the UK’s deaths to have taken place in care homes up until now.
This would suggest the UK’s true death toll is in the region of 50,000, with most of the deaths included in the official toll of 28,000 being in hospitals.
The pattern has been reported in Spain and Italy, where governments were slow to act and were underprepared for the pandemic with low levels of PPE.
In other developments today, the membership of the secretive committee which has been advising the Government on handling coronavirus was finally made public.
The names of those who sit on the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) had not previously been published on security and independence grounds.
But ministers this morning bowed to mounting pressure and released the names of 50 experts across many fields who have sat in regular crisis meetings.
It comes amid a row over No10 aide Dominic Cummings and top Google AI expert Demis Hassabis attending meetings.
Don’t get your hopes up! Nicola Sturgeon gazumps Boris Johnson AGAIN by saying there won’t be ‘meaningful’ changes to lockdown this week – as ministers admit they are stockpiling masks for the public and hint 2 metre distance rule will be eased
Nicola Sturgeon today dismissed the prospect of any ‘meaningful’ change to lockdown this week – as Boris Johnson pushed back the timing of his exit plan by days.
The Scottish First Minister declared at a briefing in Edinburgh that the situation is so delicate the curbs cannot be significantly eased.
She also promised to set out her own proposals for how to ease the curbs tomorrow – nearly a week before the PM is expected to unveil his strategy.
The latest brazen example of Ms Sturgeon gazumping the Westminster government came amid signs the two-metre social distancing rules could be softened to help revive the economy.
The shape of the ‘road map’ has started to emerge, with a leaked draft suggesting it will recognise that keeping gaps between workers is not always possible.
Instead companies will be advised they can take other precautions such as installing screens and imposing strict hygiene procedures.
Meanwhile, offices will be told to overhaul their rotas to minimise risks by staggering arrival, break and departure times, ending hot desking and avoiding sharing equipment.
Ministers confirmed this morning that the government has started stockpiling face masks for public use.
The PM is expected to unveil the exit strategy in an address to the nation on Sunday, having delayed the announcement by three days as frantic work continues in Whitehall. The law requires that a decision on extending the lockdown measures be taken by Thursday, but ministers could have initial results from a huge surveillance project to assess the prevalence of the disease by the end of the week.
In a video posted on the Downing Street Twitter feed today, Mr Johnson warned that the ‘worst thing’ the country could do right now is ‘ease up too soon’ while there is still a threat of a ‘second peak’.
‘We will only be able to move onto the second phase of this conflict if our five tests have been met,’ he said.
The tests are: that the NHS must have sufficient critical care capacity; there must be a sustained and consistent fall in daily deaths; the infection rate must be decreasing to ‘manageable levels’; there must be enough PPE and testing supply; and any adjustments must not lead to a second peak which could overwhelm the health service.
Mr Johnson said: ‘The worst thing we could do now is ease up too soon and allow a second peak of coronavirus.’
Ministers have been under massive pressure to set out the way forward, with the draconian current curbs estimated to be costing the country £2billion a day.
The obstacles have been underlined with unions threatening to block plans to get rail services up to 85 per cent of usual levels within a fortnight. Furious Tory MPs accused the RMT of trying to exploit the situation to get more money for their members.
Downing Street stressed that current guidance was for people to maintain the two metres gap ‘where possible’.
Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon today dismissed the prospect of any ‘meaningful’ change to lockdown this week
The Tube was still busy today despite the strict lockdown rules in force – amid claims from unions that the government wants services back up to at least 85 per cent by May 18
At her daily briefing in Edinburgh today, Ms Sturgeon said that, although ‘real and significant progress’ was being made, the rate of reproduction of the virus was still too high to alleviate lockdown measures.
She said it is ‘likely’ that lockdown measures will continue without any ‘meaningful’ changes.
‘Although we are making real and significant progress … the numbers still eing infected by the virus and the all-importnat R number remain too high right now to make any meaningful change without risking the virus running out of control again,’ she said.
Saying she expected to unveil her own exit plan tomorrow, Ms Sturgeon said work would be done to ensure there was alignment with the rest of the UK, but divergence in measures could still be possible.
The First Minister also outlined the Scottish Government’s test, trace, isolate (TTI) strategy, which she said would aid the easing of the lockdown measures.
Ms Sturgeon said the strategy would only work if the public adheres to it, adding it was not a ‘quick fix or magic solution’ and would need to be done alongside current hygiene guidance.
Ms Sturgeon said moves were being made to deliver a TTI strategy by the end of May, with testing capacity expected to have to rise to 15,500 per day to support the approach.
Defence Secretary Ben Wallace hinted that social distancing advice will be fleshed out, telling Sky News that that protective screens and ensuring people were not close together for very long could reduce the need for strict distancing.
‘You can look at shielding, you can look at how long you stay near people. The two-metre rule reduces the possibility of infection by a certain amount of time,’ he said.
‘If you halve that it still keeps people away from being infected but for a lesser time. The probability of being infected is much less.
‘I think there are options about how we can do it. You can wear PPE, that could be a possibility if you have to be in close proximity or indeed you could find other ways of doing it.’
He pointed towards supermarket workers working behind ‘shields’.
Mr Wallace also confirmed that the government is stockpiling face masks in case it decides to change its advice – something that has already happened in Scotland. Mr Johnson has said they will be ‘useful’ in the next phase of lockdown but the Westminster guidance has not been updated,
‘It’s not the amazing thing if you wear a mask that no one’s going to get it but there is obviously this issue about human nature and interactions if you go on public transport and wear a mask will you feel able to go back to work,’ Mr Wallace said.
‘At the same time, to anticipate should different rules be made around masks we’re trying to source as many masks as possible as we speak and have been for the last few weeks.’
Sir Jeremy Farrar, a SAGE member and head of the Wellcome Trust, said there was ‘nothing magical’ about the two metre advice, and it was based on long-standing evidence about how far coughs and sneezes were likely to travel.
‘There is nothing magical about two metres,’ he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme. ‘Perhaps more importantly is the time you spend near someone else.’
The draft guidance, a version of which has been leaked to the BBC and Financial Times.
It suggested vulnerable staff – such as those aged over 70, pregnant, with underlying health conditions or pregnant – should be put in the ‘safest possible roles’.
The guidance is clear that anyone who can work from home should continue to do so – meaning many staff will be out of the office for months to come.
But the draft does not spell out what action should be taken on PPE – saying merely that more information will follow. Some businesses fear they might be open to legal action from staff if they loosen the rules without clear direction from the government.
Mr Wallace played down concerns that ‘coronaphobia’ could hamper efforts to get the economy running again, with polls showing significant numbers would be nervous about returning to work.
The Defence Secretary said: ‘I strongly believe the public aren’t stupid. They read advice, they listen to the media.
‘They took on board the Government’s advice… and I think they will be perfectly able to read the Government’s next stage when we get to it.
‘I’m totally confident when it comes to the next step we will all together be able to move forward.’
Mr Johnson will describe the race to develop a coronavirus vaccine as the ‘most urgent shared endeavour of our lifetimes’ later as he calls on nations to ‘pull together’ in response to the pandemic.
The Prime Minister is expected to tell an online pledging conference – co-hosted by the UK and eight other countries and organisations – that the sooner states share their expertise the faster scientists will succeed in defeating the disease.
It comes as Mr Johnson revealed he feared he would not live to see his baby son Wilfred born when he battled Covid-19 in intensive care last month.
The PM will tell the conference, which aims to bring in more than £6.6billion in funding, that the race to develop a vaccine is ‘not a competition between countries but the most urgent shared endeavour of our lifetimes’.
‘It’s humanity against the virus – we are in this together and together we will prevail,’ he is expected to say.
Meanwhile, Mr Johnson faces a backbench rebellion over his Government’s ‘absurd, dystopian and tyrannical’ coronavirus lockdown today.
Furious Tory MPs including 1922 Committee chairman Sir Graham Brady and ex-Brexit ministers David Davis and Steve Baker are preparing to voice anger over the extent of the enforced shut-down.
They will argue that the economic, social and health costs of the self-imposed paralysis of UK PLC is so great that it must be eased.
They will use a debate on the Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions) Regulations brought in in March, which gave ministers and police the greatest swathe of restrictive powers ever granted in peacetime.
As well as measures to unclog the stagnant economy there are civil liberties concerns about the new NHS contact tracing app and the way it tracks the public.
Mr Johnson is expected to announce measures to allow the lockdown to be eased in an address to the nation on Sunday, after it is officially extended for three more weeks on Thursday.
But Mr Baker, a former Brexit ‘Spartan’ who is no stranger to going contrary to his front bench, said ‘whatever the necessities, that the rule of law should have been overthrown in this period is extraordinary and deeply troubling,’ in an article for the Daily Telegraph.
‘Millions of people in our country have been plunged into idleness at public expense and unemployment, facing financial and psychological hardship on a scale never seen before,’ he added.
”Thousands of people have missed life-prolonging health appointments. Vulnerable people are isolated and domestic violence has soared. Soon will come the full economic impact on all our lives.’
He went on: ‘This is absurd, dystopian and tyrannical. The sooner it is ended, the better.’
Mr Johnson today warned that lifting lockdown restrictions too soon would be ‘the worst thing we could do’.
In a video message on Twitter, the Prime Minister said it was important to meet the five tests set by the Government before easing the lockdown.
Mr Davis, who has a long history of speaking out on civil liberties issues, is preparing to challenge the Government over its new contact tracing app, which is due to start trials on the Isle of Wight this week.