UK coronavirus live: rate of infection doubling every three to four days, says Gove – as it happened

• The Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, will self-isolate for seven days in his flat No 11 Downing Street after he tested positive for coronavirus. Johnson, 55, developed mild symptoms – a temperature and persistent cough – over the last 24 hours. He will continue to work from home and lead the national response to the pandemic.
• Testing is to be extended to frontline NHS workers, with hundreds to be carried out this weekend, Michael Gove announced. This will be antigen testing – testing whether people currently have the disease – and will be increased “dramatically” next week. Testing criteria is based on show symptoms and the centrality of one’s role to the coronavirus crisis.
• Two further NHS Nightingale hospitals will be built in Birmingham and Manchester. NHS England has also reconfigured hospital services so that 33,000 hospital beds are available to treat further patients.
• The health secretary, Matt Hancock, also tested positive for coronavirus after having mild symptoms. He will self-isolate until next Thursday.
• England’s chief medical officer, Prof Chris Whitty, is self-isolating after experiencing symptoms compatible with Covid-19. He will continue to advise the government’s medical response to coronavirus, supported by his deputies.
• The UK death toll rose by 181 to 759, the highest day-on-day increase so far, and the rate of infection has been doubling every three to four days. Michael Gove announced that 113,777 people have now been tested for Covid-19; of those 14,543 have tested positive, an increase in the last day of 2,885. There were 168 more deaths in England, a further three in Northern Ireland, six more recorded in Wales, and a further eight in Scotland.
  
• A temporary mortuary is to be opened at Birmingham Airport in preparation for a predicted rise in the number of fatalities from coronavirus in the region. Work has begun on the site, which will initially be able to hold 1,500 bodies, although it will be expanded to hold more.

That’s it for today from the UK side. For more coronavirus updates, head over to our global coronavirus live blog for the latest worldwide coverage.

Q: Can you confirm there are no plans to test the other members of the cabinet and explain why?

Can you clarify if the 3.5m testing kits have already been manufactured and by whom?

Gove says those members who are central to the effort and show symptoms are going to be tested.

Harries says testing criteria is clear. We will test appropriately for clinical management. The appropriate thing to do if you have symptoms is to self-isolate so you can’t potentially transmit the disease to anyone else.

The testing kits are coming from a variety of manufacturers and it is really critical that each one is tested by specificity and sensitivity – how frequently we can pick up the disease and how sure we are that it is a positive test.

Stevens says unfortunately there is no doubt that pressure on the NHS will intensify in the coming weeks. A lot of our frontline staff will be in highly pressurised circumstances. If you can help too by following the measures set out – social distancing and staying at home – you too will save lives.

Q: We were told before the decision on Monday to impose much stricter rules on people’s movements that such a decision would be based on data around footfall, activity and transport. Yet the government has not so far provided any of that data to justify the most sweeping restrictions on the population the country has ever seen. Will you promise now to publish that data and explain why it hasn’t been published so far?

Can you guarantee the NHS is ready for what is about to come and if not, what is the one thing you still need from the government to prepare yourselves?

Gove says the government has followed evidence at every stage. Since the measures taken on Monday, there has been a dramatic decline in public transport use and footfall, and the majority are following the advice. The data will be shared in the spirit of transparency.

Stevens says everyone across the NHS is doing everything that could possibly be done and we are getting that support from the government.

Harries says the government has always acted on the science in this unprecedented event. Data changes frequently, so there is a moving agenda on some of the data, but be clear that we have acted on modelling and steadily implemented measures in a way that they are timed appropriately.

Q There are large numbers of people across the country reliant on food banks and other charitable efforts. Charities are still working but many food banks have closed and donations are down. Many volunteers are over 70 and have been advised to stay home. Is there going to be financial and logistical support for these charities and are any of the 700,000 people who have volunteered to help the NHS being committed to this effort?

Do you regret the bed reductions and the failure to increase nurse training numbers during your tenure, which left the NHS in a position where it entered this crisis with its critical care bed base among the worst in Europe and the UK having the lowest number of nurses and doctors per head amongst developed nations, according to the OECD. Isn’t the lesson from this crisis that the NHS needs more capacity at all times if it’s going to be ready to deal with this kind of surge in demand and it can’t be made to operate with no slack as has happened under your watch?

Gove says the volunteer networks being set up across the country are ensuring that we can match volunteers who are willing to do shopping and to hand food to those vulnerable people who are staying at home or may not have the social networks to get the food they need.

Oliver Dowden, at the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, is looking at a specific fund to support charities in the work they do – more will be said about this in the coming days.

Stevens says the NHS needs more staff and hospital beds over the next 5-10 years.

Q You can’t guarantee that the PM and health secretary won’t become more poorly at the moment the country most needs them to lead. Why weren’t they – and the chief medical officer – better protected. Isn’t this at best careless, and at worst negligent.

The new London hospital will have 500 beds by next week. How much spare capacity is there in London’s critical care beds today, how much do you expect that to change over the weekend and do you anticipate you’ll be over capacity by next week.

How many NHS staff are currently unable to work because they are either unwell or self-isolating.

Gove says the fact that the virus does not discriminate is one of the reasons we need to have strict social distancing measures. We aim to flatten the curve, reduce the rate of infection to ensure the NHS can be protected. It is a reminder that we need to take seriously the advice the NHS has been giving us.

Stevens says as of yesterday there were just under 3,000 available hospital beds across London. The NHS Nightingale hospital [in east London] is being configured initially to be able to look after up to 500 patients, but there is the physical capacity to potentially take that up to 4,000 if required.

Q What is the plan should the prime minister not be able to continue to work?

What is the system for testing people in government who are dealing with this crisis?

Gove says Johnson’s symptoms are only mild and he is still able to videoconference.

Harries says the primary objective of testing is to ensure clinical cases are managed safely. Those patients admitted to intensive care with acute respiratory disease syndrome or with pneumonia are the ones we are focusing on. For other admissions into hospitals with those conditions, we test routinely. Also in some other specific areas where people are at high risk, like care homes.

The basis for this is you must have clinical symptoms. The default is that without this you would not be tested. The only other factor would be the centrality of your role in the Covid-19 response. The prime minister plays a very critical role in that and that is the basis for our testing.

Stevens says it is urgently important to test frontline staff who are off sick or are self-isolating. The number of tests carried out will be doubled by the end of next week compared to this week.

We will be rolling out staff testing across the NHS, starting next week with critical care nurses and other staff in intensive care, emergency departments, ambulance services, GPs; and as the testing volumes continue to increase we want to expand that to a range of essential public workers, including those in our social care services and continuing with the patient testing.

Q: The prime minister and health secretary have coronavirus and the chief medical officer is in isolation. People may take this as you haven’t been taking your own advice or you maybe acted too slowly when it came to stopping the spread.

We’ve had cancer patients getting in touch very worried about the postponement or cancellation of their treatments.

Can you be more precise about the peak of this outbreak.

Gove says the fact that the prime minister and the health secretary have contracted the virus is a reminder that the virus does not discriminate. We are all at risk and that is why it is so important that we all practise social distancing measures.

Stevens says NHS England wants urgent cancer treatments to continue but specialists should have the opportunity to decide whether it is more risky to embark on treatment at this particular time given that you are more vulnerable to infection if you begin a course of treatment and become immuno-compromised as a result. Those are clinical decisions to be taken.

We have also reached an agreement with independent hospitals that cancer care can take place there rather than at the busy hospitals treating coronavirus patients, he says.

Harries says it would be foolish to predict when the peak is expected as we are yet to see how effective physical distancing measures have been. There is some indication the public are now heeding advice and must continue to do so. We don’t expect to see a significant change in numbers for two to three weeks. Data is being monitored daily and when there is a prediction it will be shared.

Simon Stevens says that as of today more than 6,200 confirmed positive coronavirus patients are in hospitals across England and that number is only bound to rise over the coming days, so it is especially important for people to stay at home.

NHS England has reconfigured hospital services so that 33,000 hospital beds are available to treat further patients.

The NHS is also building new hospitals starting with the NHS Nightingale hospital in east London. Stevens confirms he has given the go-ahead to the building of two further hospitals: in the Birmingham NEC and the Manchester CCC, with further such hospitals to follow.

Gove has announced that a “new alliance” of businesses, research institutes and universities has been brought together by the government to boost testing capacity for frontline workers.

This will be antigen testing – testing whether people currently have the disease – so that health and social care workers can have security and knowledge that they are safe to return to work if their test is negative.

These tests will be trialled for people on the frontline starting immediately, with hundreds to take place by the end of the weekend, and the number increasing dramatically next week.

Michael Gove gives the following update.

113,777 people have now been tested for Covid-19; of those 14,543 have tested positive, an increase in the last day of 2,885.

The rate of infection has been doubling every three to four days and of those who have contracted the virus, 759 have died.

He says the figures illustrate the need for us all to act. Strict physical distancing measures should be observed in order to slow the spread of the virus and strengthen the NHS.

This is a united national effort and the selflessness shown by so many is truly inspiring.

0:49

Michael Gove, the Cabinet Office minister, will lead the daily coronavirus press conference shortly.

Alongside him will be Dr Jenny Harries, the deputy chief medical officer for England, and Simon Stevens, the CEO of NHS England.

27 Mar 202012.39 EDT

Damien Gayle

Director of Liberty calls coronavirus law biggest attack on Britons’ freedoms in a generation

Among various measures, the act, which passed on Wednesday, gives police powers to detain people and forcibly test people they suspect may be infectious, removes protections for those detained under the Mental Health Act, and weakens judicial oversight of surveillance.

Already on Thursday, the Guardian reported how police in North Yorkshire were proposing to set up road blocks to restrict people’s movements, while Derbyshire police used a drone to shame people who had driven to remote parts of the Peak District to exercise during the lockdown.

In a statement about the new law, Martha Spurrier, the director of Liberty, said:

This new law is without doubt the biggest restriction on our individual and collective freedoms in a generation. What people may not realise is the extent of its powers, and how long they can be in place for.

It gives the authorities new powers to detain any one of us that they believe could be infected with the coronavirus.

It also removes vital safeguards in care standards, leaving many people who are already at risk, such as disabled people, at further risk, not only of poor care but also of potentially inhumane treatment.

While change is necessary, and some of the measures outlined in this legislation are entirely sensible, others are overbearing and, if left unchecked, could create more problems than they solve.

The breadth of this legislation is also extraordinary. It runs to more than 300 pages and includes some spectacular restrictions, including powers to rearrange or cancel elections.

We’ll beat this virus, but these measures must be a last resort in that battle and these powers must be removed as soon as possible. We cannot and must not sacrifice all of our hard-won rights and freedoms.

Prof Chris Whitty, England’s chief medical officer, is self-isolating for the next seven days after experiencing symptoms of coronavirus last night.

27 Mar 202012.16 EDT

Alex Hern

Usage of BT’s broadband network dropped by 10-15% in the minutes before and after 8pm last night, while BBC iPlayer traffic fell by almost 30% in the same period, as the nation stopped what it was doing to clap and cheer its support for the NHS and care workers, according to figures seen by the Guardian.

At the same time, traffic on BT’s mobile network rose by about the same amount, reflecting a spike in the number of people streaming and videoing their neighbourhoods breaking into applause.

The same pattern was seen across multiple providers, including Virgin Media which also saw a sharp fall in downstream traffic at 8pm, soon followed by a sharp rise in upload traffic when people shared videos with friends and family on social media – leading to an all-time record amount of upload traffic on the Virgin Media network.

The Duchess of Cornwall has issued a message to those at greater risk of domestic abuse due to the current lockdown.

In a statement shared by Clarence House on Twitter, Camilla said:

Even if you cannot leave your home, you can call the national domestic abuse helpline or contact one of the domestic violence charities. Please stay safe and get help.

She said those in immediate danger should call 999 and others could call on a range of charities and other resources to stay safe, including Safe Lives, Refuge and Women’s Aid.

Concerns have been raised that more than 150 companies in Greater Manchester have flouted social distancing rules in the past two days.

The Mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham, said he received about 300 complaints after he invited members of the public and employees to contact him confidentially if they felt a business was not following Public Health England guidelines.

He is calling on the Government to tighten safety guidelines further and issue a clear ruling to end all non-essential work, in an effort to protect key workers and reinforce its Stay At Home message.

In a Guardian exclusive, Harry Davies reveals that the Department of Health dismissed calls for providing NHS staff with certain protective gear – now needed for the coronavirus pandemic – in 2017 because stockpiling it was too expensive.

Documents show that officials working under former health secretary Jeremy Hunt told medical advisers three years ago to “reconsider” a formal recommendation that eye protection should be provided to all healthcare professionals who have close contact with pandemic influenza patients.

The expert advice was watered down after an “economic assessment” found a medical recommendation about providing visors or safety glasses to all hospital, ambulance and social care staff who have close contact with pandemic influenza patients would “substantially increase” the costs of stockpiling.

The documents may help explain a devastating shortage of protective gear in the NHS that is hampering efforts by medical staff to manage the Covid-19 virus pandemic.

Read the full story here.

This is from HuffPost UK’s Paul Waugh