good afternoon and welcome back to
Downing Street for today's coronavirus
press briefing I'm joined by our deputy
medical deputy chief medical officer
professor Jonathan van tam and by the
chief nurse Ruth May our plan is to save
as many lives as possible by protecting
the NHS and preventing it from being
overwhelmed and we're doing this in two
ways one by slowing the spread of the
virus and that's why it is so important
that people stay at home and that's true
for everyone who's watching how
important it is that we stay at home and
to by boosting the capacity of the NHS
to care for those who fall sick
that means more beds more staff more
life-saving equipment and more effective
treatments and we'll come on to that
coronavirus continues it's grim March I
could report that through the
government's ongoing monitoring and
testing program according to the latest
figures as of this morning a total of
170 3784 people have been tested of whom
38,000 168 have tested positive 3605
people have sadly died and we're
reminded again today that for the NHS
this truly is the frontline in the last
24 hours
two nurses and two healthcare assistants
have tragically died fighting
coronavirus every life lost to this
dreadful disease makes me more
determined than ever to push for victory
and today I want to update you with the
latest on what we're doing to boost NHS
capacity so the capacity we have to care
is always above the need for that care
first we're delivering more critical
care
this morning I attended the opening of
the new Nightingale Hospital in East
London and with Ruth and many others it
was planned constructed and fully
staffed in just nine days and that is an
outstanding achievement and I pay
tribute to Ruth and all who've been
involved in its construction it shows
what's possible when we come together as
one team in one national effort I pay
tribute to the extraordinary work of
everyone the NHS the military the
construction industry who both donated
supplies and of course their expertise
the engineers the electricians the
plumbers the caterers and others all
playing their part to build a place of
hope and a place of healing it was
really inspiring to go and see the sheer
scale of it and the teamwork going on
there and lastly I want to thank you I
want to thank everyone who is at home
because you are giving the NHS the time
to expand so that it can save lives by
staying at home you are saving lives we
have more Nightingale hospitals planned
and on the way in Birmingham and
Manchester and Glasgow and today we've
announced that we will begin the work on
to further nightingale hospitals in
Bristol and Harrogate the Bristol
Nightingale will have a capacity of up
to a thousand beds and in Harrogate a
capacity of up to 500 the Nightingale
hospitals are not only are not the only
expansion we've seen across the NHS it's
the start of this crisis we've boosted
the number of critical care beds to care
for coronavirus by over 2,500 that's
before the addition will get from the
Nightingale hospitals and the result of
this extraordinary work is that in every
hospital in the country we have managed
to expand capacity
and as we stand today over 2,000
critical care beds are free and
available and they're ready should they
be needed and that's before the
nightingale hospitals come on stream and
of course we're working round the clock
to deliver essential deliveries of PPE
across the whole NHS across social care
key public services and in all four
nations of the UK yesterday more than
twenty six million PPE products were
delivered to two hundred and eighty-one
different organizations and I've agreed
with the Northern Ireland Executive that
we will immediately be providing more
PPE to Northern Ireland to meet their
needs
over five million items including
goggles and aprons and masks over 7,000
NHS staff have now been tested and next
alongside testing
we're intensively researching drugs and
treatments right since the start of this
crisis we've been clear that all our
plans are based on the best possible
science and that science gets better
every day but there's still a lot that
we don't know about how to treat and
potentially prevent covered 19 so
research about treatments is absolutely
central to our plan the UK of course has
a long tradition that we're very proud
of of being the best in the world in
this sort of science and we are a world
leader in clinical trials and we're
putting this to use right now bringing
together some of the finest research
minds in the country to design new
trials and we're delivering them at
record pace as well we've established
three national clinical trials covering
each major stage of the disease primary
care hospital care and critical critical
care for the most seriously ill and just
like the nightingale one of these
trousers in fact put together in just
nine days which is breathtaking speed
these trials are looking at the effect
of existing drugs and steroids
repurposed for treatment of kovat 19 one
of the trials which is called recovery
which deals in hospital
is the largest of its kind in the world
with 926 patients enrolled we've also
set up an expert therapeutics task force
to search for and shortlist other
candidate medicines for trials and I'm
advised on that work by my brilliant
colleague Jonathan van Tam the deputy
chief medical officer who is one of the
finest research scientists of his
generation and Jonathan will say a bit
more about this in a few minutes
we need more patients to volunteer to be
part of these trials because the bigger
the trials the better the data and the
faster we can roll out the treatments if
and only if it's proven to work these
treatments will help us as the science
develops but for now the only way to
protect yourself and your family from
this disease is to stay at home and of
course while this is a national effort
to find these treatments it's also an
international effort in the same way
that we've donated more money to the
global search for a vaccine than any
other country so - we will lead the
world in the science of these treatments
and whatever we learn we will share
because we are all on the same side in
this war earlier today I spoke to my
counterparts in the g7 to coordinate our
research efforts over this and other
things and whether it's treatments or
equipment or NHS capacity we will strain
every sinew we will move whatever
mountains need to be moved
we need everyone to keep playing their
part and that includes you the only way
to protect yourselves and others now is
to stay at home and the one final thing
I want to say is this we're set for a
warm weekend in some parts of the
country but the disease is still
spreading and we absolutely cannot
afford to relax the social distancing
measures that we have in place we cannot
relax our discipline now
if we do people will die so I end with
the advice that we all know this advice
is not a request it is an instruction
stay at home protect lives and then you
will be doing your part I'm now going to
hand over to Ruth may the chief nurse to
say a little bit about the nightingale
hospital and then to Jonathan van Town
to talk about the treatments and data
that we've got really Thank You
Secretary of State before I talk about
the nightingale Hospital in London I
want to recognize that today we have had
the very sad news of the loss of two of
my colleagues we have lost today amy
awoke and aneema Nasreen two registered
nurses working to protect our public and
they sadly have died my sincere
condolences to their families their
friends and their colleagues because
they were one of us they were one of my
profession of the NHS family I worry
that there's going to be more and I want
to honor them today and recognize their
service so as the secretary of state
said we were with the ball and His Royal
Highness the Prince of Wales he was
joining via video cameras we he opened
the first NHS Nightingale Hospital in
London it was an extraordinary feat
people have worked so hard from all
sorts of ways of works of life all sorts
of backgrounds and they've come together
as one team to build an NHS hospital an
enormous piece of work of absolute huge
as the secretary of state has said where
he's announced to further facilities in
Harrogate for the people of the
Northeast in
still for the people of the southwest
and of course that's longside Birmingham
and Manchester so thank you to all of
our NHS staff all of our staff across
into social care whether that's nurses
midwives doctors all of them pulling
together to make sure that we continue
to prepare for kovat nineteen surge I'm
grateful for all of our frontline staff
and all of our support staff who are
caring as a team for our sick patients
but I'm very grateful to you the British
public for your patience and in helping
our NHS as a secretary state said this
weekend is going to be very warm and it
is very tempting to go out and enjoy
those summer rays but please I ask you
to remember Amy and ARIMA please stay at
home for them Thank You Ruth and
Jonathan van Tom if you could bring us
up to speed on the treatments and on the
the latest data that we have Thank You
Secretary of State I'll begin with the
data and the first slide I want to show
you is a survey which shows the
behavioural change as of 29th of March
in relation to the social distancing
advice that the government is given as
you can see on the slide if you begin on
the left there is a small increase in
mobility within residential settings
this actually is good because it shows
people are staying at home if you then
contrast that with the bars further to
the right which move progressively
through grocery and pharmacy through
public parks through workplaces through
transit stations and finally to retail
and recreation you can see progressively
larger declines in mobility across the
UK this is really very encouraging
indeed and shows that the British public
are following the advice that was given
to them but it needs to continue next
slide please
if you then move on and we look at the
change in transport use between the 5th
of March and just a few days ago you can
see dramatic declines across the piece
in total Motor Vehicles and in use of
national rail buses and tubes in London
this again is very encouraging next
slide please
however as we have always said we do not
expect these changes to turn the curve
on this awful disease immediately it
will take time and as you can see this
slide shows the number of UK cases by
day and you can see the numbers are
increasing this remains a dangerous time
it remains vitally important that people
continue to stay at home and practice
the social distancing that we've asked
of them even this weekend as the weather
turns warmer next slide please
you will see a similar picture for
hospital admissions that they are
increasing and again this reinforces the
advice we give the final slide please
shows the comparison of the UK in
relation to various other countries and
the the index is set at the first day at
each country when 50 deaths were
reported and you can see from this slide
that it is a global battle and that the
UK is in the same situation in terms of
the curve and the shape of the curve as
many many other countries around the
world this is a serious battle we need
to keep fighting it I'd now like to talk
about clinical trials if you could take
the slide down thank you
the first thing I want to say is that
this is a new disease where at the
moment we do not have any proven
treatments
the UK is absolutely determined however
to find effective treatments for this
virus disease weeks ago we began to look
at clinical trials we may not have
publicized it at that point but a lot of
work has been going on for weeks behind
the scenes clinical trials are a gold
standard way to discover if a treatment
works or not but saying whether it works
or not is rather too simplistic the
treatment has to be effective it also
has to be safe and we also have to
understand the right dosage to use the
right patience to give the treatment to
and the right time in the illness to
give that treatment this is complicated
stuff and the only way to unpick the
signal and make sure we get it right is
through clinical trials and as my
colleague the Secretary of State has
said there are three trials already up
and running in the UK that target
different places in the patient pathway
from primary care through to critical
care and the recruitment rate has been
absolutely astonishing particularly in
the recovery trial where we are at 926
patients some three weeks after the
trial began it's astonishing it really
is a fantastic tribute to the fact that
the NHS is getting on with delivering
care but at the same time is committed
to finding the right effective
treatments now again as Secretary of
State has said our initial focus has
been on what we call repurposed
medicines medicines that all are already
licensed for some other use or
indication an example would be
hydroxychloroquine which is a malaria
drug another example in our clinical
trials would be a combination of the
pinna vera and ritonavir which is
an HIV treatment so we are going for the
four ground targets in the first
instance where we already have a drug
that is licensed but we're just not
stopping there we are determined in the
next round of clinical trials to move on
to new medicines ones that are in what
we call phase two or phase three
development now possibly for something
else but which might have a role to play
and we're going to explore all of those
technologies and to do this we are going
to need this therapeutics task force
that we have set up to keep an oversight
and to coordinate this now I know but
there'll be a question about when are we
going to get some results from these
clinical trials and my straight answer
to you is I don't know I think it's
going to be a few months but it will all
depend upon how quickly patients are
recruited into the trials across the NHS
the faster we go in getting bigger
numbers in the trials that clearer and
more emphatic and more granular signals
we will get about what works and who it
works for thank you thank you very much
so if we now go to questions the first
question is going to be from hugh pin of
the of the BBC thank you very much it's
a question actually for Jonathan van Tom
if I may when do you expect the peak of
the epidemic to be and at that point
will the NHS have enough ventilators to
give those who need critical care that
care at a time when some patients might
fear they won't be able to get it thank
you for the two questions the first one
is about when we will turn this curve
round when we're going to peak and when
we're going to come down we don't know
the answer to that yet we have always
said that we will know if our social
distancing measures are working a few
weeks after we have put them in place
and by my quick calculation we're at
kind of 10 or 11 days at the moment so
it's too soon to say
it will partly depend upon how well
those social distancing measures are
adhered to by every one of us but I hope
it will be soon we are going to watch
very carefully to see when we've hit the
peak and when we're starting to turn it
but we will not take any premature
actions we're going to stick with the
science and see where it takes us your
second question is kind of related and
about how tall the peak will be and
whether there will be enough ventilatory
capacity across the NHS I can tell you
that I don't think we're anywhere close
to that kind of scenario at the moment
we will watch it extremely closely and
we will make decisions as we need to on
a day-by-day basis but I repeat we are
not anywhere close to the scenario you
described at the moment thanks very much
if we go to Robert Peston of ITV hi
Robert afternoon gentlemen
firstly on the clinical trials John van
Tom said the success depends to a
certain extent on the numbers enrolled
in those trials was that actually a call
to individuals with symptoms to enroll
in those trials are you looking for
volunteers and secondly very recently
Patrick balance told me he'll set
committee
select committee that on the basis of
the lag between infections and deaths he
thought there were probably a thousand
people in the community with this virus
for every death does that mean we think
that we're not far off four million
people infected or have you got a new
rule of thumb now that we're slightly
further on and then finally um secretary
state you're well aware because of
ministers and people you know the the
range of symptoms you can get with this
is very broad indeed so for example
there's a lot of evidence that losing
sense of smell and taste is a symptom
are you looking at changing the
guidelines to people from for when they
quarantine because at the moment you're
saying you know
if it's a high fever and a cough but you
got to add to the list of symptoms where
people should self isolate well thank
you if I just if I answer the some of
that and then I'll cast over to jvt on
the last one which you addressed
directly to me Robert it's complimentary
of you to ask me a scientific medical
question but I am going to resist the
temptation to answer it because we've
got a proper medical scientist in the
room and we are following the science
and for me personally I did lose my
sense of taste
and that actually is it's come back
though I can't I can assure people who
have lost their sense of taste that the
good news is that that in my case wasn't
permanent and I just on the first point
about the clinical trials the answer is
that we are looking for people to sign
up to the clinical trials where that's
possible within that hospital and where
that is clinically advised this is the
the call really is to the to the NHS who
are the ones who would make
recommendations that somebody would be
on a clinical trial
Jovie seed you want to add to those two
questions and also answer Robert's
middle question on the year thank you
very much I will answer those questions
on the point about loss of taste and
smell and Nas Mia
we have actually asked our expert
Advisory Committee nerve tag to look at
this and there are some anecdotal data
that are out in the published domain
that suggest that a proportion of people
do indeed lose their sense of taste and
smell however we have looked at the data
that there are in relation to whether
that on its own is a symptom that would
be important to add to the case
definition and the answer to that from
our experts is absolutely not that yes
this is true or as far as we can tell on
limited data it appears to be true but
it doesn't contribute anything on its
own to the overall affinity of the
diagnosis on the second point about
volunteers for clinical trials people
will have read in the newspapers
sometimes when a new drug is being tried
that there's an advert and you ring up
and you volunteer for the clinical trial
this is very a very different scenario
here these are about patients who are
undergoing treatment at some stage for
kovat 19 first of all we need the
physicians in charge of their care to
sign up for the clinical trial and then
it is up to their physicians to approach
the patient and ask them if they would
like to take part and it's a process of
very careful written informed consent
for that to happen but the straight
answer is yes we do need people to take
part in the clinical trials and they are
doing for the recovery trial yesterdays
figure reported to me was a little over
700 patients into the trial today I'm
walking on my way to 10 Downing Street
and the number comes through of 926 this
is really fantastic work by both
clinicians and by patients and on your
final point about are there more people
out there than we are counting through
the case numbers our testing is based
primarily at the moment in hospitals
where it is needed most and there will
be further cases out there people who
are isolating in accordance with the
guidelines who have kovat 19 who we have
not counted in the official statistics
how large that is I wouldn't like to
speculate any follow-ups to that I just
well it was simply that practice did use
a ratio of one to a thousand I just I
mean it was a rule of thumb that he
thought was useful do you have a rule of
thumb any at the moment or you know you
personally think that's not terribly
helpful no it's not that I don't think
it's terribly helpful that's the
official advice we've had through the
scientific advisory group
for emergencies but obviously there's a
lot of imprecision associated with those
kind of estimates and I think it's
probably unhelpful at this point to try
and nail it down as it were I think that
the another way to add to that is that
pillar four of the testing strategy is
is having survey tests to try to find
the answer to that question as as
scientifically as possible and there's a
huge amount of work underway under
pillar four if we go to Sam Coates from
Sky please thank you to Matt Hancock
earlier today you seem to indicate that
you did think that Easter Sunday April
the 12th would be the projected peak for
coronavirus deaths but Jonathan van tan
doesn't seem to quite endorse that when
speaking just now what why is that
what's what's going on there and
secondly to all of you there are people
some elderly some disables being told by
GPS today that they fit into the
category of do-not-resuscitate that they
won't be taken to hospital that they
won't be treated what do you say to them
to their families should they fight
those meant that those do not
resuscitate messages and notices or
should they just accept what they're
told
thank you the on the first one of those
the the truth is that we don't know I
think you've over interpreted my comment
I was asked about these a suggestion
earlier and I said that I I answered the
same which is that we don't know and
actually there's a reason we don't know
and that's because it depends on how
people act and this is why the absolute
central message the most important
message that anybody can take away from
this press conference or the entirety of
the government's messaging and the how
we feel is that you've got to stay at
home and I know we repeat this but it is
really important because the more people
stay at home the faster that we will get
through this on the question of of DNR's
I hand over to to Ruth
so collisions my clinical colleagues
have these discussions all of the time
with patients and their families
thinking about their wishes thinking
about what their care being planned and
that's right improper Cove in nineteen
is no excuse to have those discussions
and it's in an insensitive way but as
these discussions need to happen all of
the time with with families and they're
with patients themselves but there's
nothing it's needs to be done
sensitively and it's not coab in 1902 be
used as an excuse to do that it's quite
separately
thanks very much if we go to Liz Bates
of channel 4
Kyler's hugely raised expectations and
when you said that 3.5 million antibody
tests had been ordered and would be
widely available now you're saying they
don't work and are these tests ever
going to materialize and secondly if I
may countries which have carried out
more tests than the UK have had fewer
deaths per million has the decision to
carry out fewer tests in places like
Germany and South Korea cost lives here
Thanks I could take both those questions
and we we have provisionally ordered 17
and a half million not three and a half
million antibody tests but as I've been
absolutely clear all along we will only
use them and if they work and in fact
I've on the g7 call earlier it's clear
that no g7 country has yet found a home
antibody test which is pillar 3 of the
testing strategy that works but we
continue to search for one again this is
an area where the science is constantly
developing and there's a huge amount of
global effort going into finding one of
these tests that does work but I've also
been clear that we've we put in the
orders in place so that should they work
then we can get them here in the UK and
on the on the second point and can you
remind me of the the second question
and that we haven't tested about not
about the numbers testing yeah the the
the truth is we've had a clear ramp up
in testing as part of the strategy from
the start we had just under 2,000 tests
a day a month ago I set the goal of the
reaching 10,000 a day and we have
reached that and we hit that on target
at the end of March and now we've got
the clear goal of a hundred thousand
tests a day by the end of April and
there are there are countries that have
tested more than us like Germany as you
mentioned but there's others like like
France that haven't tested as much as
the the the question of the correlations
is a very complicated one with lots of
factors in it I don't know if you want
to have anything Jovi - yes I would have
just something sector state on the the
quality of tests it's absolutely vitally
important and any tests in medicine any
test is never a hundred percent accurate
that is a truism and the wrong antibody
tests that isn't accurate is going to
say to some people you have antibodies
when you don't it is also going to say
to another selection of the population
you are not immune when you are and so
it's really important that these are
rigorously evaluated so that the
tolerances on those error rates are very
low indeed and we have to get that right
before we can even think about how we
can use these antibody tests in the most
advantageous and informative way for
everyone thanks very much Andy Bell at
channel 5 thank you very much a quick
follow-up to you mr. Hancock to Liz's
question have we spent any money on
those 17 million tests we've ordered and
then a question for professor van Tam
twice this week one of your colleagues
Steven Paris from NHS England has talked
about
green shoots is that the way you would
characterize what you're seeing at the
moment in the data well on the first
question of course the we the samples
that we've got in we've needed to pay
for those samples because they're being
tested but what matters here really you
know is the is these tests if we can get
them if they're accurate if they can
work if we've got the confidence in them
that we can use them then the positive
impact that will have on people knowing
with confidence that they can get back
to normal life more quickly will vastly
outweigh any any cost
so of course cost is a consideration but
frankly getting a test that works is is
worth is worth more than just more than
just money at JBG thank you on the green
shoots the answer to your question is
where you look for them I absolutely see
green shoots I really do in terms of the
massive change in public behavior that's
already taken place if that continues
for as long as the government asks for
it to continue then they really will be
quite big green shoots in the end
however if you're asking me about the
health care hospital admission data then
I think it is too early to make any kind
of interpretation such as that there
will be day to day variations in the
number of hospital admissions that occur
as a feature of near random chance
and so one mustn't interpret the data
one needs to be patient and look for a
long-term trend thanks very much
we're going to go to Martin Brown of the
Express hi Martin hi there thank you I'm
Michael can I ask what measures that
help is being given to the mental
well-being of thousands of patients who
are in hospital on their own many of
whom is sadly dying without their loved
ones but by their side and the saying go
pregnant women as well women giving
birth what help is being given to their
mental well-being and for the medical
experts can I just ask is there any
benefit in wearing a face map the public
wearing face masks when they go outside
countries such as Japan South Korea
Singapore where the use of those masks
is more prevalent in the public they
seem to have lower levels of infections
and Beth thanks Martin I really worry
about the impact of coronavirus on the
mental health of those who are badly
affected and I really feel for those who
have seen their loved ones die and not
been able to be with them at the end and
I think this is a it's a really
difficult issue that we have to make
sure that we we support people with
compassion and understanding for what
they're going through we have put 5
million pounds in to support mind to
help people with the impact of
coronavirus on their mental health but
this is going to be I think an issue of
increasing importance as there as the
crisis goes on I'm going to ask Ruth to
say something about that and also about
the maternity question and then if jvt
art says the second question really
thank you very much I was only on a
phone call this morning to Sebastian
who's a doctor a medical colleague of
mine and he had lost his father from
covert 19 and hearing his story about
the extraordinary lengths that the
nurses the matron on that nightshift had
gone to to make sure that they were to
able to connect a conversation with his
brother in Singapore to be able to
connect make sure the battery was fully
charged for his dad to be able to have
numerous phone calls I am seeing across
the United Kingdom nurses midwives the
whole of our clinical teams going to
extraordinary lengths to make sure we
absolutely do that and whilst we know
that visiting has been reduced to the
absolute
limit it is also we are saying that
visitors are able to go of course for
people with end-of-life care but
technology is really important but the
looking the well-being of our patients
is really important but also well-being
of our staff we need to make sure that
we're setting out measures to look after
our staff as well I didn't get quite the
maternity questions secretary of states
so would you mind repeating that one
really and what what some help is being
given to women who well are they
fortunate enough to work queers
professor Jackie donkey bent our chief
murder free officer who provides
enormous fantastic military leadership
across England what she's been telling
me is that midwives yet again are doing
exactly they're saying they're going to
extraordinary lengths to make sure
they're using technology using zoom
using all of the technology to make sure
people are connected there's been plenty
of people that are doing just that to
make sure that families can get together
when they can safely to connect with
their new their new members of their
families
thanks for the second question - yeah
I'll just begin on the first actually
them to say you know I realize this is
an awful and distressing illness and I'm
very distressed personally when I hear
these stories of families separated when
I hear everything that's going on in
that space it's it's really terrible but
- your evidence point about face masks
and wearing a face masks by the general
public this has been a controversial
area in pandemic preparedness and
planning for fit the 15 years that I've
been involved in it and indeed I was on
the phone this morning to a colleague in
Hong Kong who's a professor there who's
done the evidence review for the World
Health Organization on face masks and
we're of the same mind that there is no
evidence that general wearing of face
masks by the public who are
well affects the spread of the disease
in our society what matters right now of
course is social distancing and yes it
is true that we do see very large
amounts of mask-wearing particularly in
Southeast Asia but we have always seen
that for many decades and it is entirely
wired into some cultures that masks are
worn quite frequently in in in open
spaces so it's very different but in
terms of the hard evidence and what the
UK government recommends we do not
recommend face masks for general wearing
by the public thanks very much I hope
that answers the question Martin pretty
clear Dan Martin from the mail mr.
Hancock you said that if people don't
obey the rules you would consider
toughening the lockdown that's in place
at the moment in France des stationing
police and railway stations and
installing were to air checkpoints to
check where people are going is that the
sort of thing we might see happening
here and to the scientists the Institute
of biomedical science has come out today
to say that the April target is
practically impossible if they don't
have the equipment and chemicals they
need are you concerned about that
thank you very much the we rule nothing
out in terms of further social
distancing if that is needed or further
enforcement of social distancing however
the British public are in the very large
part following the new rules and the
police are policing them with the can
with the with their largely with their
normal consent based attitude and
approach and I pay tribute to the police
because bringing in a new set of rules
like this in short order does of course
provide a challenge to the police and I
think that they have risen to that to
that challenge on the second question of
the testing we're absolutely determined
to hit the new goal of a hundred
thousand tests a day under all five
pillars of the testing strategy that I
said
out yes that will involve some
challenges there's no doubt including
making sure we get hold of all of the
parts for instance and all of the
reagents and everybody you can see that
there are challenges around the world in
terms of increasing testing but we're
determined that we're going to get there
and this is going to have to be a
national effort in which not only my
team and the people at public health
England and across the NHS but the whole
life sciences industry is going to have
to play a part I've been really
delighted by the responses I set that
challenge down at this press conference
yesterday and four more people have come
forward saying that they can turn their
capabilities to increasing testing and
we're going to have to hit that target
jbt I don't know whether you want that
no secretary state I think you've
answered the question if you got any
follow-up down it's up okay that's fine
okay good stuff
Martin Baggett from the mirror hello I
good afternoon I'm sector state
yesterday's briefing when you promised a
hundred thousand daily tests by the end
of the month you seemed to acknowledge
only 25,000 of these were likely to be
the more urgently needed antigen test
which can tell if a patient currently
has the virus the prime minister
promised 25,000 daily antigen tests last
month and now delivering on this appears
to have been delayed until the end of
April given you acknowledged today that
we expect the peak to come in the next
fortnight and Germany is increasing its
antigen test from 70,000 a day do you
think this could come too little too
late and secondly could we have some
clarification on the National knockdown
guidance on the eve of what looks like
being a sunny weekend given many
families don't have access to a garden
can people spend time in green spaces
for example having a picnic for an hour
so long as they're in household groups
or is it just a case of jog or walk for
an hour and then go home thanks very
much Martin just on the first one I want
to be crystal clear that the gold that I
said yesterday was a hundred thousand
tests per day over all five pillars of
the testing strategy pillar one
which has brought us to 10,000 tests per
day that is set and we've always set to
get to 25,000 by the end of April
but pillar 2 which is bringing in the
private companies to also deliver that
is part of the goal as is pillar 3 which
is the antigen test to see whether
you've had the virus pillar 4 which is
the research and pillar 5 which is the
national effort to bring companies that
haven't hit the - been involved in
testing into this great challenge so the
we we in fact increased the goal from
the end of April for the end of April
from about 25,000 to 100,000 and then we
will go on to meet the target that the
prime minister has previously set out of
eventually 250,000 tests per day this is
all it was all as I set out yesterday
answering that specific question and on
the question about how what people
should do over the weekend it is
incredibly important that people follow
the guidelines and I know that it's
going to be sunny and it may be tempting
but it's staying at home that saves
lives and I think we should just be
absolutely crystal clear about that we
the guidelines have been set out in
terms of people going out for exercise
reasons either on their own or be with
people in their household people need to
stick to the guidelines and we're going
to stick with those guidelines thanks
very much Martin Jenn Williams from the
Manchester Evening News hi Jen I thank
you a couple of questions for the health
secretary from a and we're getting
reports here and there's been reports
elsewhere as well of care homes being
told that their residents may not be
admitted to hospital if they have
suspected coronavirus they've already
been cases where a significant number of
people in a single care home have died
including in Salford and it's not a
blanket policy across the system not to
have met care home residents into
hospital and secondly also on social
care they were they were growing
concerns as insufficient PPE interesting
with infection as a whole
chances now having to source their own
but are finding that their basic
escalating prices under there are fears
more broadly the Trisha Larry simply not
being prioritized national level so is
social care and afterthought illness and
just finally on PPE as a whole how many
units do we have in the national
stockpile and how many is the government
expected to need join the course okay
thank you very much indeed for those
three questions the first one on care
homes and it is absolutely not a blanket
rule that people shouldn't go to
hospital from care homes hospital is
there for people when they need it when
the when the doctors advise that they go
and we have 2029 spare critical care
beds in the NHS right now 2029 that is
that is before we bring on streem the
nightingale hospitals and that is
testament to the NHS you've done amazing
work
they've already expanded the number of
critical care beds by over by two and a
half thousand four kovat nineteen
patients and so there is capacity in the
hospital's right now to deal with kovat
nineteen and there is no blanket rule it
is a clinical judgment about when
somebody goes to hospital I don't know
if we might want to add something on
that and on the PPE question we have we
have millions of pieces of PPE in the
stockpile and I can make sure that we
get the exact figure to you I haven't
got it on me but the but we're also
replenishing it all the time because
whilst we have a very large stockpile
we're also using it and so we've got to
make sure that we replenish it and we're
replenishing it both from buying
internationally where much of it
traditionally has been made and also
making it domestically I'll give a
shout-out to Burberry who've turned over
their production to the production of
gowns for to add to the stockpile and to
get PPE to people
who need it which is a another part of
the national effort I think Burberry
deserve credit for what they've done so
far for the nation hopefully lots more
Burberry gowns to come brief I don't
know if your points thank you very much
Secretary of State so right the care
homes whoever my mother-in-law Milly
lives in a care home and that is her
home so clinicians from whatever
background will make a decision based on
the clinical need of that person as to
whether they need Hospital cares because
that's the important part with regard to
social care I know that out of the 6,000
nurses they're coming back on to our
emergency register some of those are
opting to go into social care and I'm
delighted to see that we're offering
people the option are coming into our
hospitals coming into our primary care
setting but also into social care and
I'm going to be Mowgli sure that we
continue to do that that over the next
few weeks to the question Jen you said
you'd come back on the numbers in terms
of how many you know how many you're
going to need well it depends how long
the pandemic class we're but at the
moment we are distributing many millions
of pieces every day in the last 24 hours
it was 26 million over the last couple
of weeks it's around 400 million so you
can see that we're getting through it
fast
and so we're replenishing it at the
other end as fast as we can the
challenge in PPE is a challenge of
distribution rather than a challenge of
having the having the stock I also
didn't answer your question about social
care with PPE because it's incredibly
important to me that we get the
protective equipment that we need to
people working in social care as well as
in the NHS and all parts of the NHS and
and the new PPE guidance that we set out
yesterday which has got very broad
support and that that probably that sets
out what sort of PPE is appropriate in
what sort of setting and we will deliver
that
PPE into social care I know that it's a
challenge not least because there's
around 26,000 social care settings
combination of care homes and
organizations that provide care in
people's homes and so it is more
complicated than delivering to the NHS
but the priority of getting the right
people to social care is exactly the
same as the priority of getting the
right
PPE to the NHS and that's what the
system with the support of the military
is doing thank you very much indeed
that's I think that's all we've got time
for today but no doubt there'll be more
to come in these daily press conferences
I'm very grateful to all of the
questions and I'm very grateful to both
Jonathan van Tam and Ruth Mei for
answering the questions with me thanks
very much indeed