Good afternoon. The Coronavirus pandemic continues to grow. Very sadly overnight
87 more people have died, bringing the total to 422 and our hearts go out to
their families and their friends. Yesterday the Prime Minister announced
the most radical steps yet to slow the spread of this virus and these steps are
not requests. They are rules. You should stay at home except to shop for food for
medical reasons, for exercise or for work, including caring and volunteering in the
Coronavirus national effort. We understand how significant these steps
are. We ask for your forbearance but I think that the public knows that this is
important and they know how vital a task it is, that we get a grip on the spread
of this virus and slow it down. The more we follow the rules,
the sooner we will stop the spread and so, everybody has a responsibility to
follow those rules and where possible, to stay at home. I know how worried people
are and while this is a great time of turbulence, it is a moment that the
country can come together in that national effort. As the next step in that
effort, today we launch NHS volunteers. We're seeking a quarter of a million
volunteers. People in good health to help the NHS, for shopping and for delivery of
medicines and to support those who are shielded to protect their own health. The
NHS volunteer responders is a new scheme set up so that people can come and help
and to make sure that the NHS and the local services that are needed
get all the support that they can. I can also announce that the call we made at
the weekend for people to return to the NHS has been incredibly successful. So
far, so far 11788 people have answered that call. 2660 doctors, over two and a
half thousand other health professionals and pharmacists and 6147 nurses and I
pay tribute to each and every one of those who's returning to the NHS at its
hour of need. In addition from next week, 5500 final year medics and 18,700 final
year student nurses will move to the front line to make sure we have the
people we need in our NHS to respond to this crisis in total. That's over thirty
five thousand more staff coming to the NHS when the country needs the NHS most.
Finally I can announce today that we will next week
open a new hospital, a temporary hospital, the NHS Nightingale hospital at the
Excel Centre in London. The NHS Nightingale hospital will comprise two
wards, each of two thousand people with the help of the military and with NHS
clinicians, we will make sure that we have the capacity that we need so that
everyone can get the support they need but no matter how big we grow the NHS,
unless we slow the spread of this virus then, as we've seen those numbers will
continue to rise and that's why it's so important that everybody follows the
advice and stays at home. The final point I want to make is one of thanks
as Health Secretary and as a citizen and on behalf of the whole country, I want to
thank the staff of the NHS those who work in social care, all of you not just
the doctors and nurses who normally get mentioned but the pharmacists, the
paramedics, the managers and all staff across the board, you are the frontline.
In this war against this virus and we all pay tribute to you. You're going to
give your all over the next few weeks and I want you to know that we salute you
and I will strain every sinew to get you everything you need to keep you safe so
that you can do your job, keeping all of us safe. We're now going to go to
questions. The first question is from Laura Kuenssberg, BBC and
we've heard from many members of the public today, who are being told that
they should go to work by their boss, though they don't think their work is
essential, right now, at this moment and they don't feel they can stay safely two
metres apart from everyone else there. The message to many people has not been
that clear from the Government. Who are they meant to listen to, their boss or
the advice from the government? And can I ask that question to the medics in a
different way. If people feel they're not safe at work, what should they do should
they stay at home?
Well I'll give the first part of the answer and then yeah,
I'll hand over to Jenny as deputy chief medical officer to give the medical view,
the advice is crystal clear which is you should stay at home unless you have one
of the four reasons which is exercise shopping as little as you have to for
medical reasons or to go to work where that work can't be done at home and if
you're a key worker for instance if you work in the NHS and social care then you
should go to work because that work is vital in the effort to tackle
coronavirus Jenny and Thank You Lora I think the important
thing with all of these questions is to take us right back to the first
principles of why we have asked for these interventions it is to prevent
transmission of disease and the rule about the two meters is to ensure that
we are consciously keeping apart from each other so we do not inadvertently
pass on disease if we have it so I think when you're talking about work
environments exactly as the Secretary of State has said there are numerous
occupations where you do not need to be at work it's some of them we have to and
we recognize the support of our key workers as secretary stated in providing
that service but many don't don't need to be and I think we are encouraging our
employers to think really carefully about how they can innovate in the way
they star for working and if they do need to be in the office just to spread
people around I know for example for for a few of us who are having to be in
environment so actually there's an awful lot of space created so you can practice
safe distancing at work I think it's it's a common-sense principle and we all
need to apply it both employers and employees
and it'd be men sensible that people who want to stay at home can't and risk the
sack if they do defy their employers instructions and a question to the
deputy chief medical officer just a practical one imagine you've got a two
year old who is ill and both parents or the only parent sorry a two year old who
is healthy and both parents or an only parent gets ill what is meant to happen
to that child
essentially the questions - on which people want to hear the medical advice
I'll ask Jenny - to answer but we have been incredibly clear about the rules
and one of the reasons that we strengthened the rules yesterday and
essentially flipped the basis of the rules so it's not do whatever you like
so long as you don't do the following it is stay at home unless you've got a good
reason and we will also enforce against those rules but I'll ask Jenny to answer
the point on on people who are asked to go to work
of course if you're in a workplace that we have said will close and then we're
going to enforce against those against those closures as well Jenny so the same
principles apply I think obviously if people don't feel safe in their work
environment they should always raise those concerns and I think by far the
majority of employers are being really sensible and supportive and there's been
huge support for for staff and to the population in general but for some
environment so I'm the obvious one is our health care environment we are
ensuring that staff understand what the the risks of working are and and how
we're supporting them to do to do their work safely I think you raised an issue
particularly about specific advice we cannot individually cover every single
scenario whether it be in the workplace or whether it be in the family so again
it's back to applying the principles if individuals can work safety they can
keep a distance apart and they also think the other things
important to remember the fundamentals of our early campaign which is around
hand-washing maintaining that frequently so if there are facilities there to do
that they should be using them if they don't feel that safety then I think it's
reasonable to highlight that very firmly with their employer
you raised a particular issue about a young child and clearly all the way
through this we have been very careful to ensure that as individuals steps in
increasing steps are put in place to try and manage this outbreak that we manage
both the the impact on the disease itself but also recognizing that there
are other risks either in putting in interventions too quickly or not
thinking through some of the parameters about how we handle some of these issues
the obvious ones yesterday were around the elderly particular vulnerabilities
and a small child clearly is a vulnerable individual so in this case
although we are encouraging everybody to stay in their own households that's the
unit with the the same risk exposure clearly if you have adults who are
unable to look after a small child that is an exceptional circumstance and if
the individuals do not have access to care support formal care support or to
family they will be able to work through their local authority hubs okay next
question got Tom Newton done at the Sun thank you very much
sector so question to you and then once the deputy CMO if I can why are you so
adamant that non key workers must go to work as much as possible if they can't
work at home in the fields of manufacturing construction is it because
you share Donald Trump's concerns that the cure can be more dangerous than the
problem the sentiment expressed this morning and deputy CMO could you
possibly clear a lot of questions up coming from boyfriends and girlfriends
who aren't cohabiting are they allowed to meet in public places because you
haven't banned meetings of two people and when they do meet are they allowed
to be affectionate I allowed to meet each other's houses well I'll take the
first now definitely the second two to Jenny and the the
absence of the first is that the judgment that we have made is that in
work in many many instances the 2-meter rule can be applied in my workplace in
the House of Commons you can see it every day and where possible people
should work from home and employers have a duty to ensure that people are more
than two metres apart because as Jenny says it's about going back to the
principles of what we're trying to achieve which is to keep people apart so
that we slow the spread and the more people follow the rules
the faster we will all get through this thank you so I'm clearly going to start
a new career here in relationship counseling so I will tread very
carefully as I work through this answer and the principle is that we want people
to stay in their household units primarily the reason for that is because
if you have an infection you are very close with your family members so your
risk of exposure to the virus is pretty similar usually across a family we
almost expect another member of the family to get that unless they are
applying very very stringent precautions so if your two individuals two halves of
the couple are currently in separate households ideally they should stay in
those households the alternative might be that for quite a significant period
going forward that they should just test the strengths of their relationship and
decide whether one wishes to be permanently resident in another
household in which case all of the decisions about exercising if you are in
you should be on your own or with in your household unit would apply so again
the issue here is what we do not want is people switching in and out of
households it defeats the at the purpose of the reduction in social interactions
and will allow transmission of disease so perhaps tests test really carefully
your strengths of feeling stay with the household either together or apart but
keep it that way we go forward because otherwise we will
not all be working towards achieving our outcome there you go make your choice
and stick with it very good is anything you want to do out on that single
journey gave a perfect answer now if I go to pull war from the HuffPost
poor Secretary of State can you explain to NHS staff who had to travel on
crammed and overcrowded tube trains this morning just why private house building
and office building is deemed essential work
are you considering restricting construction work to just those projects
where health and safety is needed and not to be too cynical about it does the
fact that housing developers contributed more than a million pounds to the Tory
party general election campaign have anything to do with a different view
taken in England as opposed to Scotland were the first minister has said that
building site work should be restricted and stopped immediately and can I ask
the to the medics can ask professor Powis in the United States President
Trump has talked about using over-the-counter anti-malarial drugs to
beat coronavirus the UK has imposed an export ban on chloroquine last month was
that because we're looking at similar treatments here and what and what advice
have you got in terms of those trials being done here all the decisions that
we're taking Paul are taken in the national interest this is a largely
cross-party effort we're making judgments difficult and big judgments
every day about how best to tackle this virus and that is the only thing that
matters and how we minimize the overall number of deaths from the virus and get
the spread down so that we can so that we can get through this as fast as we
can and that's the only thing that we consider based on the science and the
medical advice of course and when it comes to the tube the first at the best
answer is that Transport for London should have the tube running in full so
that the people traveling on the tube are and are spaced out and can be
further apart obeying the 2-meter rule wherever possible and there is there's
no good reason in the information that I've seen that the current levels of
tube troop provision should be as low as they are we should have more tube trains
running when it comes to construction and there's there's many countries that
have made the same judgment that it's that you can construction can carry on
with people two meters apart from each other and of course people need to get
to work but the best way to do that is two
meters apart from others with more tube trains running when it comes to NHS
staff there's another reason why we need tube services up and running preferably
in full so that we can get NHS staff to their posts and doing the work that
they're doing and should I hand over Steve on the medical question estates so
thank you Paul so as you know this is a new virus and so we do not have a tried
and tested specific drug treatment that can act against the virus but there are
a number of drugs where there is a lot of interest that they may potentially
have an effect in the treatment of the virus and the ones that you mentioned
which are chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine those are drugs that
as you say have been used in malaria are on that list so there is a lot of
interest both internationally and also in the UK to learn how those drugs might
be used here in the UK we want to do as much as we possibly can within the
context of clinical trials we have excellent networks already set up to be
able to do clinical trials and it's important that we do that - absolutely
learn where the drugs potentially work and where they don't and I'm really
delighted that we have already recruited the first person in the UK into one of
those clinical trials so yes this is an area of intense interest we will of
course be working with our colleagues around the world as they look at these
drugs but in the UK we will also be looking at drugs such as this so that we
can see whether there is a specific treatment that we can use okay great
thank you for final question from from Heather
sure at the Guardian sex you say can I ask about testing yeah
millions of tests that are going to come in the days and weeks ahead is that the
advancing body test that you've talked about and if so how soon might those
availabe available and and can you use them to test the nature staff so that
they can go back to go back to work yeah if they've had the virus and can I just
ask the more overarching question and you talked about that sharp increase in
the death toll is it possible or even probable that some of those deaths might
have been avoided how do we implement it very stringent avoiding lockdown sooner
do you have any qualms about that at all thank you thank you have I answer and
then I'll also ask Jenny to go into more into more detail and I understand why
NHS staff in particular and others across public service are so keen to get
the testing ramped up that we need to see and the we're undertaking of course
it really matters for getting people back to work so we've now bought three
and a half million antibody tests that will allow people to see whether they
have had the virus and are immune to it and then can get back to work and you
might have seen in the in the Commons earlier I was sat next to Nadine Doris
because she now has had a corona virus and she can and she is for the time
being immune to it because we expect the people not to be able to catch it except
in very exceptional circumstances for a second time the so on testing we are
ramping up that will come those will come online very soon in fact our new
testing facility in Milton Keynes opens today and we therefore are on the ramp
up of the testing numbers and the the the other thing I want to mention in
that space is of course many many people across the NHS are asking for more
protective equipment personal protective equipment and I can tell you that over
the last 24 hours we have shipped seven a half million
pieces of protective equipment especially the masks the so called FFP
three masks which are very important to get out and with there's now a a hotline
so that if you are in there in the NHS or social care including and pharmacy if
you call the hotline if you don't have the PPE that you need then we will get
it to you that's literally a military effort to get these millions of pieces
of kit out to people if people are working on the frontline to look after
us it's vital that we look after them Jenny yes so it's just going to add a
little bit more on the the testing and I don't know if Stephen wants to as well
so the testing that secretary States described will also in due course give
us a real insight into the population demographics of testing so we will be
able to learn far more about how the disease has spread across the population
and that might be one of the tools that we have when we get towards the end of
the epidemic in the UK as well we'll be able to understand much more about how
it transmits and therefore be able to close it down more tightly the the other
testing of course is the sort of the here-and-now
testing and we're also working really hard to ramp that up because partly in
the NHS but separately as well and I think this goes back to the point about
nurses medics our care staff knowing when they do or do not have the illness
so that they can actually take their families or themselves out of isolation
safely and be on the frontline we're not there at the moment but we have that
very much coming through and a lot of activity on it and I think that's that's
really important on the point of the deaths I mean I think it's inevitable
any any death is a sad event and we would all want to prevent those I think
it's really difficult if we start as there is a tendency at the moment I
think to start comparing individual countries what the death rate has been
how many deaths there have been and what the impacts of various lockdowns have
been and I think the word lockdown as I've mentioned previously is very
difficult because in effect what we have done in the cont in this country is
systematically put in steps using the science looking at the data to
have the greatest impact at the right time and and that is the policy which we
are following now and obviously the interventions which are changing the way
people live their lives that went in yesterday are to continue to do that
it's not at all clear I think that in many of the countries where they have
applied different lockdown principles and obviously when we need to be really
clear what they are and when they were put in Italy has had a lockdown for some
time and very sadly the death rate there is is staggeringly high and so I think
we would have expected to some extent this this number of deaths we're looking
very much as we go forward if everybody does what we've asked them to do
yesterday which is stay at home whenever they can look after our elderly we are
very much hoping that our death rates will stay low and we will be able to
push the the epidemic forward and flatter
testing testing is hugely important in fighting coronavirus and as the
Secretary has said we have been ramping up we're working with all the different
manufacturers who are beginning to develop new tests and bring them to
market and as they ramp up we will ramp up it's absolutely right that our sick
patients in hospitals should be tested first but but after that we absolutely
need to be able to test our staff but for a number of reasons one so if
they're isolating at home or with their families and it turns out they don't
have coronavirus they can come back to work and secondly because if we know
they've had it either through the test that tells you you've had it immediately
or you've had it after a week or two the serology tests you talked about then
they will no coming back to work that they have immunity to the disease so we
are absolutely determined to ramp up testing and to make it available to
staff and finally I think I'd echo what Jenny said the NHS is pulling out all
the stops at present amazing staff doing amazing things and I think as you've
heard from the secretary of state the NHS Nightingale Hospital of the XL is
really an extraordinary extraordinary feat I mean from a
standing start a day or two ago a hospital will be built that will be able
to take its first patients at the start of next week that's a remarkable
achievement and our staff working with the military have been able to work on
so we're expanding capacity all the time because we can see the additional cases
coming towards the NHS but it's everybody's responsibility everybody's
responsibility as I said at the weekend to take the action that we've asked them
to take to follow the instructions because this is your chance to save
somebody else's life this is absolutely your chance by doing
what we've asked you to do to ensure that those deaths are as low as possible
and the NHS is put under as little stress as possible well thank you that
ends the first first press conference that we know of from Downing Street
thank you further questions thank you to all the IT people who made sure that the
kit worked and in a way it demonstrates that we can all be in different rooms we
could be more than two meters apart and we can we can we can still answer the
questions that people have got so thank you very much indeed
you