project lockdown enters its first
weekend with news of a huge leap in the
numbers who've tested positive and died
miles of beaches in Brighton today
merely dotted with a very few solitary
walkers its pier is deserted the stay
home message is having an effect the
rise in the death toll will also have an
impact at the Daly Downing Street press
briefing the business secretary replaced
the infected Boris Johnson it can I be
absolute clear is that the Prime
Minister has had mild symptoms but he's
absolutely despond from the front the
government is totally united in ensuring
that we combat this virus and that we
bounce back the other side of it so I
want to be very clear about that is that
there are no gaps in government gaps or
not the NHS is preparing itself for
worse to come a fleet of ambulances are
to be stationed in the carpark of
London's Excel centre which is fast
becoming a new makeshift hospital and
mortuary in just over three weeks there
have been a thousand deaths forecast
suggests the next thousand will happen
not in weeks but in days restricting a
final total to 20,000 is a tall order if
we can keep that below 20,000 we will
have done very well in this epidemic we
can beat this virus we can reduce the
number of deaths but only if we reduce
the spread and the transmission now is
not the time to be complacent the new
laws the new restrictions police
reinforcements echoed the health chief's
warning this is not a national holiday
but a national emergency was the start
message from chief constables Richmond
Park in West London barred all traffic
and would only allow NHS workers and
under 12 to cycle through the park it's
a huge park I cycled around the other
day it's fairly busy but so long as
we're social distancing which obviously
on a bike we are it's a bit of a shame
for local residents so we're now going
to go inside
the towpath which i guess will be very
busy I don't think people are taking it
too seriously especially when we're just
walking out now we're just seeing so
many people just standing in crowds yeah
doesn't make much sense I think like
we're definitely more conscious on the
fact that like that you shouldn't be out
if that makes sense but nah I don't
think I'm necessarily like worried no
this is also the weekend coronavirus
testing of NHS staff has become the car
park of Chessington World of Adventures
in Surrey is no longer for
thrill-seekers but has become the first
drive-through testing centre for
frontline health workers but it's all
happening 57 days after the first case
of kovat 19 emerged in England well
joining me now is dr. Rosalind eggo an
infectious disease modeler from the
London School of Hygiene and Tropical
Medicine could we begin by just
explaining the figures that we've seen
today and why they are what you have
been expecting so the numbers of deaths
have unfortunately gone up today and
this is because there's quite a big time
lag from when somebody gets infected if
they unfortunately died probably around
three weeks so that means that the the
deaths that we're seeing now are from
people who were infected about three
weeks ago before these interventions
went into place and so what do you
expect to happen next how long do you
expect the number of deaths to keep
rising yeah so these interventions aim
to slow down transmission and from when
they start when that transmission starts
to come down and there start to be fewer
new cases then if we're looking on the
Adept
then we expect to see that in about
three weeks so it's quite a long time
and that's why we need to really make
sure that we're taking all the
precautions now and not let up just
because we don't see an effect straight
away it's going to take a bit of time to
see that happen is there any evidence
yet that you can point to this says this
is working I mean I'm just reading a
from a colleague professor professor
Sheila bird of the University of
Cambridge who was saying if we were
following precisely the same trajectory
as Italy we would have seen slightly
more deaths than we've seen today I'm
not sure specifically about that
comparison but we do know that
decreasing the number of contacts
between people should slow transmission
and because of these time delays so
about five days from getting infected to
showing symptoms and about a week from
showing symptoms to needing hospital
care if you need it then we'll be able
to see a difference a decrease in
transmission first in the hospital care
you know cases and then later in deaths
so there will be some indication sooner
than three weeks that things are working
and we need to keep an eye on those and
so is this as straightforward as saying
that had we started this kind of social
isolation a month ago we would have
avoided many of these deaths it's really
difficult to say but the key point now
is that we are doing these measures and
we've got to do them as well as we can
for as long as we're asked to and do you
think the measures are now going far
enough
looking at the modelling or could there
yet be more that we need to do I mean
obviously there are still reasonable
numbers of self-employed freelance and
construction workers who are still
moving around
hmm we'll have to wait and see and
incorporate the new data into our models
and really work out what effect this has
had so in our models we have something
called the reproduction number the
average number of secondary cases that
each person creates each infected case
creates and the goal of interventions is
to push that number down below one and
so we're going to need a bit of time to
work out if that number has been pushed
below one and if it has the epidemic
should start to shrink doctor thank you
very much indeed for joining us today
now the US government has approved the
largest bailout in US history in an
effort to combat the economic fallout of
the pandemic
the move comes as record numbers of
Americans apply for unemployment
benefits and two of the country's most
popular states New York and California
maintain a strict lockdown the United
States has already been confirmed to
have more coronavirus cases than any
other country far outstripping Italy and
China and today reported another 10,000
cases I should tell report the city that
never sleeps
seems like it's in slumber New York's
Times Square one of the most
recognizable places in America quiet and
deserted if you know it well it's very
hard to get your head around the United
States is now leading the world in
covert 19 cases and over a hundred
thousand an unenviable titles over 1500
people have died and millions of jobs
have already been lost and with those
stark numbers comes another sign the
single biggest economic relief package
in American history and I must say or
any other package by the way it's twice
as large as any relief ever signed it's
2.2 billion but it actually goes up to
6.2 potentially billion dollars trillion
dollars figures so large even Donald
Trump couldn't get them right and with
little social distancing around the Oval
Office desk the president was handing
out pens to everyone he seemed to be at
odds with his own house advisers
coronavirus in one video by a Democratic
campaign group they say it's not the
first time the president has given mixed
messages to this crisis when you have 15
people and within a couple of days it's
gonna be down to close to zero and
they're not the only ones public health
experts are also concerned the president
gets on national television and he and
he says one thing then his then the
National Institutes of Health gets up
right after him and says the opposite
and then the president and governors are
quarreling among each other and with the
President and Americans are confused
they're fearful and they're just
wondering you know who's in charge
but some governors aren't taking any
chances in New York State they've opened
eight new hospitals 3,000 miles away on
the west coast in California a hospital
ship has arrived to deal with the
thousands of cases coming their way for
an outbreak that President Trump once
viewed as a virus far far away kovat 19
is now very much on his doorstep with
the new plan he'll argue America's
gloves are now off and the fight has
begun however President Trump tries to
frame it though it looks set to get much
worse before it gets better