good morning I'm sorry I've been away
from my desk for much longer than I
would have liked and I want to thank
everybody who has stepped up in
particular the Secretary of State
Dominick Rob who's done a terrific job
but once again I want to thank you the
people of this country for the sheer
grit and guts
you've shown and are continuing to show
every day I know that this virus brings
new sadness and mourning to households
across the land and it is still true
that this is the biggest single
challenge this country has faced since
the war and I in no way minimize the
continuing problems we face and yet it
is also true that we are making progress
with fewer hospital admissions fewer
kovat patients in ICU and real signs now
that we are passing through the peak and
thanks to your forbearance your good
sense your altruism your spirit of
community thanks to our collective
national resolve we are on the brink of
achieving that first clear mission to
prevent our national health service from
being overwhelmed in a way that
tragically we have seen elsewhere and
that is how and why we are now beginning
to turn the tide if this virus were a
physical assailant an unexpected and
invisible mugger which I can tell you
from personal experience it is then this
is the moment when we have begun
together to wrestle it to the floor and
so it follows that this is the moment of
opportunity this is the moment when we
can press home our advantage
it is also the moment of
maximum risk because I know there will
be many people looking now at our
apparent success and beginning to wonder
whether now is the time to go easy on
those social distancing measures and I
know how hard and how stressful it has
been to give up even temporarily those
ancient and basic freedoms not seeing
friends not seeing loved ones working
from home managing the kids worrying
about your job and your firm so let me
say directly also to British business to
the shopkeepers to the entrepreneurs to
the hospitality sector to everyone on
whom our economy depends I understand
your impatience I share your anxiety and
I know that without our private sector
without the drive and commitment of the
wealth creators of this country there
will be no economy to speak of there
will be no cash to pay for our public
services no way of funding our NHS and
yes I can see the long-term consequences
of Locke done as clearly as anyone and
so yes I entirely share your urgency
it's the government's urgency and yet we
must also recognize the risk of a second
spike the risk of losing control of that
virus and letting the reproduction rate
go back over one because that would mean
not only a new wave of death and disease
but also an economic disaster and we
would be forced once again to slam on
the brakes across the whole country and
the whole economy
and reimpose restrictions in such a way
as to do more and lasting damage and so
I know it is tough and I want to get
this economy moving as fast as I can but
I refuse to throw away all the effort
and the sacrifice of the British people
and to risk a second major outbreak and
huge loss of life and the overwhelming
of the NHS and I ask you to contain your
impatience because I believe we are
coming now to the end of the first phase
of this conflict and in spite of all the
suffering we have so nearly succeeded we
defied so many predictions we did not
run out of ventilators or ICU beds we
did not allow our NHS to collapse and on
the contrary we have so far collectively
shielded our NHS so that our incredible
doctors and nurses and healthcare staff
have been able to shield all of us from
an outbreak that would have been far
worse and we collectively flattened the
peak and so when we're sure that this
first phase is over and that we're
meeting our five tests deaths falling
NHS protected rate of infection down
rarely sorting out the challenges of
testing and PPE avoiding a second peak
then that will be the time to move on to
the second phase in which we continue to
suppress the disease and keep the
reproduction rate the our rate down but
begin gradually to refine the economic
and social restrictions and one by one
too far up the engines of this vast UK
economy and in that process difficult
judgments will be made and we simply
cannot spell out now how fast or slow or
even when those changes will be made
though clearly the government will be
saying much more about this in the
coming days and I want to serve notice
now that these decisions will be taken
with the maximum possible transparency
and I want to share all our working and
our thinking my thinking with you the
British people and of course we will be
relying as ever on the science to inform
us as we have from the beginning but we
will also be reaching out to build the
biggest possible consensus across
business across industry across all
parts of our United Kingdom across party
lines bringing in opposition parties as
far as we possibly can because I think
that's no less than what the British
people would expect and I can tell you
now that preparations are underway and
have been for weeks to allow us to win
phase two of this fight as I believe we
are now on track to prevail in phase one
and so I say to you finally if you can
keep going in the way that you have kept
going so far if you can help protect our
NHS to save lives and if we as a country
can show the same spirit of optimism and
energy shown by captain Tom Moore who
turns a hundred this week if we can
share the same spirit of unity and
determination as we've all shown in the
past six weeks then I have absolutely no
doubt that we will beat it together we
will come through this all the faster
and the United Kingdom will emerge
stronger than ever before thank you all
very much
[Music]
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