we go that is what we are expecting from
the British prime minister and as I say
we will be joined by all our viewers
around the world
and indeed on BBC one for this televised
address it is now almost two months
since the people of this country began
to put up with restrictions on their
freedom your freedom of a kind that we
have never seen before in peace or war
and you have shown the good sense to
support those rules overwhelmingly
you've put up with all the hardships of
that program of social distancing
because you understand that as things
that and as the experience of every
other country has shown it's the only
way to defeat the coronavirus the most
vicious threat this country has faced in
my lifetime and though the death toll
has been tragic and the suffering
immense and though we grieve for all
those we have lost it is a fact that by
adopting those measures we prevented
this country from being engulfed by what
could have been a catastrophe in which
the reasonable worst-case scenario was
half a million fatalities and it's
thanks to your effort and sacrifice in
stopping the spread of this disease that
the death rate is coming down and
hospital admissions are coming down and
thanks to you we've protected our NHS
and saved many thousands of lives and so
I know you know that it would be madness
now to throw away that achievement by
allowing a second spike we must stay
alert we must continue to control the
virus and save lives and yet we must
also recognize that this campaign
against the virus has come at colossal
cost to our way of life we can see it
all around us in these shuttered shops
and abandoned businesses and darkened
pubs and restaurants and there are
millions of people who are both fearful
of this terrible disease and at the same
time also fifth of what this long period
of enforced inactivity
will do to their livelihoods and their
mental and physical well-being to their
futures and the futures of their
children so I want to provide tonight
for you the shape of a plan to address
both fears both to beat the virus and
provide the first sketch of a roadmap
for reopening society a sense of the way
ahead and when and how and on what basis
we will take the decisions to proceed
I'll be sending out more details in
Parliament tomorrow and taking questions
from the public in the evening I've
consulted across the political spectrum
across all four nations of the UK and
though different parts of the country
are experiencing the pandemic at
different rates and though it's right to
be flexible in our response I believe
that as Prime Minister of the United
Kingdom Scotland England Wales Northern
Ireland there is a strong resolve to
defeat this together
and today a general consensus on what we
could do and I stress could because
although we have a plan it is a
conditional plan and since our priority
is to protect the public and save lives
we cannot move forward unless we satisfy
the five tests we must protect our NHS
we must see sustained falls in the death
rate we must see sustained and
considerable falls in the rate of
infection we must sort out our
challenges in get enough PPE to the
people who need it and yes
it's a global problem but we must fix it
and last we must make sure that any
measures we take do not force the
reproduction rate of the disease the are
back up over one so that we have the
kind of exponential growth we were
facing a few weeks
and to chart our progress and to avoid
going back to square one we're
establishing a new co vide alert system
run by a new joint biosecurity Center
and that co vid alert level will be
determined primarily by our and the
number of coronavirus cases and in turn
that kobe the alert level will tell us
how tough we have to be in our social
distancing measures the lower the level
the few of the measures the higher the
level the tougher and stricter we will
have to be there will be five alert
levels level one means the disease is no
longer present in the UK and level five
is the most critical the kind of
situation we could have had if the NHS
had been overwhelmed over the period of
the lockdown we've been in level four
and it's thanks to your sacrifice were
now in a position to begin to move in
steps to level three and as we go
everyone will have a role to play in
keeping the order by staying alert and
following the rules and to keep pushing
the number of infections done there are
two more things we must do we must
reverse rapidly the awful epidemics in
care homes and in the NHS and though the
numbers are coming down sharply now
there is plainly much more to be done
and if we're to control this virus then
we must have a world-beating system for
testing potential victims and for
tracing their contacts so that all told
we're testing literally hundreds of
thousands of people every day we've made
fast progress on testing but there is so
much more to do now and we can when this
began we hadn't seen this disease before
and we didn't fully understand its
effects with every day we're getting
more
more data we're shining the light of
science on this invisible killer and we
will pick it up where it strikes because
our new system will be able in time to
detect local flare-ups in your area as
well as giving us a national picture and
yet when I look at where we are tonight
we have the are below 1 between 0.5 and
point 9 but potentially only just below
1 and though we have made progress in
satisfying at least some of the
conditions I have given we have by no
means fulfilled all of them and so no
this is not the time simply to end the
lockdown this week instead we're taking
the first careful steps to modify our
measures and the first step is a change
of emphasis that we hope that people
will act on this week we said that you
should work from home if you can and
only go to work if you must
we now need to stress that anyone who
can't work from home for instance those
in construction or manufacturing should
be actively encouraged to go to work and
we want it to be safe for you to get to
work so you should avoid public
transport if at all possible because we
must and will maintain social distancing
and capacity will therefore be limited
so work from home if you can but you
should go to work if you can't work from
home and to ensure you're safe at work
we've been working to establish new
guidance for employers to make
workplaces couvade secure and when you
do go to work if possible do so by car
or even better by walking or bicycle but
just as with workplaces public transport
operators will also be following coded
secure standards and from this Wednesday
we want to encourage people to take more
and even
limited amounts of outdoor exercise you
can sit in the Sun in your local park
you can drive to other destinations you
can even play sports
only with members of your own hustle you
must obey the rules on social distancing
and to enforce those rules we will
increase the fines for the small
minority who break them and so every day
with ever-increasing data we will be
monitoring the our and the number of new
infections and the progress we are
making and if we as a nation begin to
fulfill the conditions I have set out
then in the next few weeks and months we
may be able to go further in step two of
the earliest by June the first after
half turn we believe we may be in a
position to begin the phased reopening
of shops and to get primary pupils back
into schools in stages beginning with
reception year one and year six our
ambition is that secondary pupils facing
exams next year will get at least some
time with their teachers before the
holidays more shortly be setting out
detailed guidance on how to make it work
in schools and shops and on transport
and step three are the earliest by July
and subject to all these conditions and
further scientific advice if and only if
the numbers supported we will hope to
reopen at least some of the hospitality
industry and other public places
provided they're safe and enforce social
distancing throughout this period of the
next two months we will be driven not by
mere hope or economic necessity we're
going to be driven by the science the
data and public health and I must stress
again that all of this is conditional it
all depends on a series of big IFS it
depends on all of us the entire country
to follow the advice to observe social
distancing and
to keep that are down and to prevent
reinfection from abroad I am serving
notice that it will soon be the time
with transmission significantly lower to
impose quarantine on people coming into
this country by air and it's because of
your efforts to get the are down and the
number of infections down here that this
measure will now be effective and of
course will be monitoring our progress
locally regionally and nationally and if
there are outbreaks if there are
problems we will not hesitate to put on
the brakes we've been through the
initial peak but it's coming down the
mountain that is often more dangerous we
have a route and we have a plan and
everyone in government has the
all-consuming pressure and challenge to
save lives restore livelihoods and
gradually restore the freedoms that we
need but in the end this is a plan that
everyone must make work and when I look
at what you've done already the patience
and common sense you've shown the
fortitude of the elderly whose isolation
we all want to end as fast as we can the
incredible bravery and hard work of our
NHS staff our care workers the devotion
and self-sacrifice of all those in every
walk of life who are helping us to beat
this disease police bus drivers train
drivers pharmacists Supermarket workers
Road hauliers bin collectors cleaners
security guards postal workers our
teachers and a thousand more the
scientists who are working around the
clock to find a vaccine when I think of
the millions of everyday acts of
kindness and thoughtfulness that are
being performed across this country and
that have helped to get us through this
first phase I know that we can use this
plan to get us through the next and if
we can't do it by those dates and if the
alert level won't allow it we will
simply wait and go on until we've got it
right we
we'll come back from this devilish
illness we will come back to health and
robust health and though the UK will be
changed by this experience I believe we
can be stronger and better than ever
before
more resilient more innovative more
economically dynamic but also more
generous and more sharing but for now we
must stay alert control the virus and
save lives thank you very much
you're watching a BBC News special