government has admitted it has to go
further and faster with its testing
program for coronavirus it had to set a
target of 25 thousand tests a day but so
far only around 8,000 are being carried
out the Cabinet Office Minister Michael
Gove blamed a global shortage of
chemicals needed for the test tonight it
emerged that a 13 year old boy from
Brixton in South London has died from
the virus Britain's youngest victim so
far today's figures show that a total of
1789 people have died in the UK with
coronavirus that's an increase of 381
since yesterday and the biggest rise so
far almost all of them had underlying
health conditions our health editor Huw
Penn reports
drive-through coronavirus testing for
some NHS staff has begun in England but
this is a very limited trial it's not
clear how quickly it can be expanded
elsewhere tests on patients are analyzed
in hospital and public health
laboratories like this
they're based on swap samples NHS staff
are frustrated they can't be tested
which means they can't find out whether
it's safe to return to work hospitals in
England have now been told to test key
workers if they can and what we see
doctors like Chinna do who's a
consultant say a lack of testing keep
staff away from work I raised the issue
at today's Downing Street press
conference many NHS staff are saying
that testing for them is not obviously
available in their places of work now or
somewhere accessible even after pledges
made by officials and ministers in
recent weeks it was a priority what do
you say to them well you we want to
increase the number of tests we are
increasing the number of tests I
mentioned earlier that one of the
constraints on our capacity to increase
testing overall is supply of the
specific reagents the specific chemicals
that are needed in order to make sure
that tests are reliable it's also the
case as I'm sure you're aware that we've
been working with the private sector and
with academics and Boots for example
have increased the number of drive-in
centres for NHS and frontline workers to
be tested the first acknowledgement
there of problems getting raw materials
for more testing the Welsh government
started testing NHS staff earlier this
month Scotland and Northern Ireland have
now followed the number of people tested
in the UK rose rapidly after lab
capacity was expanded it was above 8,000
a couple of days ago but has slipped by
a little so how does that compare with
other countries this graph shows the
number of tests per 100,000 people since
the first coronavirus death in each
country South Korea with an extensive
testing regime is well ahead of the UK
and the u.s. a 13 year old boy who
tested positive for the virus has died
at King's College Hospital in London the
Trust said thoughts and condolences were
with his family it's not known if he had
an underlying health condition Karen
who's pregnant was in hospital with
kovat 19 and pneumonia she was very ill
and said she was fighting for her baby
she is now recovering I'm very lucky I'm
so grateful to be home to see my family
and now it's just a case of waiting and
seeing how my baby is there's no one
knows no one's going to know how he is
or if he's okay for sure
[Music]
Stewart is also recovering no he says
being hit by the virus was terrifying my
lungs were losing function we're really
struggling with disease in them I really
had to call the Prime Minister chaired a
cabinet meeting by video link he and two
colleagues are self isolating because of
symptoms he told them The Situation's
going to get worse before it gets better
but it will get better while Hugh is
with me now why is it proving so
difficult to ramp up the testing well
Sophie it does seem a bit strange I mean
first of all the 25,000 add a target for
testing we're told won't happen to all
late April a bit later than we thought
currently it's round about 8,000 so
there's a lot of time to make up on that
but the capacity were also told of labs
to carry out these tests is round about
12,000 now and
we'll go up to 15,000 by the end of the
week so there is a gap and I think
there's some frustration amongst
ministers Michael Gove we heard saying
there needs to be a lot more done to
make it all go faster and I think
tomorrow we're going to hear of a new
drive to get more NHS staff tested using
that extra capacity and in the meantime
we heard more about how the virus is
spreading in the UK yes in the Downing
Street press conference there were some
charts shown here's one of them on the
number of new cases reported each day
across the UK and you can see that daily
number going up quite sharply in the
middle of March then it reaches a sort
of plateau in the last few days although
the latest number has gone up a little
bit further and that I think is the
green chute that was being referred to
by NHS England today although Steve
Paris the medical director said we
weren't out of the woods by any means
another chart showed hospital admissions
rising pretty rapidly in England up
above 9,000 now London rising faster
than other regions although the
Northwest and southeast of England had
also seen a bit of a pickup a reminder
that whether or not there are green
shoes there's going to be an awful lot
of pressure on the NHS and hospitals in
the next few weeks
keep him thank you one of Britain's most
senior police officers has admitted the
mistakes have been made by officers in
their enforcement of the new emergency
powers critics say some tactics have
been heavy-handed last week Derbyshire
police came in for criticism after using
drones to film people walking in the
Peak District they then posted the
footage on social media our home affairs
correspondent Daniel Sandford reports at
what is normally a busy station in East
London you shouldn't be traveling
British Transport Police asking
passengers why they are travelling you
should become your girlfriend my advice
is go back home using three of the four
means engagement explaining the new laws
encouraging trying to avoid the fourth
II enforcement through fines and all the
time allowing essential workers through
with such drastic laws having come in so
quickly it has inevitably led to
different police forces interpreting
them differently and that has led to
tensions behind the scenes as chief
constables try to work out a common
approach Lancashire Police has already
issued more than a hundred fines the
UK's largest force the Metropolitan
Police has issued none the head of the
national police chiefs Council agreed
that there needs to be more consistency
we are bringing in new roles that have
never been in existence before and we're
having to learn as we go along and I
think people ought to accept that
mistakes will be made as we work our way
through that the law says that people
can only leave home for basic
necessities for medical needs for
essential work or to exercise once per
day and police can issue on-the-spot
fines if people have no reasonable
excuse to be away from home or for any
social gathering of more than two people
not from the same household but
Derbyshire police's decision to use
drones and social media videos to shame
people exercising in the Peak District
has worried others in policing when I
saw it on the television and I saw the
the footage I have to say that it was a
bit of a facepalm moment for me and
because I feared that the kind of
criticism that then interviewed but
today the Chief Constable of Derbyshire
defended the decision the purpose of
puttin the video up was the weekend
after we'd had a nice weather where
frankly the Peak District was completely
inundated with visitors from across the
whole country putting some very very
vulnerable communities at risk and
stretching emergency services but in
this upside-down world where park
benches are taped off for public safety
and people are asked to exercise away
from each other the growing consensus
among police chiefs and police and crime
commissioners is that some of the
strongest laws ever introduced in this
country need to be used wisely and not
over zealously Daniel Sandford be
seenu's East London