measures like this have not been seen in
peacetime Boris Johnson admitted that he
is now asking they're not ordering the
nation to take difficult steps to combat
the virus but he said the country has
reached the critical moment when without
drastic action the number of cases would
double every five days from the end of
this week elderly and vulnerable people
should be shielded from contact with
others for 12 weeks
everyone should stop all non-essential
contact and travel and keep your
distance from others that means working
from home where possible and no visits
to pubs clubs restaurants or theaters
households where someone has symptoms of
the virus should isolate themselves for
two weeks
our political editor Gary Gibbon has
more many people were locking themselves
down before the government changed its
advice commuters been on the ground at
Waterloo station at 8:00 this morning
the Prime Minister only days after
signalling the time was not right to
copy other countries and move to a
lockdown said that was what he was now
urging on all age groups not at most
risk and those in greatest danger in a
few days time by this coming weekend it
will be necessary to go further and to
ensure that those with the most serious
health conditions are largely shielded
from contact from social contact for
around 12 weeks and even if you're under
70 suffering mild symptoms like a
persistent cough or high temperature the
advice has been ratcheted up if you or
anyone in your household has one of
those two symptoms then you should stay
at home for 14 days that means that if
possible you should not go out even to
buy food or essentials other than for
exercise and in that case at a safe
distance from others but for all in the
country he said even those with no
symptoms the way you live should change
drastically now is the time for everyone
to stop non-essential contact with
others
and to stop all unnecessary travel we
need people to start working from home
where they possibly can and you should
avoid pubs clubs theaters and other such
social venues the advice only last week
was that banning mass events would not
much help control the spread of the
disease today that changed it remains
true as we said in the last few weeks
that risks of transmission of the
disease at mass gatherings such as
sporting events are relatively low but
obviously logically as we advise against
unnecessary social contact of all kinds
it's right that we should extend that
advice to mass gatherings as well the
government said London's infection rate
was racing ahead of the rest of the
country that had brought forward the
date of a crackdown that might have come
later but one which is for now strong
advice not a change in the law I think
most people would would accept that we
are amateur and and grown-up and liberal
democracy where people understand very
clearly the advice that is being given
to them ministers arriving for a Cobra
planning meeting earlier a public health
England message to hospitals lead to
Channel 4 News yesterday admitted
testing for the virus here not
restricted to those with the most
serious symptoms in Geneva the World
Health Organization spelled out that
approach was dangerous and wrong you
must test and isolate you cannot fight a
fire blindfolded and we cannot stop this
pandemic if we don't know who is
infected we have a simple message for
all countries test test test
we do intend to continue to scale up
testing but I think it's important to
realize the scale of UK testing which
has been substantial schools in the
future might be closed but the
government said now was not the time for
that or other tougher measures when you
come to more
extreme measures like you know curfews
and so on and so forth you'll see in
some of the other countries you know
we're keeping all measures under review
and and particularly obviously people
will be thinking about about school
closures there is an argument about
about school closures we think at the
moment on balance it's much better if we
can keep schools open for for all sorts
of reasons the Japanese Prime Minister
talked with Boris Johnson and other g7
leaders by teleconference this afternoon
the government insisted it was moving a
bit closer to other countries actions
because of numbers on the ground not
international or internal pressure if
the early stage is an outbreak the
numbers are quite small so actually the
precision with which you can predict
exactly where you are is low and I said
that I thought we were perhaps four
weeks behind what Italy was I think the
new numbers suggest with maybe more like
three weeks in terms of that and that's
really why we've and an importantly it
looks like we're on the sort of fast
upswing or just about to get there and
that's the reason to want to come in
quite quickly with with these measures
clearly what we're announcing today is a
very substantial change in the way that
we want people to live their lives and I
can't remember anything like it in in my
lifetime I don't have really been
anything like it in in in peacetime and
we have to accept that it's a very
considerable psychological behavioral
change that we're asking you we're
asking the the the public the nation to
do but I've absolutely no doubt that we
can do it a change in people's way of
life that threatens countless
livelihoods to preserve life itself some
of these measures they said could be
with us not just for weeks or months but
maybe even longer this is one hell of a
jump isn't it it's only a matter of days
ago really that we were being told the
main advice was to wash your hands and
now this which Boris Johnson admits is
just about the biggest peacetime clamp
down you could imagine repeatedly Boris
Johnson said in that press conference
that Britain was leading the world in
responding to the virus and I think on
in research terms
there are pockets of work there which
undoubtedly justified that description
but the rest of the world or a big chunk
of it has been watching Britain and will
probably now think that Britain is
playing catch-up Boris Johnson the
scientists say that isn't what was
happening here they were always going to
move when the numbers on the ground
dictated they should and that they say
is what has happened one thing that
really strikes you as you look at the
potential economic impact of all of this
is that it we haven't even had a week
since the the budget that was meant to
incorporate the risks of the new world
we were moving into because of this
virus and you look at the challenges
that business faces Boris Johnson said
at one point in the house a comment in
in that statement in Downing Street that
nobody should be penalized for doing the
right thing well if he really wants to
make good that well then the numbers
that were announced in the budget
probably won't stand and he'll I have to
go an awful lot further one other thing
that became clear in that press
conference Boris Johnson talked about
there being other reasons for keeping
schools open people will be scratching
their heads about the bit about what
those are and it's quite clear that what
they have in mind is what one of the top
advisors called indirect deaths they
fear that you will have people going
away from the emergency services to look
after their children at home in addition
to those who are going because they're
sick and that could lead to people who
should otherwise be getting normal care
not getting the care they need just
another sign of the extraordinary new
world we are entering Gary thanks very
much I'm joined now by Helen Whateley
who's Minister of State for Social Care
at the Department of Health Helen wait
you just told me first what is the point
of stopping going to the pub if your
kids are going to bring back this
disease from school well I think the
overall approach that the country is
taking that the government is taking
today as we have been taking the whole
way since coronavirus broke is a science
led approach so we are doing the best
thing to protect lives we've been taking
steps which will which have been already
delaying the spread of the virus but we
know that the numbers are going up and
that is why you've seen announcements
which are that taking us know quite a
significant step
further in the action we're taking and
the witches the prime minister said will
make a big impact on people's lives so
one of the things that we're
recommending is that people should
reduce their social interaction avoid
unnecessary total social interaction and
that includes for instance not going to
the pub so what is the point of that
though if then your kids bring it back
from school because you're not closing
the schools and it's circulating in the
schools and amongst teachers so
something we have been looking at all
the way through again is that for every
step you take you need to make sure that
you're aware of the unintended
consequences
so one thing for instance with schools
is that if schools aren't there the
children aren't there in school there's
a question for parents at work where
their children will be instead and and
usually many parents will go to the
grandparents to look off their kids well
actually we know and as we've included
in the guidance today that over 70s are
often amongst the most vulnerable and
more likely to be at risk of
complication so understand that if no
idea if you're sitting at home with your
kids sort of potentially infecting you
you might as well go to the pub I think
that's let's just try and be sort of
well organised and and people want
really clear communications about what
are the best steps that they can take
the guidance has been stepping up over
recent weeks and days and that's been
really really clear about the steps
we're asking people to take and we're
asking people to take these steps not
only for themselves because for most
people in fact coronavirus and people
will have symptoms and then recover but
we're asking people to take these steps
particularly to protect the more
vulnerable in society where we know
we're more likely to suffer
complications and hence the - - things
that have been announced today to do
with isolation of the whole household if
a member of that household has symptoms
and also limiting your social contact
and you talk about stepping up the
response so you asking people not to go
to the pub not go to restaurants
theaters etc but in weeks to come will
you review making that a criminal
sanction if people go out well I'm not
going to speculate on what we will do in
weeks to come
ability is it a weapon in your armory I
said what you've seen is the government
taking step-by-step taking the decisions
as to what is the right thing that we
should do for the country to protect
people to keep people as safe to protect
life so you're not ruling out criminal
sanctions at some point down the road if
you're not there yes actually I think
the message that's really important to
get out is for everybody thinking about
whether to follow the advice is is
though though you might not want to
avoid a total contact you might want to
be out and about but remember that what
we're particularly trying to do and this
is a national effort here we all need to
work together to protect the most
vulnerable in our society to control the
spread of the virus and that's happening
hand-in-hand with increasing the
capacity of the NHS to provide care for
those who may need to be in hospital
so the w-h-o today said that just
reiterated their message
test test test now just four days ago
you said you were by and large just
testing people who were ill in hospital
now you say that you are testing people
in the community how are you doing that
well the government has been and is
continued to ramp up the country's
testing capacity so a couple of days ago
we were testing around 5,000 people a
day today we're testing over 6,000
people a day and we expect those numbers
to keep on going up a huge effort is
being made there the moment we're having
to prioritize testing those for instance
who are in hospital being admitted to
hospital also making sure that we can
offer testing to those in care homes but
we want to be able to expect to be able
to spread testing more widely as the
numbers keep going up but how are you
currently testing in the community so
you're probably referring to specific
sampling that's done by public health
England to make sure that we have a
clear picture of the spread of the virus
but but it's referring to what was said
in the press conference you know the
prime minister and his two advisors
there said that testing was happening in
the community I just wondered how that
was being done well I mean as I've said
to you the the figures I've just given
to you are the ones that we have for the
number of people who are being tested at
the moment we are particularly
prioritizing people in health care
settings and there's also
some testing that is done to sample
where the particular virus hotspots are
so you know but as the volumes of
testing container that that is an
important part of our armory of of
controlling the disease protecting as
many people as possible and saving
people's lives Helen wait Li thank you
very much
when our health and social care
correspond a Victorian Donald has been
at the briefing in Downing Street
Victoria what did you make of today's
events well it's funny isn't it when
you're a journalist sometimes you think
this is something that's happening to
other people and today it really hit
home that this is something that is
happening to all of us and will impact
many of us and this is an announcement
that was to say to the public this is
not just about you this is about the
people around you and particularly the
vulnerable people around you but also
about protecting the health service and
that's been their mantra all the way
through as we need to lower this peak so
that the NHS can cope these did feel
draconian now they were saying we're not
going to make you not go to the pub or
to theatres but tonight we've just had
the the theatre society's saying the the
Society of London theatres and UK
theatres saying that they are going to
close theaters across the UK from
tonight there are no school closures
they're putting that down the line as
Kathy was just asking just then because
they still don't think that that is the
right thing to do now now what's the
evidence they've based these decisions
on Oh John would you like to read it
it's quite hefty
but if this is Imperial College covered
19 response team they've just published
their mathematical modelling
they say that this extension of the
social distancing to cover the whole
population not just over 70s will
dramatically reduce the number of deaths
they said the old model just was too
much of a burden now everybody's talking
about ventilators the government says
they're ordering more how immediate is
the need well just let me go back to
this sorry just to go back to this
modelling let let's hear from one of the
Imperial
who will tell us why they've made these
decisions which relates to the
ventilators we estimate that in doing so
our best scenario would only reduce the
deaths by 1/2 and that unfortunately
would leave with us within an
unacceptably large number of deaths in
the order of 250,000 so the strategy now
is to try to further reduce transmission
much as like the situation in China to
as low levels as possible and that does
mean much more drastic changes in our
day-to-day behavior ultimately we think
that will save many many lives and the
orders of magnitude lower it will also
importantly keep us within the
healthcare capacity so ventilators I
mean how cute is that mean well you
heard her talking about these pressures
on the Health Service we have been told
that there are 5000 but Matt Hancock
today reiterated what they're trying to
do for ventilators so we are increasing
the number of ventilators we've been
buying ventilators for several weeks now
but we also need to manufacture more and
as we've discussed in the house there is
no limit to our appetite to buy
ventilators and there should be no limit
to the capacity to the to the appetite
of Industry to make them because around
the world everybody is trying to
increase their ventilator capacity ok
there's been a lot of emphasis on
ventilators and it is clear we need many
more but what he was not saying there
which is critical is that ventilators
need staff and beds and there are a lot
of problems now about whether there are
enough staff for these intensive care
beds that will be required and there is
some more in some of this modeling again
there is a suggestion that 30% of people
might need to go into hospital and the
number of people who will need that
ventilation and the number of people who
will die so it's all about how you have
a whole system working not just the
ventilators Victoria McDonald
thank you
there's been another day of markets
plunging across the globe as central
bank's battle to deal with the fallout
from the pandemic major airlines have
canceled flights and the laying off
thousands of staff for McNamara our
business and global trade correspondent
is in central London for us Paul yes
this is really the day that many have
been waiting for you can't have stock
market Falls like we've had you kind of
flights grounded like we've seen without
eventually dipping job losses and today
they came in we've kicked before we came
on air Manchester Airport group that's
the group that owns Manchester Airport
Stansted and leased East Midlands
Airport announced in force Daniel leave
temporary pay cuts and here's the kicker
temporary layoffs the boss they're
saying the this outbreak is the greatest
threat the UK's travel sector has ever
faced
these are the real-life consequences
that underlie the turmoil we've seen in
the global markets the extraordinary is
becoming the daily minutes after opening
one US market fell so hard and so fast
the trading was suspended for 15 minutes
before last week these so called circuit
breakers hadn't been used in more than
two decades and this was after yet
another emergency interest rate cut by
the US central bank they're now close to
zero and move meant to reassure the
markets oh my God if we're lowering it
if we're shooting every bullet out of
the chamber leaving us at zero is there
is there worse economic news on the
horizon than we think and hardest hit
the travel industry thousands of more
planes will be joining these park top
and nowhere to go I AG the owners of
British Airways today announced a 75%
reduction in capacity over the next two
months Virgin Atlantic got 80 percent of
its flights and as our staff to take 8
weeks of unpaid leave 1 industry
executives said there was no guarantee
that many European airlines would
survive the good ones will said the
transport secretary and hinted they may
get government help good businesses that
if it were not for this coronavirus
would absolutely you know
Arsen succeed should be in a in able to
survive through this emergency so we've
seen airlines in the past
go to the wall haven't we but that's
where they've been problems Maps managed
poorly or you know poor business models
that shouldn't be the case for otherwise
my herbal businesses actually whether
that's Airlines or indeed you know sole
traders there is one section of the
economy that government is frantically
trying to mobilize the very specialized
manufacture of ventilators for hospitals
yesterday the health secretary put out
an all arms plea for engineers across
the nation to see if they can repurpose
a tall order say even those already
doing it
SLE make a thousand children's
ventilators a year how easy czar then
just to ramp up production it is very
difficult it's very difficult you know
there's a lot of training a lot of
specialized people work here a lot of
specialized components that we have to
source coming in and the design and the
engineering aspects of it is
particularly specialized so all along
the line the whole sort of chain is is
is very involved but if the government
gets on the phone tomorrow and says we
need you to repurpose and start pumping
out and had all ventilators would you be
able to do it we would give it a shot we
would want to help don't want to be
negative but I keep pointing back to the
timescales you know to do it in such a
short short timescale is extraordinarily
challenging demand from around the world
has spiked in just a few days but this
production line is no better protected
than any other from the disease it's
ramping up to fight a lot of the
existing staff are under strain because
we had three people go off this morning
or didn't report in this morning cuz
their self isolating so at the time of
increased demands
you know our resources are being
undermined from the from the same from
the same condition
with the economy on life support what a
time to take on a job looking after it
today Andrew Bailey walked in for his
first day as governor of the Bank of
England his first pledge to do whatever
it takes to tackle the economic
infection of this virus the economic
effects that materialized during the
period of covert then get extended
onwards by virtue of effectively that
you know the damage that's done to the
economy and that's something that we
want us wanted to minimize and stop that
maybe his hope but the market scared
little for it today from Asia to Europe
the US and beyond one thing joyed the
ball a sea of red numbers Tom Ling down
look there's only so many red numbers
you can see before they start losing
meaning so so what is it all this mean
how bad is its house this house what we
see now compared to other financial
crises well this morning we sat down to
crunch the numbers and it's pretty bad
so we're now 18 days since the
coronavirus crisis really hit the
markets and take a look at this here is
a graph showing the drop in the footsie
100 three weeks after 9/11 down 14% this
is it after the global financial crisis
in 2008 down 19% much worse but this is
how we're looking now as the pandemic
takes grip 33 percent down
these are big losses bigger than we've
seen in decades
the fallout from this promises to be big
to Paul thanks very much
well I'm joined now by Dame Louise Casey
who advises the government on
homelessness
Carolyn Fairburn from the CBI and
Front's O'Grady who's general secretary
of the T you see Karen Fairburn first
we've already heard tonight that a lot
of theatres of going dark people advised
not to visit pubs and restaurants should
they all closed temporarily well I mean
we are seeing the scale of this
unfolding now and it's real life for a
lot of people and also for a lot of
businesses we are seeing a lot of
businesses already having to shut their
doors because of the
you advise and I think it will be up to
every business to decide what they do
but I think we have to be very clear
that action is needed at scale to
support as many of those businesses as
possible to survive from the government
from government I mean think we have to
recognize that urgent action is needed
at scale and what do you mean by at
scale give us a sense the numbers you're
asking the government for well I think
we need we had a a package of 12 billion
last week from in the budget and that
felt like a good sum of money at the
time but it was targeted mostly at small
business we're seeing actually some big
challenges now facing bigger businesses
as well so Kathy I'm not going to put an
exact number on it but I think that
urgent you know a people in a room
really working through what can happen
very fast
and I can't emphasize strongly enough
how important speed is because we're
talking about businesses running out of
cash and that happens extremely quickly
then you have jobs at risk and they
would be hard to get back francis
O'Grady do you agree that significant
multi-billion government help is needed
can you put a figure on it well look at
what's happening in Germany in Sweden in
Denmark where they're not only
supporting businesses to protect them
through this difficult period but
they're putting money directly into the
pockets of workers through wage subsidy
better sick pay recognizing that you
know the cost of inaction will be much
higher than helping working families now
and can you put a figure on the kind of
levels they've been talking for example
in some of those countries I mentioned
about seventy-five percent wage subsidy
that that's big money for sure but I can
tell you if those businesses go to the
wall and those workers end up on the
dole the price will be much higher but I
would also just want to echo the TEC in
CB I have both called for a a cobra for
jobs for livelihoods for business the
economy I think we need to get in a room
now and start talking about sectors like
manufacturing big firms not just small
ones who are in trouble and we need to
get that money into workers pockets to
keep the cash flowing in the local
economy Louise Casey if that kind of
help isn't forthcoming do you fear that
there will be a knock on
impact on homelessness well it's without
doubt there's going to be a knock-on
impact both on homelessness but also on
hunger so as we sit here we know there
are 14 million people in this country
already in poverty half of those are
working poor which means they're holding
down some kind of a job but they're
still very poor I'm really concerned
about food banks people stockpiling
there are thousands millions of people
in this country that can't even afford
their daily a weekly shop that totally
reliant on food banks so I think we've
got to think really wide here I would
add to what Francis just said about a
collaboration that we need to think
about social protection and welfare
fundamentally as part of that so a
multi-billion pound I mean he's got to
be something much bigger than was in the
budget last week well I think the budget
needs to be rethought everybody's saying
that today including I think the prime
minister didn't say he didn't think that
was a good idea himself at his press
conference I mean I think the other
thing he said at the end in answer to a
question about so what is the impact on
low-income people he said that he
thought that we should make sure those
people are okay now to do that will take
a lot more than they've done so far and
it's got to be done quickly because very
likely because people right now are
unable to pay their rent yeah people
right now are unable because they are
already being laid off they already
reduced hours just in the last few days
Counting FEHB and there's been quite a
lot of comment about the fact that a lot
of the big businesses asking for help
for example Virgen they have deep
pockets I mean isn't there a sense that
to coin a phrase we're all in this
together and that actually business
needs to dig deep asking people to take
8 weeks unpaid leave when they have deep
pockets themselves it's insulting
there's no what I'm saying is that where
businesses have got the balance sheet
they are by and large making it work to
keep their employees you surprised at
Virgen doing asking for unpaid leave
well I haven't I haven't looked at
detail at individual cases but saying is
that position or not you back that or
not well I think where companies I've
seen companies digging very deep in
order to be able to keep their their
people on however we have a lot of
businesses who don't have those kinds of
cash reserves and those are the
businesses that are going to need
support now and I would really Co the
points that both Francis and
have made just about supporting people
who are going to find themselves right
at the bottom of the income level and
this is a moment to find that that that
support and I think businesses will be
doing everything they can to keep people
on I mean the problem is we already know
two million people don't even qualify
for sick pay because they don't earn
enough and we know there are millions of
the self-employed who are being
transformed into the working poor but
even if you do get sick pay even if you
get it from day one ninety four pounds a
week living on that for several weeks is
gonna make a lot of a lot more kids poor
as well so I think the government has to
step up to the plate on this one I think
that what this what this crisis is
showing is really the fragility of our
social welfare system including things
like Social Care the attempt to look
after elderly in their own homes is not
great already at this to it and you know
the fractures are there I would say on
business it really is time for business
to sort of step up to the plate many
people are very anti business because of
the previous crises that we've had this
is a real opportunity for them to really
play a role notice for charities and
government and we've seen take away
firms offering to deliver care packages
to the elderly this is a time for
business to do something for the public
good right companies in wartime
completely right and I think that we are
and we are we are seeing that now we're
seeing that the tech companies making
sure that they are able to get into
homes to ensure that people can keep
their supply of digital services home
deliveries are being prioritized for
older people we are seeing a lot of
action and I think the what we're seeing
today about the fact we're going to have
elderly relatives who are in their homes
and having to stay their business are
already in terms of conversations I've
had are stepping up and we'll do more
front super eighty I mean everybody
finds all of this very depressing
obviously is there a silver lining at
the end of this that you know we can
fundamentally change the way people work
for example more working for home more
effects for working is there anything
any hope you can give us I think there
is a bigger question about how we run
our economy how we run our society
because you know what's clear is that
competition nationalism isn't working
when it comes to a big crisis like this
and it has exposed the unfairness of
huge numbers of people who are just not
getting a decent deal in terms of
support for sick pay every layoffs and
short-time working I mean I feel
incredibly optimistic and hopeful that
as the public realized this is a
marathon and not a sprint
so all of us will do more we will
actually donate to soup runs and soup
kitchens and food banks we will actually
think about how we can help each other
and that's already happening now and
that has to be one of the only positive
legacies to come out of this