I’m logging off now and will be closing this live blog. Thanks so much for joining me today and for all the comments, emails and messages. I’m sorry I wasn’t able to reply to you all.
Here’s a roundup of what has happened today:
The UK coronavirus death toll has risen to 11,329 as a further 717 patients died after testing positive, the Department of Health and Social Care has announced.
A review of lockdown measures will take place later this week but Dominic Raab made clear it was too early for the advice to change.
The foreign secretary also said the UK had “not yet passed the peak” of the crisis.
Nearly 200 members of the armed forces are being loaned to NHS ambulance services to support their work during the pandemic.
Boris Johnson is not doing any government work in Chequers, his spokesman has said. He is “focusing on recovery”.
More than £14bn from the coronavirus emergency response fund will go to public services, the chancellor, Rishi Sunak, has confirmed.
The Nightingale hospital in Manchester is ready to take its first patients after being built within 14 days.
The global live blog will continue if you would like to follow it:
It has been three weeks since Boris Johnson told the country it was going into lockdown.
The measures, the prime minister said, would be reviewed in three weeks time, and are due to be discussed this Thursday.
One of the main takeaways from today’s daily briefing is that it is highly unlikely the measures will be relaxed, with Dominic Raab saying “it is still far too early” to change the advice.
He added:
We are doing a lot of work in government to be guided by the science and the medical advice that you get and I think that, until you have got that evidence, we will be getting ahead of ourselves.
There will come a time in the future where we can talk about relaxation or transition but we are not there now.
At the daily briefing, Dominic Raab said the government was trying to give frontline staff reassurance over personal protective equipment (PPE).
It comes amid renewed concern over a shortage of some supplies in parts of the country.
He said:
We understand the importance of getting PPE to the front line whether it’s in care homes or the NHS.
I think the strongest practical reassurance they will want and that we can give them is that over the bank holiday weekend over 16 million items were delivered and we are straining every sinew to roll them out even further and even faster.
Six more hospital deaths recorded in Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland has recorded another six coronavirus hospital deaths, PA Media reports.
The overall toll has risen to 124. A total of 76 new Covid-19 cases were confirmed since Sunday, the Public Health Agency said.
Doctors have again expressed concerns about lack of personal protective equipment.
The Sinn Féin MP Paul Maskey said at least four deaths involved coronavirus at a west Belfast care home, Our Lady’s Care Home in Beechmount.
He said:
There is an urgent need to ramp up testing in the community, particularly in care homes where clusters have been proven to be fatal for residents.
A lack of testing means the possibility that the true scale of the crisis here is unknown.
It is understood infection control measures have been put in place at the care home.
Police stepped up their patrols at coastal beauty spots over the weekend and said the majority of people complied with restrictions designed to limit spread of the virus.
More than 100 coronavirus-related fines have been issued in three days in Northern Ireland, the PSNI said.
Officers broke up barbecues and a small number of large house parties, assistant chief constable Alan Todd said.
Some parents were also believed to have left their children to play at friends’ houses.
Todd told the BBC’s Good Morning Ulster programme: “We engage with people, it is only when people won’t take the encouragement we end up having to enforce the matter.”
A total of 107 fines were imposed in three days over the Easter period by police patrols.
Chris Whitty said he would like to see coronavirus testing increased in care homes.
Asked if deaths were recorded properly in such settings, he said: “Everybody who sadly dies, the doctor will make an assessment based on her or his view about what the cause of death is, that’s what the death certificate says in all cases.”
He added:
Doctors take it very seriously and try to make sure that they get as much information to give accurate data.
One of the things we want to do is to extend the amount of testing of people in care homes as the ability to test ramps up over the next few weeks.
Because clearly care homes are one of the areas where there are large numbers of vulnerable people and that is an area of risk and therefore we would very much ... like to have much more extensive testing.
Patrick Vallance, the government’s chief scientific adviser, said he expects the death toll to increase this week before “plateauing”.
On the number of hospital deaths of Covid-19, he said the UK is tracking behind Italy and “following the same sort of path”.
He added:
I think this week we are going to see a further increase, thereafter we should see a plateau as the effects of social-distancing come through.
That plateau may last for some time and begin to decrease.
He said the number of people in hospital beds with Covid-19 is beginning to “flatten off” in many parts of the country.
He said it is expected to continue to flatten and decrease as the effects of social-distancing “really feed through into the illness we are seeing in hospital”.
Commenting on accusations the government lacks an exit strategy, Dominic Raab said:
It’s absolutely crucially important that we do not take our eye off the ball or the public’s focus on the thing that has been a success so far in relative terms, which is our ability through widespread support for our social distancing measures to deprive this virus of the means to spread.
Opening the daily press briefing, Dominic Raab said the government was united in its “national mission” to defeat coronavirus.
Raab also paid tribute to members of the public who followed government advice.
He said:
At the end of last week, we were concerned that people might start ignoring the advice or cutting corners given the temptation to go out into the sunshine.
In fact the overwhelming majority of people stayed at home and understood the importance of doing so.
By staying home this weekend, you’ve saved lives. Thank you, your efforts are making all the difference.
And please keep them up - we’ve come too far, we’ve lost too many loved ones and we’ve sacrificed too much to ease up now.
The daily briefing is now taking place and you can watch it above.
In his opening speech, the foreign secretary, Dominic Raab, has said there are some “positive signs” from the data that show “we are starting to win this struggle” but warned: “We are still not past the peak.”
He added: “Our plan is working. Please stick with it and we’ll get through this crisis together.”
An internal memo from Imperial College Healthcare NHS trust on Saturday alerted staff to the current shortages of PPE gowns and listed procedures where aprons could be worn.
Under the heading ‘What’s New Today’ the trust states: “There is a low supply of fluid-repellent long sleeved gowns nationally which is beginning to affect us.”
It confirms current guidance that some procedures can be carried out with plastic aprons only.
But some frontline healthcare workers have complained that wearing aprons instead of gowns places them at risk and that nobody treating coronavirus patients should be so poorly protected.
“It doesn’t matter what ward we are working on, whether we’re in ITU or on another ward treating Covid patients we are all at risk,” said one nurse.
The nurse continued:
Patients cough and spit in our faces all the time. Wearing the same kind of aprons we’ve been wearing for years leaving our arms and other parts of us exposed does not protect us against the virus.
We are told full PPE is only for ‘aerosol-generating areas’ but all healthcare workers are exposed to the risk of aerosol-generating Covid. I have resigned myself to getting the virus because I’m not adequately protected.
It is difficult enough looking after Covid patients without worrying about getting infected ourselves. We say that the ITU is ‘close to heaven’ because so many people die there.
According toChinese authorities, although 1,500 healthcare workers were infected from the start of the outbreak in December, of the 42,600 healthcare staff who arrived from other parts of China to treat patients with the virus from late January until early March, none were infected because they were provided with much higher levels of PPE than the local staff fighting the outbreak in the early days were given.
An Imperial College Healthcare NHS trust spokesperson said:
We follow national guidance from Public Health England. On 10 April, PHE issued guidance – which was the focus of our email to staff – that it is safe to use coveralls as an alternative to long-sleeved gowns, when used in line with existing guidance.
As well as telling staff about this small change, we reminded everyone that PHE advise long sleeved, fluid resistant gowns or coveralls are required only for certain types of procedures – known as aerosol generating procedures.
For all other types of patient care that require staff to be within two metres of a patient, plastic aprons (along with gloves and surgical masks) are required. We will clarify this with our staff again today.
The Prince of Wales has praised the work of British Sikhs during the Covid-19 crisis as the lockdown forces the community to celebrate the religious festival of Vaisakhi at home.
Vaisakhi commemorates the creation in 1699 of the Khalsa, the collective body of initiated Sikhs, by Guru Gobind Singh.
"In these challenging times, the Sikh community is making an extraordinary and invaluable contribution to the life of this country, and to so many others, just as it has always done."
A message from HRH to Sikhs in the UK and across the Commonwealth, on the festival of Vaisakhi. pic.twitter.com/MK8e8D0rby
Marked on 13 April this year, celebrations in London’s Trafalgar Square later this month have been cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Speaking in a video posted to Twitter, the Prince of Wales offered his sympathies with families and friends unable to celebrate the festival together.
Charles hailed the “vital role” that Sikhs were playing on the “front line” of the crisis.
“Whether in our hospitals or in other key roles; or through the remarkable work that is being done by gurdwaras to support local communities and the most vulnerable,” he added.
He also highlighted the “heart-warming reports” of other faith groups working together to share resources and offer “support and friendship”.
About half of all Covid-19 deaths appear to be happening in care homes in some European countries, according to early figures gathered by UK-based academics who are warning that the same effort must be put into fighting the virus in care homes as in the NHS.
Snapshot data from varying official sources shows that in Italy, Spain, France, Ireland and Belgium between 42% and 57% of deaths from the virus have been happening in homes, according to the report by academics based at the London School of Economics (LSE).
Published official data for care homes in England and Wales are believed to significantly underestimate deaths in the sector, with the Office for National Statistics only recording 20 coronavirus-related deaths in all care homes in the week ending 27 March. New figures are due out on Tuesday, but are unlikely to be up to date.
Last week the industry body Care England told the Guardian the total figure was probably approaching 1,000, with deaths reaching into double figures at numerous homes. Over the weekend details of more deaths emerged, including 13 residents who have died at the 71-capacity Stanley Park care home in County Durham, and there have reportedly been five deaths at Almond Court in Glasgow.
Here’s a clip of Scotland’s interim chief medical officer Dr Gregor Smith urging families of those who have died during the outbreak not to delay funerals.
Do not delay funerals, says Scotland’s interim chief medical officer – video
The tough restrictions enforced in Wales amid the coronavirus pandemic are working as the country braces itself for its fourth week in lockdown, the first minister of Wales has said.
Mark Drakeford spoke out as Public Health Wales revealed the number of people who have died after contracting Covid-19 rose by 15 to 384, as a total of 5,610 have now tested positive for the virus.
He said that the benefit of the public staying at home over the Easter bank holiday weekend and sticking to the strict social distancing guidelines would be seen in the weeks to come.
He said:
Thanks to everyone who’s staying home. I know this is hard. For some people it’s even tougher.
Thank you for sticking to the rules, there are signs this is working.
Our actions and decisions over the Easter break and weeks to come will have an impact.
Last week Drakeford had warned the restrictions could get worse if people flouted social distancing rules.
It comes after a weekend when two further NHS staff in Wales died after testing positive for the virus.
Donna Campbell worked at the Velindre Cancer Centre in Cardiff as a healthcare support worker while Gareth Roberts was a nurse at the Cardiff and Vale University Health Board.
In other developments, former Plaid Cymru leader Leanne Wood has spoken of developing coronavirus-like symptoms, describing it as a “blur”.
Wood said it neither she or her partner knew for certain whether they had coronavirus or not.
“It looks like it’ll be some time before tests are available to be able to know, which is a shame because if we have had it and are now immune, we could potentially be useful,” she said.
She said her 14-day quarantine period was up on Wednesday.
“It’s been a scary time, and I’m sure there are plenty of others who have gone through similar and I know much worse in recent weeks.”
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