Dominic Raab, the foreign secretary who is deputising for Boris Johnson while Johnson remains in intensive care in hospital, told a press conference this afternoon that his boss was “a fighter” who would be back at work “in short order”. Raab said:
[Johnson] is not just the prime minister. For all of us in cabinet, he is not just our boss. He is also a colleague and he is also our friend. So all our thoughts and prayers are with the prime minister at this time, with Carrie [Symonds] and his whole family. And I’m confident he will pull through because if there is one thing that I know about this prime minister is he is a fighter and he will be back leading us through this crisis in short order.
Raab expressed his support for Johnson as the PM received well-wishes from fellow leaders around the world, from members of the public, and even from the Queen and other members of the royal family. In an update on the PM’s health, Raab confirmed that Johnson was not on a ventilator - but did not go beyond the relatively scant progress report issued by No 10 at lunchtime. (See 12.51pm.) Raab said:
[Johnson] remained stable overnight. He’s receiving standard oxygen treatment and breathing without any assistance, he’s not required any mechanical ventilation or non-invasive respiratory support. He remains in good spirits and in keeping with usual clinical practice his progress continues to be monitored closely in critical care.
Raab played down the prospect of the lockdown restrictions being relaxed next week, when they are due to be reviewed for the first time. (See 5.53pm.)
Sir Patrick Vallance, the government’s chief scientific adviser, said the number of coronavirus cases “could be moving in the right direction” but that it would not be clear “for a week or so”. Speaking at the press conference, Vallance presented a chart showing the latest data for new cases and said:
It’s possible that we’re beginning to see the beginning of change in terms of the curve flattening a little bit. We won’t know that for sure for a week or so
There hasn’t been the accelerated take-off and again it’s possible that we’re beginning to see the start of a change where we might see numbers flattening off.
It does begin to suggest that things might be moving in the right direction in terms of numbers and it’s important that we carry on with the measures that we have got in place in order to make sure that this does go in the right direction.
Here is the chart that Vallance was referring to. It was one of five (pdf) he presented at the press conference.
New coronavirus cases Photograph: Government
Raab implied that Matt Hancock, the health secretary, should be held accountable if the government failed to meet the target Hancock set for 100,000 coronavirus tests to be carried out a day by the end of this month. Asked who would “carry the can” if the target were missed, Raab stressed that it was Hancock’s target. He said the latest data showed 14,000 tests a day being carried out.
Whitty implied that the UK could learn from Germany’s success with testing. Asked why the number of deaths from coronavirus in Germany was rising at a slower rate than in the UK, Whitty said:
We all know that Germany got ahead in terms of its ability to do testing for the virus and there’s a lot to learn from that and we’ve been trying to learn the lessons from that.
There are now confirmed cases of Covid-19 in more than a third of prisons in England and Wales, according to a daily update from the Ministry of Justice.
As of 5pm on Monday, 116 prisoners had tested positive for Covid-19 across 43 prisons, up from 107 prisoners across 38 prisons at the same time on Sunday. There are 83,000 prisoners in England and Wales in 117 prisons.
The number of prison staff who have tested positive remained at 19 across 12 prisons in the period, while the number of infected prisoner escort and custody services (Pecs) staff remained at four.
With the negotiations over the UK’s future relationship with the EU in flux due to the coronavirus pandemic, David Frost, the British chief negotiator has said he will hold talks by video-conference call with his counterpart, Michel Barnier, next week. Frost tweeted:
I want to reassure everyone that UK-EU contacts have been continuing in these difficult times.
We have remained in touch throughout, both sides have exchanged legal texts, and last week we had a series of conference calls to explore and clarify technicalities.
The UK side will share further legal texts with the European commission shortly. I and Michel Barnier will speak next week and we aim to reach agreement on a timetable for the discussions needed in April and May. Further details will follow then.
There was only one round of face-to-face talks ahead of the lockdowns on either side of the Channel. The other scheduled rounds in Brussels and London were abandoned soon after.
The EU has published a draft treaty on the future relationship. The UK has provided some legal text to the commission on its vision of the trade relationship but is yet to publish any papers.
Raab plays down prospect of early relaxation of lockdown measures
Dominic Raab did not have anything much to announce in that press conference, and it seemed as if the message he was most keen to deliver was his personal message of support for Boris Johnson. (See 5.05pm.) It is always advisable to show strong support for the boss, even if you don’t particularly mean it, but in this case it seemed very obvious that Raab did. Johnson’s illness has clearly shocked his colleagues, and their concern for him is genuine.
Beyond that, what was probably most interesting was what Raab had to say about the prospect of the lockdown measures being relaxed. When Johnson announced the lockdown 15 days ago, he said:
I can assure you that we will keep these restrictions under constant review. We will look again in three weeks, and relax them if the evidence shows we are able to.
The three-week deadline comes up on Monday. But when Raab was asked about the prospect of the restrictions being lifted in any way next week, he very much played down the idea. He said:
In terms of the review, we are not at that stage yet. We will take any decision when the time is right, based on the facts and the scientific and medical advice.
Our number one and overriding focus right now is on conveying the key message, which is that everyone needs to keep adhering to this guidance.
There is a long Easter bank holiday weekend coming up, warm weather and we understand people are making big sacrifices to follow this guidance. It is helping, it is contributing to our ability to tackle the coronavirus.
The worst thing now would be to take our foot off the pedal, to ease up on that and risk losing the gains that have been made.
And in another answer, Raab said:
The critical thing is to take evidence-based decisions and so we’ve said that we will take any review once we’ve got the evidence that the measures are working and having the kind of impact taking us past the peak which means that they can be responsibly done. We’re not at that stage yet.
Prof Chris Whitty was a bit more explicit. Talking about when some of the restrictions might be relaxed, he said:
It’s really important that we get to the point that we’re all confident that we’re beyond the peak and then at that point start making it clear what combination of things, and over what period of time, seems a sensible combination to take us through.
UK not yet ready to relax coronavirus lockdown, says Raab – video
Q: A letter from GPs to Jenny Harries, the deputy chief medical officer for England, suggests some people who should be shielded are not being shielded. What will you do about that?
Whitty says there are three categories for shielding: what everyone should do; what people who are over 70 and otherwise vulnerable should do; and what a group of 1.5 million people who are especially vulnerable because of health conditions need to do. He says the government will want to protect people in this third group for quite a long period of time.
He says some people in the group of 1.5 million will have decided that they do not wish to be part of this. Some of these people might have a terminal illness and have made a rational decision not be to be shielded.
Q: Are you promising that you will carry out 100,000 daily antigen tests by the end of the month? If you do not meet that, will someone carry the can?
Raab says the health secretary, Matt Hancock, has been very clear what the target is.
Q: So are you promising that 100,000 antigen tests can be carried out by the end of the month?
Raab says he will not go beyond what the health secretary has said. The government is going to strain every sinew to get these tests done, he says. This target still stands, he says.
Whitty says care homes and nursing homes will present some of the biggest challenges. He says he expects the number of deaths in these places to go up.
Q: Will there be a three-week review of the lockdown? Or will it wait until the PM is out of hospital? And there was modelling published on Friday suggesting this lockdown could go on for months. Will you level with people and admit that?
Raab says he thinks the government has levelled with people. It needs to look at the data, showing how these measures have worked, before deciding what do to next.
Whitty says it is essential to get beyond the peak first. At that point they can decide what combination of measures might stay in place. He says there are disadvantages to keeping the lockdown in place too long.
Q: Has the PM given you any indication of when the lockdown might be relaxed? Other countries have levelled with the public?
Raab says we are not at that point yet. They remain focused on conveying the key message, which is that everyone should comply with the guidance.
He says the guidance is helping. The worst thing would be to “take our foot off the pedal”. It is critical that people keep up this discipline.
Q: So this lockdown is going to have to stay for a few more weeks at least?
Raab says he does not accept that. He says they have been guided by the data. Once they get reliable data on the impact these measures have had, they will be able to take decisions.
Q: What could we have done differently?
Vallance says this is a pandemic. It is applying everwhere. We are three or four weeks behind Italy. Keeping the numbers below ICU capacity is critical. It is essential to keep this suppressed, he says.
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