UK coronavirus: death toll in hospitals, care homes and community at 26,097 – as it happened

Responding to the latest figures showing that more than 26,000 people have died in hospitals, care homes and the wider community across the UK after testing positive for Covid-19, Kate Allen, the director of Amnesty UK, said:

These harrowing figures raise serious concerns over the failure of our government to effectively tackle the coronavirus pandemic.

These figures are coming out far too late - it is three months since the first confirmed coronavirus case in the UK and public trust in the way the government has handled the provision of PPE remains low with the government’s transparency still coming into question.

We need to see an urgent escalation in protective equipment, testing and training for those on the frontline of this crisis. Any delay will only cost more lives.

In addition, a poll of 2,000 people conducted by Opinium for Amnesty between 24-27 April found that:

• Two in three people in the UK believe the government has performed poorly in providing PPE for healthcare workers (60%) and for key workers (62%).
• And 78% felt that the government had not been fully transparent in its communication with the public so far with over a third (36%) saying the government has tended not to be or never been transparent in relation to its handling of the pandemic.

Amnesty has been campaigning for the UK government to ensure the most vulnerable are adequately protected during the coronavirus pandemic – a petition to the UK government has now reached over 20,000 signatures.

Wetherspoon’s is starting to plan for a reopening of its pubs and hotels “in or around June”, the company has claimed, despite the UK remaining in government-mandated lockdown and no go-ahead as yet for easing physical distancing measures.

In a statement, the business said:

The company is likely to make some changes to its operating model, assuming increased social distancing, and anticipates a gradual recovery in customer numbers.

Wetherspoon pubs are substantially larger than average, and most have outside facilities. The company believes these factors are likely to assist if social distancing measures apply.

The pub chain’s boss Tim Martin was forced to close all 900 pubs and furlough 40,000 workers before Britain went on lockdown on 23 March.

But he sparked controversy and prompted calls for a boycott of the chain when he claimed closing pubs was “over the top” and that supermarkets posed a bigger risk of spreading coronavirus than bars.

He later refused to pay workers until he received the appropriate government bailout and sparked further anger and accusations of hypocrisy when he told his workers to get jobs at Tesco instead.

The founder said on Wednesday he will take a 50% voluntary pay cut, along with chief executive John Hutson, other directors have agreed to similar cuts.

Here is the government’s new dashboard, with the latest UK coronavirus death figures. Today it gives the total death toll as 26,097.

However, it is important to stress that this count only includes deaths of people who tested positive for coronavirus. There will be many people who have died from coronavirus without having had a positive test.

Yesterday one analysis, based on excess death figures, put the likely number of people to have died either directly or indirectly as a result of coronavirus at more than 45,000.

Q: [From Bob] As there seems to be space in the Nightingale hospitals, why can’t you put people from care homes there to keep them safe?

Raab says the Nightingale hospitals are not just there for current cases. They need to be available for the future.

He says their use is being kept under review.

Doyle says the Nightingale hospitals are adaptable. They can be used in different ways. This would be one option.

But you would have to consider whether this was a suitable option for frail hospitals.

And that’s it. The press conference is over.

Raab now takes two questions from members of the public.

He reads out the first: Why has the government not introduced quarantine for people arriving in the UK?

Raab says the government has looked at this, but the scientific evidence so far has been that this would make very little difference.

But it is being kept under review, he says.

Doyle says this is being looked at as the situation changes.

Q: How will social distancing work in a school setting? Will home education have to continue into next year?

Van-Tam says he has two sons at home, aged 11 and 12. He knows the stress this is causing. But he is clear the closing schools was the right thing to do.

There are multiple combinations about what you might do next.

But he says he won’t go into it, because the science is not settled yet.

Q: Is it possible for groups of young people to stay two metres apart?

Van-Tams says he thinks that would be very difficult.

Q: There are still Britons stuck in India, particularly from the West Midlands. Will you increase the number of repatriation flights?

Raab says the government has already chartered 58 flights, returning more than 12,000 people. More are planned, to get another 7,000 Britons home, he says.

Q: Will the government consider pausing NRPF (no recourse to public funds) status for those migrants to whom it applies during the crisis?

Raab says Priti Patel, the home secretary, is looking at this carefully.

Q: If there had been more testing earlier, could some of these deaths have been avoided?

Raab says there are always things to learn in a situation like this. But the government has acted on the basis of the best medical advice, he says.

Doyle says there have always been interventions where there have been outbreaks in care homes.

This disease predominantly affects the over-75s, she says.

She says some older people might have died before they could even be tested.

She says they are now looking at how the virus moves in a home. Genomics is providing good insights, she says.

She says it is impossible to say if testing would have made a huge difference.

Q: [From the Daily Mail] How helpful are private initiatives like the Daily Mail’s Mail Force airlift?

Raab says this has been fantastic.

Q: How much evidence is there that the summer weather helps combat the virus?

Van-Tam says being outdoors helps. He says the virus spreads less outside.

In the summer people leave the doors and windows open, he says.

Q: So is there some hope for garden centres, park runs, going to the beach and even pub gardens being allowed?

Van-Tam says Sage is keeping all this evidence under review.

He says these are complex decisions. These events could involve people congregating. They have to be extremely sure-footed, he says. This virus will be with us for quite some time. He says he does not want to suggest any of these decisions should be rushed.

Q: How many of the five tests are you passing?

Raab says he is going to wait until he gets advice from the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) on this in early May.

There are some encouraging signs, he says. But he will wait for the Sage evidence.

Q: But the NHS has not been overwhelmed. Can’t you at least say you pass test one?

Raab says the NHS has not been overrun. But he says they need to be sure that, going ahead, that will remain the case.

Prof Jonathan Van-Tam, the deputy chief medical officer for England, says the new death figures out today are an improvement.

But ultimately the government will be able to look at excess death figures, which show all the excess deaths about average. There is a standardised European way of doing this, he says.

(That might be a reference to the work done by EuroMOMO.)

He says these figures will show, not just Covid-19 deaths, but deaths that might have occurred as a consequence of the crisis.

I’ve found the global deaths per head of population chart now, and I’ve added it to the post at 5.27pm. You may need to refresh the page to get it to show up.

Q: Hospices are being denies access to government stocks of PPE. They are having to buy their own supplies at inflated prices. They have told us [ITV] they could run out in days. Why aren’t they getting access to government supplies?

Raab says the government has been guided by the NHS as to where the shortfalls are.

Doyle says it is useful to know. There are hotlines available for hospices that need PPE.

Prof Yvonne Doyle, medical director at NHS England, is now presenting the daily slides.

And here are the figures for all coronavirus deaths, based on day of death.

Here is the global deaths comparison chart.

Doyle says this chart is based on overall deaths.

She ends with a slide showing global deaths on a country by country basis, measured according to deaths per head of population.

In the first statement since changing the way figures are produced (see 5.02pm), Public Health England said the total number of deaths was around 17% higher than previous data showed. The body said it was reporting an additional 3,811 deaths since the start of the outbreak.

A PHE spokesman said:

Of these, around 70% were outside hospital settings and around 30% were in hospital. The additional hospital deaths have been identified through PHE’s laboratory system and were not reported to NHSE.

The latest figures have been revised retrospectively by PHE since the first coronavirus-related death to include additional data sources, reaching a total number of deaths in the UK of 26,097 between March 2 and April 28, including 765 deaths reported in the 24 hours to 5pm on Tuesday.

Raab summarises the five tests that will have to be met before the lockdown can be eased.

The fifth test is probably the most important, he says.

He says in Germany there has been a rise in coronavirus cases since the lockdown was eased.

In the latest episode of the Politics Weekly podcast, Jonathan Freedland and Rowena Mason break down another busy week in Westminster.

Jonathan also talks to the new shadow home secretary, Nick Thomas-Symonds, and Jamie Grierson explains what’s next for Priti Patel.

Doctors should not be disciplined if they decide they cannot see a patient because they do not have the right protective gear, the Medical Protection Society (MPS) has said.

The MPS said that if a doctor decides they cannot safely see a Covid-19 patient because they do not have adequate personal protective equipment, and the patient comes to harm, they could face disciplinary action.

The medical protection organisation called for reassurance from the General Medical Council (GMC) and employers that doctors will not be subjected to regulatory or disciplinary action following a decision or outcome that is the result of poor PPE provision.

Dr Rob Hendry, medical director at MPS, said:

It is appalling enough that doctors are placed in the position of having to choose between treating patients and keeping themselves and their other patients safe - this stress should not be compounded by the prospect of being brought before a regulatory or disciplinary tribunal.

Responding, the GMC said in a statement:

This pandemic is an unprecedented challenge in which clinicians are balancing the imperative to provide care with concerns around their own safety and wellbeing. Doctors are making difficult decisions on a daily basis, and we trust them to continue to use their professional judgment to apply the principles in our guidance.

If a concern was raised with us about a doctor’s actions we would need to look at the specifics, as we would any other concern referred to us. We’d also consider the context within which the doctor was working, including information about resources, guidelines or protocols in place at the time.

When councils were instructed to provide accommodation for their homeless population to protect them from coronavirus, Mike Matthews, owner of the Prince Rupert hotel in Shrewsbury, was one of the first to step in.

The new residents, including a former employee, feel it has given them some dignity back and offered them a rare feeling of family and safety. They also know this cannot be a permanent change to their lives, so what happens next?

In the latest episode of the Science Weekly podcast, the Guardian’s science correspondent Hannah Devlin speaks to Prof Sabra Klein about why women are much less likely to become seriously ill or die from Covid-19, and what the implications of this knowledge for future treatments might be.

The number of confirmed cases of Covid-19 within prisons continues to rise, a daily update from the Ministry of Justice shows.

As of 5pm on Tuesday, there were 337 prisoners who had tested positive for the virus across 71 prisons, an increase of 1.5% in 24 hours. The number of prison staff infected rose by 6% to 337 workers across 63 prisons in the same period. Fifteen inmates have died directly or indirectly from Covid-19.

There are 81,500 prisoners across 117 jails in England and Wales, and around 33,000 staff working in 104 public sector prisons.

Downing Street has said that Boris Johnson had a “constructive” conversation with Sir Keir Starmer this afternoon about the coronavirus crisis. A No 10 spokesman said:

The prime minister spoke to Sir Keir Starmer on the phone this afternoon and updated him on the government’s efforts to combat coronavirus. It was a constructive call and they agreed to continue speaking about the national effort to defeat the virus.

There have been nine more coronavirus deaths in Northern Ireland, taking the total to 338, the health department in Northern Ireland has said.

According to a report (pdf) published by Public Health England, around a third of all care homes in England have reported coronavirus outbreaks, new data from Public Health England shows.

Some 4,516 homes have reported outbreaks since March 17 up until Monday this week.

Here are the figures showing what percentage of care homes in each region of England that have reported an outbreak.

East Midlands - 25%

East of England - 27%

London - 33%

North East - 38%

North West - 36%

South East - 28%

South West - 21%

West Midlands - 30%

Yorkshire and the Humber - 29%

Journalists are seen to be doing a better job at holding the government coronavirus response to account than MPs and the Labour party, according to a new study from Ipsos Mori.

In a new online survey, the British public said most likely to be seen to do a good job are journalists at the government’s coronavirus daily briefings (43%), followed by TV and radio journalists (40%).

Only 1 in 5 believe the Labour party has done a good job at holding the government to account so far (18%), this increases to a quarter (24%) who think Sir Keir Starmer has done a good job. However, Ipsos Mori said this could reflect that the Labour leader is “still something of an unknown entity with the general public so far”.

Ben Page, CEO of Ipsos MORI, said:

Despite recent controversy about journalists challenging government spokespeople, by 43% to 28% the public say they are doing a good job in holding the government to account. They do rather better than the official Opposition - highlighting the challenge Keir Starmer has in connecting with the public during the crisis.

It would “not be right” for the government to stop companies paying dividends to their shareholders, even if they are seeking state support because of Covid-19, Jacob Rees-Mogg has said.

The leader of the House said it was up to individual firms whether they awarded dividends this year.

The shadow Commons leader, Valerie Vaz, challenged him on whether the government will adopt the approach taken by some countries, which have said companies that receive state aid cannot reward their shareholders.

In response, Rees-Mogg said the rules on who could apply for Treasury support were “relatively clear and well set out”. He said:

Companies who aren’t contributing, or haven’t contributed to this country, and don’t have their operations in this country, won’t particularly benefit but employment in this country will benefit.

As regards to dividends, that in a way is a matter for companies.

I notice BP is going to carry on paying its dividend to try and help pensioners and that’s a decision for companies where I don’t think it would be right for the government to intervene.

The Queen has sent a private message of good wishes to Boris Johnson and Carrie Symonds to congratulate them on the birth of their son, according to Buckingham Palace.

At the post-PMQs Downing Street lobby briefing we learned almost nothing new about the circumstances around the birth of Boris Johnson’s new baby son. The spokesman repeatedly refused to answer questions about whether the birth was premature. When it was first announced that Carrie Symonds was pregnant, a spokesperson said the baby was due “in the early summer”.

Here are some of the main points on non-baby matters.

• Boris Johnson is due to make a media appearance later this week, according to his spokesman. That suggests he will appear at the daily government press conference either tomorrow or on Friday. He is not appearing at today’s press conference, which will be led by Dominic Raab.

• The spokesman said the UK would study the situation in countries including Germany when it came to lifting lockdown. He said:

We are watching how countries across the world respond to coronavirus and we are obviously studying steps which they are taking in relation to relaxing their own social distancing measures and the impact that’s having.

Exactly as you would expect, we want to base our own decision on the best available information and experience.

• The spokesman firmly denied that the government was relaxing one of the five tests that will be used to decide when it eases the lockdown. This claim was triggered by a change of wording to test five on the slide issued at the press conference yesterday, compared with the way test five was phrased in the slide issued the previous day.

The Telegraph splashed on this claim this morning.

But the spokesman said the wording had been changed just to better reflect what Raab actually said when he set out the five tests at a press conference on 16 April. The spokesman was right. This is what Raab said in his speech at the time:

We need to be confident that any adjustments to the current measures will not risk a second peak of infections that overwhelm the NHS.

Downing Street may have wanted to change the wording on the slide because the formula used on Monday implied any second peak of infections would be unacceptable. As Prof Chris Whitty, the government’s chief medical adviser, implied at the press conference on Monday, some sort of second peak is all but inevitable.

• The spokesman said 43,563 coronavirus tests were provided in the 24 hours to 9am yesterday. There was capacity for 73,400 tests to be carried out. The spokesman said 14,700 home testing kits were made available at 8am on Wednesday and had all been ordered by 9.30am. As of 9am, 33,000 people had booked in for tests at drive-through sites.

The chief executive of Horse Racing Ireland has stepped into the debate over the staging of last month’s Cheltenham Festival by suggesting that the event should “probably” not have taken place due to growing concerns about the spread of coronavirus.

Brian Kavanagh told Sport For Business:

The irony is that while Cheltenham was going ahead and people were at the races, the pubs back in Ireland were packed with people watching Cheltenham, but it certainly couldn’t have come at a worse week, it was unfortunate because it was the last major sporting event to take place. Should it have taken place? With hindsight, probably no but everyone’s wise after the event.

In recent days, figures showing that Gloucestershire hospitals NHS trust, which covers Cheltenham, has recorded more deaths from coronavirus than a number of neighbouring trusts led to calls for an inquiry into whether allowing the festival to go ahead was to blame. However, the raw data did not account for the relative sizes of the trusts, the social or age profiles of their catchment areas or their population densities.

Museums and Galleries Edinburgh has just issued a callout for rainbow artwork, pyjamas worn all day indoors, and handwritten notes offering help to neighbours, as it begins a Covid-19 contemporary collecting drive.

Launching an open call to the people of Edinburgh to contribute their own items and stories to reflect how life in the city has been affected by the global pandemic and lockdown, the City of Edinburgh council leader, Adam McVey, said:

This is an extraordinary period in our history that in due course we will want to look back on. By collecting objects, photographs and first-hand experiences of citizens now, we’re making sure we can capture this moment for future generations.

The curatorial team leading the project wants to gather public contributions that reflect “those objects and stories which helped people cope and get through the many challenges and uncertainties presented by the pandemic”.

From Good Morning Britain.

Boris Johnson is expected to take a short period of paternity leave later this year rather than now, a Downing Street spokesman has confirmed.

The prime minister returned to work in No 10 following the birth, and spoke to Sir Keir Starmer for more than half an hour about the coronavirus response on Wednesday afternoon. The two agreed to have further discussions next week, a spokeswoman for the Labour leader added.

The family were planning to live in their Downing Street flat along with their dog, Dilyn, the PM’s spokesman said.

Downing Street declined to say whether the baby was born prematurely, and the spokesman was unable to provide details of the weight, timing, nature or location of the birth.

Emergency measures to alleviate pressure on the NHS during the coronavirus crisis that will allow pharmacists to dispense a range of super-strength medicines, including the heroin substitute methadone, without prescription are to come into effect on 30 April, the home secretary Priti Patel has said.

But the regulations will only be used after this date in limited circumstances following an announcement by either the home secretary or health secretary, a written statement said.

The changes proposed would allow pharmacists to provide substances controlled by the Misuse of Drugs Act without prescription, although only to patients who have been receiving the medicine as part of their treatment.

Some of the substances covered by the proposals are highly addictive and include barbiturates and opiates, such as morphine, as well as medicines used for opioid substitution therapy (OST). The harm reduction initiative offers people who are dependent on opioids such as heroin an alternative, typically methadone or buprenorphine.

The Advisory Council for Misuse of Drugs, which makes recommendations to the government on the control of dangerous drugs, supported the move but did caution that it could lead to a spike in drug misuse.

The latest figures released from National Records of Scotland today (see 12.14) shows that the growth in the number of weekly Covid-19 deaths has slowed dramatically.

There were just four more deaths in the week ending 26 April (656 deaths) than in the previous week (652 deaths) an increase of just 0.6% compared compared to a 7% increase in the week ending 20 April and 116% in the week ending 13 April.

Mary Bousted, joint general secretary of the National Education Union, has welcomed the fact that Gavin Williamson, the eduction secretary (for England), told MPs this morning that schools would not re-open during the summer holidays. She said:

We were relieved to hear confirmation from the education secretary that schools and colleges will not be returning during the summer holidays. Lockdown is not a holiday. All education staff are working extremely intensively for long days during lockdown and so the summer holiday dates must stay in place. During August, children and teenagers who have been inside for months are going to need activities like summer schemes and holiday clubs, if these can be safely re-opened by local authorities.

The home secretary was told the public will be “absolutely baffled” by the border response to the coronavirus as she was unable to recall which countries had been subject to quarantine measures prior to the lockdown.

Priti Patel was challenged by Stephen Doughty, the Labour MP for Cardiff South and Penarth, over the apparent shift in approach in mid-March that ended the of quarantining passengers from specific countries and regions such as the Chinese city of Wuhan.

Prior to 23 March, while there was no testing, there were flights coming in and passengers were being quarantined. Patel said:

I can’t recall the locations they were coming in from, there were certain parts of the world, travellers coming in from, where they were being quarantined.

That was prior to that lockdown and if memory serves me correctly that was some time in late February.

To which Doughty said: “I’m surprised you can’t recall where.” He informed the home secretary that passengers from Wuhan were being quarantined but not northern Italy where deaths had already been recorded. She replied:

At the time Wuhan was in the spotlight.

Asked why this changed and passengers were no longer placed in quarantine, Patel said all decisions were based on advice from the scientific committee Sage and Public Health England. Doughty said:

Many members of the public will find this absolutely baffling.

Patel added:

All decisions around borders and ongoing discussions around borders, this is constantly under review, has been based on the fact that passenger flows have fallen, but of course there was a changing pattern as the world was locking down it’s been based on scientific advice provided by Sage and PHE.

The number of Covid-19 deaths taking place in Scottish care homes was higher than in hospitals in the past week.

More than half (52%) of deaths involving Covid-19 took place in care homes compared with 42% in hospitals in the week ending 26 April. A further 6% of deaths occurred at home or in other locations, according to new data from National Records of Scotland (NRS) (see 12.14).

The total number of deaths recorded in Scotland which included Covid-19 on the death certificate now stands at 2,272, far higher than the daily death toll published by the Scottish government. The latter requires a patient to have tested positive before they died whereas the weekly NRS figures are based on the information recorded on death certificates.

When all coronavirus deaths occurring since mid March are included 52% of Scottish coronavirus deaths occurred in hospitals, 39% in care homes and 9% in private homes and elsewhere.

NRS recorded 743 more deaths in the week ending 26 April when compared with the five-year average, 85% of which (631) had an underlying cause of Covid-19.

Social distancing will need to be introduced into every area of work from offices to construction sites to secure workplaces going forward in “the new normal”, the home secretary has told MPs.

Appearing before the home affairs select committee, Priti Patel was asked if there was an argument to ease lockdown restrictions based on the picture in specific regions, work sectors and based on individual risk profiles.

Patel said assessments were taking place but she was “not at liberty to go into the detail of some of the discussions taking place”. She added:

But before people go back to work there is a job to do yet in terms of securing work places.

The fact of the matter is we will not go back to how we were in early March. There will be new norms inevitably come off the way in which social distancing has dominated our lives and is affecting society.

We would expect social distancing in every single work area whether its an office or a construction site, and social distancing on public transport going forward.

These are all active things that we have to test and put through consideration.

She added:

The fact of the matter is to move into a new normal we will as a society have to operationalise new ways of working and of course they have to be tested. Employers have to embrace those, guidance will have to come from the government.

We have to consider all of this in terms of then looking at how – because we can not remain in this situation indefinitely – how we move into that phase, calibrated approach. We will be leading that. We will be putting guidance out there to employers, trade unions and others.

Sir Jeffrey Donaldson, the DUP leader at Westminster, asks what the government is doing to ensure cancer patients and other patients can access the NHS treatment they need.

Raab says this is an issue. He says the Nightingale hospitals have created capacity that will allow other NHS patients to get treated.

And that’s the end of PMQs.

Cheryl Gillan, a Conservative, says even before the crisis two out of three autistic adults were not getting the help they need. She says the situation may have got worse. Can Raab ensure they will not lose out? And how many councils have used emergency powers to justify cutting back their provision?

Raab says vulnerable people should get the help they need. He says he will get back to Gillan on her specific question.

The SNP’s Dave Doogan asks what advice Raab has for a constituent who has lost his job. He says the government should back a universal basic income.

Raab says a UBI could not be targeted.

David Mundell, a Conservative, says lorry drivers are key workers. But many of them have found it hard getting hot food when they are working, and access to toilet facilities. Will the government support them?

Raab says the definition of key workers has changed as we have gone through this crisis. He says there is more appreciation of the work they do. He says this is an excellent point. He says facilities for lorry drivers should stay open where possible.

The SNP’s Alison Thewliss asks if the government will ensure that insurance companies have to pay out on business interruption policies.

Raab says it would not be right to tell the companies what they must pay out on. But he says the government wants to support businesses.

Mark Pritchard, a Conservative, asks for an assurance that garden centres and nurseries will be allowed to open in the first phase of relaxing the lockdown.

(He is referring to nurseries that cultivate plants, not ones that look after toddlers.)

Raab says Pritchard is the second MP to make this point. He says it has been registered.

Labour’s Geraint Davies asks Raab to say if the decision to opt out of the EU ventilator procurement scheme was a political decision or a commercial decision.

Raab says the original decision was a “failure of communication”. The UK did not get the invitation to tender. But not participating has not made a difference, he says. He says the UK is looking at participating in other schemes.

Shailesh Vara, a Conservative, invites Raab to congratulate NHS staff.

Raab says he has to read out the death toll at press conferences. He always walks away ashen-faced when he thinks of what those figures mean for families, he says.

Labour’s Wes Streeting praises the response of the emergency services who responded to the killing of two young children in his constituency at the weekend. More needs to be done to help people who are unsafe in their own homes, he says.

Raab says he was appalled by this case. He passes on his condolences. And he says the police are there to protect people. Anyone who needs to should call 999. And there is a domestic abuse helpline. He says the lockdown has created specific problems, but the domestic abuse bill, which had its second reading yesterday, will help to address this problem.

Labour’s Zarah Sultana says the government should not be offering help to firms based in tax havens, and firms paying dividends or engaged in share buy-backs. She says the government should be helping the 99% instead.

Raab criticises her for being partisan. He says the government is helping a wide range of businesses.

Robert Courts, a Conservative, says the banks have to do their bit to help the coronavirus recovery.

Raab says the government has stepped up to the plate. “We expect the banks to do the same too,” he says.

The SNP’s Allan Dorans asks for an assurance that, when a vaccine becomes available, it will be distributed around the world on the basis of need, not on the basis of wealth.

Raab says the government is contributing to international vaccination programmes. He says he agrees with what Dorans said.

Rob Roberts, a Conservative, asks if the government remains committed to levelling up in schools after this crisis is over.

Raab says the government remains committed to that.

Ian Blackford, the SNP leader (who is participating by Zoom), says the UK is two months away from the point where it might walk away from Brexit trade deal talks. Why is the government risking a no deal outcome?

Raab says he would not rely as much as Blackford does on the word of Michel Barnier for a guide to how the talks are going. He says the UK wants a deal.

Blackford says the best way to remove uncertainty would be to allow more time for talks. He says 2m people risk losing their jobs in the UK. He says refusing to recognise the inevitability of extending the talks is a foolish gamble. He urges Raab to face down the hardliners in his party.

Raab says extending the talks would increase uncertainty.

Sir Desmond Swayne, a Conservative, asks if garden centres will open “in short order”.

Raab says the current advice says no, but that this is being kept under review.

Starmer says the problem with Raab’s response is that the UK risks falling behind.

Other European countries have published exit plans.

He says it is clear what these must involve; eg opening schools.

He says he wants the four nations of the UK to carry on working together.

Will the government consult the opposition?

Raab says it would be wrong to set out an exit strategy now.

He says he has read the Scottish government’s document. That does not set out an exit strategy. It explains principles, he says, in line with the five tests set out by Raab.

Raab says Starmer has a reputation for following the evidence. He should not abandon that approach.

Starmer says Raab asked him to acknowledge the success in increasing capacity. He says he is happy to do that. He says it has been an “amazing piece of work”.

On the lockdown, he says he is not asking for a timeframe, and not asking for detail of what will happen.

But he wants the government to be open, he says.

He says he would like to be able to support the government’s strategy. Raab promised on Monday “maximum transparency”. When will the government publish an exit strategy?

Raab says when Sage last reviewed the lockdown, it advised against any change.

He says Sage will review this again early next month.

He says, if Starmer has any proposals, he should say what they are.

He says it would be wrong to make proposals now, without knowing what Sage will recommend.

Starmer says he does not base things on his own opinion. He tries to stick to the evidence. When he spoke about the situation for PPE getting worse, he was quoting he views of doctors.

He says the government used to say the problem with testing was lack of demand.

But now demand for testing has gone through the roof.

And the 100,000 target was only a staging post. He says the PM talks about 250,000 tests a day being a target. Starmer says he agrees; that is what the government should be heading for.

He asks if that is still a target, and when it might be hit.

Raab says he understands the point about PPE, but he does not accept that that means overall things are getting worse.

He says testing capacity has doubled since last week. The latest figures showed 43,563 tests being carried out daily.

He says the 250,000 target is still a milestone. But he won’t put deadline on it.

Starmer says on Sunday Raab told the Marr programme that deaths in care homes were falling. Can he clarify if that is right?

Starmer asks about PPE (personal protective equipment). He says he recognises that distributing this is difficult. But the situation seems to be getting worse. A survey on Monday said one in four doctors was not getting the equipment they needed. He says this is a plea from the frontline. What is going on, and how can it be fixed?

Raab says there are some positive signs coming out of care homes, but they are “within the margin of error”.

He says he does not accept Starmer’s claim that the situation with PPE is getting worse not better.

In relation to PPE, Raab says Starmer has to recognise that the UK faces a global supply shortage. Every country is facing this. The UK is “the international buyer of choice”. He says flights are coming in from places like China, Turkey and Myanmar.

Starmer welcomes the fact that the government is producing a clearer breakdown of figures.

And he welcomes the fact hospital deaths are falling.

But care home deaths are rising, he says.

He says MPs have heard “expressions of real anxiety” from people in the care sector.

Why is coronavirus spreading so quickly in that sector?

And what are the latest figures for care home deaths?

Raab says he has already given that figure.

There is a challenge in care homes, he says.

He says the government has made “good progress” in reducing the level of community transmission, but there have been problems in hospitals and care homes.

With care homes, the challenge is controlling the ebb and flow of people in and out. He says the sector is diverse.

But there is a plan to address this, he says. Testing for care homes is being increased.

This is a challenge.

But it is a challenge we can grip and must grip.

Sir Keir Starmer offers his congratulations to the PM and Carrie Symonds. He says they must have gone through great anxiety in recent weeks, and he says he is glad that they must be relieved.

He says there are now at least 27,241 coronavirus deaths. But that is probably an understatement.

He says the PM talked on Monday about the UK’s apparent success on coronavirus. But this is not a success, he says. He says these figures are “truly dreadful”.

Raab says it is difficult to interpret the coronavirus death figures, because of the different ways they are recorded.

This is a global pandemic, he says. The reality is that we know a lot more about the virus than we did.

He says he shares the “joint horror” at these deaths.

But he says it is too early to make international comparisons. If they are to be done, they should be done on a per head basis, he says.

James Cartlidge, a Conservative, asks what can be done to free up the NHS so that patients with cancer and other conditions can be treated.

Dominic Raab offers his congratulations to the PM and his fiancee.

He offers his condolences to the families and friends of the 85 NHS workers and 23 social care workers who have died with coronavirus.

And he offers birthday wishes to the veteran NHS fundraiser Capt Tom Moore, who is 100 tomorrow.

Turning to Cartlidge, he says the government is planning to ensure the NHS can treat more non-coronavirus patients.

Sir Lindsay Hoyle, the Commons Speaker, opens PMQs by congratulating the prime minster and his partner.

From the former prime minister David Cameron, who celebrated the birth of a baby while he was in No 10

You can see who is down to ask a question on PMQs on what is now called the “call list” produced by Commons officials.

Shinzo Abe, the Japanese PM, has offered his congratulations to Boris Johnson.

The Australian PM, Scott Morrison, has also offered his best wishes.

And this is from Woody Johnson, the US ambassador to the UK.

More offers of congratulations to the PM and Carrie Symonds.

From Scotland’s first minister, Nicola Sturgeon

From the mayor of London, Sadiq Khan

From Northern Ireland’s first minister, Arlene Foster

Congratulations in both Welsh and English from Wales’s first minister Mark Drakeford

More migrant health and care workers on the frontline of the fight against coronavirus will be automatically granted free visa extensions, the government has said.

The Home Office previously announced that doctors, nurses and paramedics from overseas with visas due to expire before 1 October will receive an automatic one year extension free of charge.

This list will now be expanded to include midwives, radiographers, social workers and pharmacists, Priti Patel announced.

It will apply to those working both in the NHS and independent sector and include their family members.

All will be exempt for the Immigration Health Surcharge for the duration of the extension.

Those eligible for the extension will be identified by health and care employers across the UK.

The home secretary added that family members and dependents of healthcare workers who die as a result of contracting the virus will be offered immediate indefinite leave to remain.

Boris Johnson will be taking paternity leave not now but later this year, Sky News is reporting.

With the government having to take quite momentous decision about whether and how to relax the lockdown between now and next Thursday, that won’t come as a huge surprise.

Sir Lindsay Hoyle, the Commons Speaker, has issued a statement congratulating the PM and his partner that includes a line that may be an entry for truism of the year. He says:

On behalf of everyone in the House of Commons, may I say congratulations to the prime minister and Carrie Symonds on the birth of their son. Such happy news amid so much uncertainty – 2020 is certainly a year they will never forget.

People living in urban and the most deprived areas of the UK could be more exposed or vulnerable to coronavirus, the latest data from the Covid-19 Symptom Tracker app suggests.

Scientists analysing the findings, which have yet to be peer-reviewed, have found that the virus is disproportionately more common and more severe in those located in urban areas and regions of higher poverty.

Dr Cristina Menni, the lead researcher from King’s College London, said previous research shows deprivation is closely linked with increased health issues and disease burden, and this seems to also be the case with Covid-19. She added:

This could reflect that individuals in more deprived areas are more exposed or vulnerable to the virus.

It may be that they work in jobs requiring work out of the home, where they are more likely to be exposed to circulating virus.

Dr Claire Steves, joint senior author from King’s College London, added:

This finding is important for allocation of resources in this pandemic. Areas with higher rates of poverty will need greater supply of personal protective equipment and more hospital capacity. This is likely to continue to be important when the social distancing measures are eased.

The analysis was based on more than 2 million people in the UK who used the app to log their daily health status over 24 days immediately after social distancing measures were introduced.

The data also indicates that the number of cases and their severity have decreased since the lockdown began.

A lottery winner whose father died after contracting coronavirus has mowed an NHS logo and rainbow into his lawn in tribute to those who helped care for his dad.

Barry Maddox’s father, Frankie, died five weeks ago at the age of 86 after testing positive for Covid-19. He said:

This bit of lawn mowing is our way of saying thank you to the NHS for all they have done for our family, and for so many other families.

And in some ways, I also hope it’s something for dad to look down at us and have a chuckle.

His wife, Sue Richards, added:

Alongside clapping and banging pans on a Thursday evening, staying home, staying safe and washing our hands, this is our thank you.

At the education committee this morning Gavin Williamson, the education secretary, said he was “very open” to proposals that could help disadvantaged pupils who may have been disproportionately affected by the lockdown. This is from Robert Halfon, the Conservative MP who chairs the committee.

Some 50 MPs from the north of England have backed a call for secondary schools to get £700 for every pupil on free school meals to help those children catch up after the lockdown. And there is a separate proposal for graduate volunteers to be recruited to tutor these pupils to help ensure they do not fall behind.

Good morning! I’m Lucy Campbell, joining the blog for the rest of the day. We’ll be bringing you all the latest updates on the coronavirus in the UK, so please feel free to get in touch to share any ideas and tips.

Email: lucy.campbell@theguardian.com
Twitter: @lucy_campbell_

Police figures reveal a sharp rise in requests to know about a partner’s abusive past since lockdown measures came into force.

Police Scotland say that requests under their domestic abuse disclosure scheme have increased by 18% since lockdown began.

However, the majority of the requests are being made by police officers and other professionals, raising a concern about someone they think may be at risk of domestic abuse. Police Scotland can then make a decision about whether to reveal the information in the interests of safeguarding a person.

Nearly 260 requests for disclosure were made between the start of lockdown on 23 March to 27 April 2020, compared to 219 in 2019.

Assistant chief constable Duncan Sloan, lead for major crime and public protection at Police Scotland, said: “Domestic abuse is an ongoing threat in our local communities and there remains an increased risk as people continue to observe isolation and physical distancing guidance. Police Scotland will not tolerate domestic abuse, tackling it and preventing it is a priority for us and that has not changed because of Covid-19.”

Pharmaceutical giant AstraZenenca has said it is assessing the use of two of its drugs to combat the effects of Covid-19.

The UK-listed firm is evaluating Calquence - a drug used to treat chronic lymphocytic leukaemia - to suppress inflammation in the lungs and other organs in Covid-19 patients.

And Farxiga – predominantly used for heart failure and kidney disease – is being assessed to see if it can potentially reduce organ failure.

The firm’s chief executive, Pascal Soriot, said:

I could not be prouder of how the AstraZeneca team has responded to the challenges of Covid-19.

We moved quickly to maintain continuity of care, contribute to society, and use our scientific expertise to fight the pandemic.

We hope our efforts to protect organs from damage, mitigate the cytokine storm and the associated hyperinflammatory state, and target the virus prove to be successful.

Furloughed staff should be allowed to work reduced hours and the jobs scheme should be extended to at least the end of September, according to employers.

A survey of more than 1,000 employers found support for the government’s Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme to be made more flexible.

The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) warned that without changes, the scheme could prove to be a “waiting room” for unemployment and fail to protect significant numbers of the jobs it set out to save.

Around half of those questioned said they have furloughed staff, while another 10% plan to do so.

Seven in 10 employers that have already used or are considering using the furlough scheme said that up to half of affected staff could potentially work reduced hours.

Priti Patel, the home secretary, has started giving evidence to the home affairs committee about her department’s response to the coronavirus crisis. There is a live feed at the top of the blog.

At the start of the hearing Patel and Yvette Cooper, the Labour chair of the committee, both offered their congratulations to the PM and his partner.

Friends and colleagues of a staff nurse who died after contracting coronavirus have paid tribute to him as a well-liked professional who worked constantly to help others.

The United Lincolnshire hospitals NHS trust confirmed Anujkumar Kuttikkottu Pavithran, 44, died on April 27.

In a statement, the trust chief executive, Andrew Morgan, said he was deeply saddened to share news of his colleague’s death.

The statement added: “Anujkumar Kuttikkottu Pavithran, known as Kumar to his colleagues, was a staff nurse at Pilgrim hospital, Boston. He was a very well-liked, professional, respected member of the team and will be greatly missed.

“We are all sending our heartfelt condolences to Kumar’s family, friends and colleagues at this incredibly difficult time.”

A community group which supports the Pilgrim hospital said the nurse had paid a “terrible price” for putting patients first. More than £26,000 has so far been donated to a fundraising appeal set up on Facebook to help the NHS worker’s family.

A statement inviting donations to the fundraising page said the nurse had worked for the NHS for the past nine years.

I am putting together a list of all the health-worker staff who have died, please contribute by alerting me to any missed names.

The archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, has sent his congratulations to Boris Johnson and his partner, Carrie Symonds.

And the archbishop of York, John Sentamu, has as well.

For once political Twitter has found something it can agree on. Here is a selection of messages of congratulations to the PM coming from MPs.

From Sajid Javid, the Tory former chancellor

From Brandon Lewis, the Northern Ireland secretary

From Sir Ed Davey, the acting Lib Dem leader

From David Lammy, the shadow justice secretary

From Tracy Brabin, the shadow culture secretary

A former youth jail that was shut down after years of allegations of mistreatment of inmates by staff is to reopen to house adult prisoners as part of measures taken to limit the spread of the coronavirus.

Medway Secure Training Centre (STC), which closed in March, will be temporarily reopened as an annex to nearby Rochester prison, housing up to 70 category D - that is, low risk - adult prisoners, the Ministry of Justice said.

More than 300 temporary single-occupancy cells out of planned 500 have now been installed across nine prisons, the MoJ added.

Temporary cells have now been installed to serve prisons at Highpoint and Hollesley Bay in Suffolk and North Sea Camp in Lincolnshire, while work continues at Askham Grange near York, Coldingley in Surrey, Hatfield in South Yorkshire, Lindholme in Doncaster, Littlehey in Cambridgeshire, Moorland near Doncaster and Wymott in Lancashire.

When it closed, Medway STC was publicly-run but had previously been operated by the private company G4S, which was stripped of its contract in 2016 shortly after an undercover Panorama documentary alleged that staff at the centre were abusing inmates. A Guardian exposé also revealed a history of abuse allegations at the centre.

The latest modelling by Public Health England and the Prison Service showed the spread rates of infection and deaths caused by Covid-19 have been much lower than expected and said there was cause for “cautious optimism though significant threats remain”.

I am continuing on the live feed for the next hour. Please do get in touch with me if you want to share any comments or have news tips.

Twitter: @sloumarsh
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Email: sarah.marsh@theguardian.com

Just one in 10 people supports a government bailout for the airline industry without strings attached to tackle climate pollution, a survey suggests.

Asked if airlines should get bailouts separate to existing support for businesses provided by the government, just over a quarter (26%) backed such a move, and 37% opposed it, the poll found.

When it came to potential conditions for a bailout as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, only 11% said airlines should get cash from the government regardless of their climate change policies.

More than a third (35%) said money should only go to airlines if they adhered to the UK’s international climate change commitments, and 28% were convinced there should be no bailouts.

Matt Hancock, the health secretary, was one of the first cabinet ministers to offer his congratulations to the PM.

And Sir Keir Starmer, the Labour leader, has offered his congratulations too.

Dominic Raab, the foreign secretary and first secretary of state, will be taking PMQs instead of Boris Johnson, Labour sources have revealed.

Labour has to get told so that Sir Keir Starmer can know who he will be facing.

As reported earlier, this will be seen as confirmation that Johnson has (understandably) not fully recovered from his three days in intensive care - despite No 10 suggesting otherwise this week. (See 9.22am.)

This is from Steve Back, a photographer who covers Downing Street extensively and who tweets as @PoliticalPics.

Access to coronavirus home testing kits for UK essential workers ran out in just over an hour on Wednesday morning.

Slots for millions more people, including those over 65 and those who live with them, were available to book on the government website from 8am.

Tests at regional drive-through centres ran out in Wales almost immediately but were still available in England, Scotland and Northern Ireland as of 9.15am.

Prof John Newton could not verify the idea that grandparents are safe to hug young grandchildren because they are unlikely to have the virus, adding this is a question “for the chief medical officer”.

Following reports Swiss scientists have said children under 10 pose no risk of infection from Covid-19 because they are rarely infected, Prof Newton said “there’s a lot of uncertainty”.

Speaking on the Today programme, he said:

One of the challenges we have is that coronavirus is a new infection and people are discovering things about it all the time. There’s a lot of uncertainty.

We rely on advice from Sage and our chief medical officer ... I know Sage provides its best advice to the government and is constantly updating it.

The environment secretary said airlines have had the opportunity to approach the Treasury for help after British Airways revealed plans to make 12,000 workers redundant.

Eustice told Sky News:

It’s a very difficult situation for many parts of our economy, we recognise that, we’ve not taken these decisions on lockdown lightly. Whole sectors such as catering, hospitality and, yes, airlines have suffered financial distress.

We’re very sad to hear this news about British Airways considering these redundancies. We put in place a very wide range of packages to support businesses through this time.

If there’s a specific case for a specific airline the Treasury has always been clear that they stand ready to look at any other individual case.

Morning all, I am now moving into my last half an hour on the Guardian’s UK live blog this morning. Please do get in touch with me if you want to share any comments or have news tips.

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The environment secretary, George Eustice, denied that care homes were “overlooked” in the government’s response to coronavirus. He told Today:

No, I don’t accept it was overlooked, but obviously there was a real focus on our NHS because there were concerns that it might be overwhelmed and we wanted to make sure they had absolutely everything they needed.

But in the case of care homes, we have always recognised that there was more vulnerability there.

He denied that the government had watered down its fifth goal for reducing the lockdown. The environment secretary told Sky News:

It has always been the case that we want to avoid that second peak because we want to avoid our NHS being overwhelmed.

It was simply the case that on one slide last week that second part of the sentence was omitted and it was added back in on a slide yesterday.

I think there’s a sort of obsession about nothing over this, to be honest.

Morning all, I am running the Guardian’s UK live blog this morning. Please do get in touch with me if you want to share any comments or have news tips. They are always very much appreciated.

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Wallace & Gromit’s creative director has urged teenagers to try crafts usually associated with younger children during lockdown. Taking up anything from Lego to painting can be a relief from the “inward-looking” pressures of social media, Morph director Merlin Crossingham said.

“Being creative” can help “get out of your spiral” or “just the mundane process of being at home all day”, he said.

“Lots of children are revisiting creative things they did in the past, whether it’s painting or working with Lego, things they would have done at home,” he told the PA Media news agency.

Asked on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme whether the UK would end up with the highest death rate in Europe, Dr Margaret Harris, spokeswoman for the World Health Organization (WHO), said:

We won’t really know who had the highest rates, what really went on, until after this is over and we can analyse it properly.

Clearly you are having a horrendous outbreak and making a tremendous effort to care for everybody but at this stage it wouldn’t be fair to make a judgment one way or another.

The environment secretary said he was confident that enough British crop-pickers would fill the gaps this summer.

Eustice told Today:

I think it is the case we will need a significant number of British people, in particular those who have been furloughed.

I’m confident, actually, that a lot of those furloughed staff will want to lend a hand in June.

Airbus is being hit by “the gravest crisis the aerospace industry has ever known”, its chief executive, Guillaume Faury, has warned.

He made the comment as the European plane-maker revealed it lost €481m (£419m) in the first three months of the year. Revenues were down 15% compared with the same period in 2019, while commercial aircraft deliveries were down from 162 to 122.

Demand for flights has collapsed due to the coronavirus pandemic, with airlines grounding the majority of their fleets and deferring the delivery of new planes.

The coronavirus national testing coordinator, Prof John Newton, said the UK had been worse affected by the virus than Germany because of “the way it arrived in England”.

Speaking on LBC, Prof Newton compared Berlin with London, saying London is “so connected to the rest of the world”.

“This is a very unpredictable virus ... it arrives slightly differently,” he said.

“The coronavirus really took hold in England because of the way it arrived. In Germany the virus has spread differently.”

Morning everyone, I am running the Guardian’s UK live blog this morning. Please do get in touch with me if you want to share any comments or have any news tips.

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Excellent article today by my colleague Amy Walker on the bus drivers who are working in Manchester. They tell of passengers’ gratitude and tension over rising death toll.

NHS England’s cancer clinical director, Prof Peter Johnson, said “we’re doing everything we can” to avoid a spike in cancer deaths.
He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme:

They [cancer patients] should be in touch with their GP as they normally would. I completely understand that people are worried and frightened about leaving the house, about going to hospitals, about going to appointments, but we’ve taken a huge amount of trouble to make sure that cancer services can be delivered in a safe and protected way.

Of course the numbers of people coming forward have gone down and we’re very worried about that, we’re very worried about people being at home with cancers that need to be looked at.

Asked about whether a rise in cancer deaths was coming, he said:

We’re doing everything we can to avoid that. We anticipated this problem and we expected we would have to deal with this.

Dr Jane Goodall, an English primatologist and anthropologist, has said that humans need to reconsider their relationship with the animal world after the coronavirus pandemic.

A tweet today to show the stories behind those who have died in the outbreak.

The UK’s coronavirus national testing coordinator, Prof John Newton, has said he expects a “substantial number” of people living in care homes will have died, ahead of the government’s release of the figures on Wednesday.

Speaking on LBC, Prof Newton said:

We have always known that a proportion of cases have been in care homes. Sadly coronavirus affects older people a lot more ... There will be a substantial number (of deaths).

He added the government is “massively increasing” the number of tests carried out on those living and working in care homes.

Newton stressed those newly eligible for coronavirus tests should only apply for a test if they have symptoms.

The government announced on Tuesday that millions more people, including all over-65s and those living with them, were now eligible for coronavirus testing.

Newton said: “This is for people who are unwell with coronavirus symptoms, and their households ... it’s not a screen.”

He added there are a “number of ways” people can access the test, including over 40 drive-in centres, and a limited number of postage tests sent directly to homes.

“If you have symptoms, go on to gov.uk and there’s a special link that tells you how to log on and get a test,” he said.

Clinical trials on potential Covid-19 treatments could start within weeks. Six drugs will initially enter the programme being set up under the Accelerating Covid-19 Research & Development (Accord) platform.

It is part of a bid to fast-track new therapies to help tackle the disease. The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) said its aim is to accelerate the development of drugs for patients admitted to hospital with coronavirus and reduce the time it takes to set up clinical studies from months to just weeks.

The DHSC said the first of the potential drugs is beginning phase 2 studies across the UK “imminently”, the point at which a clinical trial focuses on testing a drug on patients to assess its effectiveness and any side effects.

Research by the National Youth Agency, which works with youth organisations and young people across the UK, and the children’s commissioner, published on Wednesday, shows that there are now 3 million vulnerable young people in England who need support with family relationships, mental health, domestic abuse, or other needs. That’s 2 million more vulnerable eight- to 19-year-olds needing help because of the pandemic.

Passengers travelling with P&O Cruises will be forced to pass “rigorous” medical checks before being allowed to board ships once sailings resume, the company said.

The UK’s biggest cruise line told the PA Media news agency it is developing plans to introduce a series of “stringent measures” to ensure it obeys international health guidelines when it restarts operations once the coronavirus pandemic recedes.

Other changes being considered include reducing the capacity of ships, scrapping self-service buffets and implementing one-way systems on board.

Earlier this month, easyJet announced it expected to keep middle seats empty on its planes when it restarts flights to enable social distancing.

P&O Cruises president Paul Ludlow said the cruise line was working with authorities such as Public Health England to ensure sailings adhere to guidance “without compromising enjoyment and experience”.

He continued: “These new stringent measures which may, no doubt, encompass rigorous pre-embarkation screening, changes to the onboard experience for guests and also working with our shore experience operators and ports of call, will be in place as soon as we reintroduce our ships.

“We will then get used to them in the same way as we got used to airline hand luggage restrictions.
“They will become the new normal and they will give us reassurance and peace of mind.”

P&O Cruises confirmed last week that its sailings are suspended until at least the end of July.

I am running the Guardian’s UK live blog this morning, keeping you up to date with all the latest developments. Please do get in touch with me if you want to share any comments or have any news tips.

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Downing Street was unable to say on Tuesday night if Boris Johnson would face Keir Starmer at prime minister’s questions on Wednesday.

With less than 24 hours before the prime minister was due to appear in the House of Commons, Labour had not been informed whether Johnson would be fit enough to face Starmer, the new leader of the opposition, across the dispatch box.

No 10 said it could not confirm whether Johnson would take part, after he returned to work in Downing Street full-time on Monday amid reports he was “raring to go”.

He was described on Tuesday by Downing Street as “fine” after he chaired the daily morning coronavirus meeting and then met the chancellor and cabinet secretary. He spent the rest of the day in meetings, reading papers and doing box work.

The high-street giant Next has said that the impact of the coronavirus lockdown on trading has been “faster and steeper” than expected and said sales would remain under pressure throughout 2020.

Next, which reopened for online trading on 14 April, reported a 41% plunge in sales over its first quarter to 25 April, with high-street sales down 52% and online sales off 32%.

It said it now believed full-year sales could fall by as much as 40%, with the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic expected to leave sales lower in every quarter, even after lockdown restrictions are lifted.

Sales are expected to tumble by as much as 62% over its second quarter in the worst-case scenario.

The home secretary, Priti Patel, will be grilled by MPs about how her department has responded to the coronavirus outbreak.

Members of the Commons home affairs committee will question Patel during a virtual hearing on Wednesday morning. She will be joined by the department’s permanent secretary, Matthew Rycroft, and second permanent secretary, Shona Dunn, to be questioned about crime, policing and immigration.

In particular Patel is expected to be asked about NHS visa extensions, difficulties with the EU settlement scheme, the measures taken to help victims of domestic and child abuse as well as migrants and asylum seekers during the outbreak and the provision of personal protective equipment (PPE) for police.

Morning everyone, I am running the Guardian’s UK live blog this morning, keeping you up to date with all the latest developments. Please do get in touch with me if you want to share any comments or have any news tips. Appreciate all the readers who send insight. Thanks so much.

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