Briefing from downing street which was held earlier today. It was led by the culture secretary, 0liver dowden. Im pleased to bejoined by professor steve pallas. First of all, i would like to update you on the latest data in respect of the coronavirus response. First of all, 2,000,960 tests of coronavirus have now been carried out in the united kingdom. That includes 177,216 tests which were carried out yesterday. 248,293 people have tested positive. That is an increase of 2472 cases since yesterday. 9953 people are currently in hospital with coronavirus, that is down 13 from 11,443 this time last week. And sadly, of those who have tested positive for coronavirus across all settings, 35,701; have now sadly died. That is an increase of 363 fatalities since yesterday. Of course, my thoughts are with every one of the families of those people who have been affected by this. Before we begin questions from the public and media, i want to remind people of the details of the next phase of our fight against coronavirus. Slide one, please. As you will see, first, in order to monitor our process, we are establishing a new covid alert system, with five levels. The alert system will be based primarily on the number of coronavirus cases and the r value. In turn, that alert level will determine the level of social distancing measures in place. The lower the level, the fewer the measures. The higher the level, the stricter the measures. Throughout the period of lockdown, which started march 23, we have been at level four. But thanks to the hard work and sacrifices of the british people in this lockdown, we have helped bring down the r level and are in a position to begin moving towards a level three in careful steps. Slide two, please. As you will see from this slide, we have set out the first of three steps we will take to carefully modify the measures. Gradually ease the lockdown and begin to allow people to return to their normal way of life. But, crucially, avoiding what would be a disastrous second peak which overwhelms the nhs. After each step, we will closely monitor the impact of that step on r and the number of infections and all the available data and we will only take the next step when we are satisfied that it is safe to do so. So, step one, as the Prime Minister announced this week. Those who cannot work from home should now speak to their employer about going back to work. You can spend Time Outdoors and exercise as often as you like and you can meet one person outside your household in an outdoor public place, provided that you stay two metres apart. Slide three, please. So, as you will see, having taken the first step in carefully adjusting some of the measures and our advice on what people can do, we have also updated what we are asking people to do, which is to stay alert, control the virus and save lives. Yes, staying alert for the vast majority of people still means staying at home as much as possible. But there are a range of other actions we are advising people to take. People should stay alert by working from home if you can. Limiting contact with other people, keeping distance if you go out, two metres apart where possible, and washing your hands regularly. Wearing a Face Covering when you are in enclosed places, where it is difficult to be socially distant, for instance on public transport and in some shops. And if you or anyone in your household has symptoms, you all need to self isolate. Because if everyone stays alert and follows the rules, we can control coronavirus by keeping the r down and reducing the number of infections. This is how we can continue to save lives and livelihoods as we begin, as a nation, to recover from coronavirus. Now, over the past months, we have all naturally been focused on the huge life or death Health Implications of this pandemic. But i would now like to provide an update on some of the crucial work taking place behind the scenes to support and protect the things that give our lives added meaning, such as sport, art, tourism and our charities, music and theatres. When we look back on the coronavirus, one of the things we will remember is the incredible contribution made by so many people. As a way of showing our National Gratitude to these everyday covid heroes, we are announcing today that we are delaying her majesty the queens birthday honours list until the autumn so they can be recognised and celebrated. And as the Prime Minister said today, im delighted her majesty the queen has approved a knighthood for captain tom moore in recognition of his Outstanding Achievement in raising nearly £33 million for nhs charities. Captain tom set a marker of generosity and the public matched it. Remarkably, it looks like british people and businesses have contributed over £800 million and that is just through National Fundraising campaigns alone and a great deal more has obviously been raised at local levels. As the british people have generously given their time and their money, the government has sought to back them every step of the way. So we promised to match every penny raised by the bbcs big night in campaign and after a fantastic public response, im delighted to announce today that over £70 million is now being distributed by comic relief, children in need and the National Emergencies trust to charities on the front line. This comes on top of the hundreds of millions of pounds we have already announced the charity is doing vital work to support those suffering from poor mental health, to help the victims of Domestic Abuse and make sure hospices can continue to care forfamilies in these most difficult of circumstances. And today, im pleased to confirm that the governments dedicated support scheme for small and Medium Sized Charities that Coronavirus Community support fund will open for applications this week. Initially, there will be a £200 million tranche of government funding and this will be administered by the National LotteryCommunity Fund and will focus on those charities we may not know nationally but who are a lifeline to communities at a local level. On top of that, i can also announce today that we are releasing £150 million from dormant accounts to help social Enterprises GetAffordable Credit to people who are financially vulnerable and so support charities tackling youth unemployment. So our charities both large and small have been at the forefront of this National Effort and together all of this amounts to a multi billion pound boost for britains charities. I know that people are also eager for news of the return of live sports and the arts. I know that the last few months have felt rather odd without them and our calendars have been strangely bare. Finding creative, crowd free ways to navigate coronavirus is the biggest challenge for our recreation and leisure sectors right now. So, this week i am setting up a Renewal Task Force which will help them bounce back. It will be made up of the brightest and the best from creative tech and sporting world. These are experts in their field and they will be advising me on how they find new and different ways to get industries back up and running. Just to give you a few examples, it includes alex scott, a former lioness and 0lympian are now an Award Winning broadcaster. She will help us think through how we can get sport back safely in a way that works for both clubs, players and supporters alike. Similarly, the former chairman of the bbc and itv will provide an insight as to how we get our creative and Media Industries back up and flourishing again. And the English National ballets artistic director will give us ideas for how we start to get our arts scene back up and running. Martha lane fox, well known as founder of last minute dot com, will advise on how tech can power all this recovery across all the sectors, but particularly in tourism as part of the much wider role it will play in driving our economy forward as it has done already. Meanwhile, bit by bit, we are developing guidance which is helping some of the lighter bits of our economy return to this new normal. So we had supported the safe return of tv production, meaning our broadcasters are able to keep some of our favourite shows back on the tv screens, whether it is coronation street or eastenders. We have helped to reopen the country plasma tennis and basketball courts and guided elite athletes back into training safely because of that in turn will pave the way for the return of live sports behind closed doors in the are near future. Normal life as we have known it is still clearly a long way off. The path to get there is a narrow one but these things will return, when it is safe for them to do so, and thanks to the same drive and creativity that makes a great performance or a great piece of art. I really think that when they do and when we have overcome this crisis together, we will appreciate them that much more. With that, i will hand over to professor stephen powis. Thank you and good afternoon. If i could go through the data slides for today with which im sure you have become familiar. The first slide shows information on social distancing and how the British Public have responded to the request that we will socially distance in order to reduce the rate at which the virus, the coronavirus, is transmitted through our communities. As ive said before, its only by doing that that we will keep this under control, that we will reduce the number of deaths that we have unfortunately seen in the number of admissions to the nhs and the pressure on the nhs. So this slide shows a number of graphs, data from both vehicle mobility, so transport in cars and light vehicles and heavy goods vehicles. You can see there has been a slow increase in vehicle movements, probably recently reflecting the desire for people who can return to work who cant work from home returning. But on public transport, national rail, transport for london and bus outside of london, you can see that the levels of usage are still very low and very much down on what they were before social distancing measures were introduced. Again, evidence that the British Public has responded to and complied with the instructions that we have all been given. 0n the next slide, we start to look at testing and a number of new cases that are test positive. As you had from the secretary of state, there has been an increase in recent weeks, both in the capacity of testing and a number of people who are being tested. You can see that in the graph at the start. We are now nearly up to 3 million tests that have been performed in total. In the lower graph, you can see the number of daily confirmed cases. As ive said recently, although the Testing Capacity has increased in the number of tests have increased, the number of daily confirmed cases has not increased. In fact, its stable or perhaps even falling. I think that shows that the amount of transmission, the amount of virus in the community is falling and with a r rate less than one, that is exactly what we would expect. In the next slide, we see how that translates into the usage of hospitals. Once again, the demir meat vast majority of people this is a mild 0nce again, the vast majority of people this is a mild illness that does not require hospital care but for a minority of people, unfortunately, hospital admission is needed and for the sickest it might require a period on our intensive care units. This shows the new daily admissions with covid i9 from march through to now. You can see that that is on a decline. We are seeing fewer and fewer daily admissions. Again, showing the benefits of social distancing