You are watching bbc news. The transport secretary, grant shapps, led the governments daily Coronavirus Briefing today. He started by reading out the daily testing and death figures. More than 126,000 tests were carried out yesterday the highest daily testing figure since the crisis let me start by updating you on the latest information from the governments cobra data file. Through our monitoring and testing programme, as of today, 2,219,281 tests for coronavirus have now been carried out in the uk, including a new record of 126,064 tests carried out yesterday. 233,151 people have tested positive, thats an increase of 3446 cases since yesterday. 11,041 people are in hospital with covid 19, thats down 14 from a week ago. Sadly, of those tested positive for coronavirus, 33,604 and tiedeman have now died, thats an increase of 428 fatalities since yesterday. This new figure does include all deaths in all settings, not just include all deaths in all settings, notjust in hospitals. 0ur include all deaths in all settings, notjust in hospitals. Our deepest sympathies go out to the families and friends, as this nation battles to defeat the disease. Today, im going to set out how, whilst the country has been at a virtual standstill, this downtime has been used to fix and upgrade the nations road and Rail Infrastructure. Along with plans to help our economy bounce back. But before i set out todays transport announcements, let me briefly remind you of the governments road map out of this crisis. Can i have the first slide please . As you know, we have been. We have established a new covid 19 alert system with five levels, based primarily on the r value in the number of cases. Throughout the lockdown, we have been at level four. Thanks to the british people, we have brought the r down and can now begin moving carefully to level three. Can i have slide two . From this week, we are in step one, that slide, meaning that those who cannot work from home it should now speak to their employer about going back to their employer about going back to work. You can now spend Time Outdoors and exercise as much as you like. You can meet one person who is not part of your household outside, provided you do stay two metres apart. Step two, from june the 1st, at the earliest, and as long as it is safe, we aim and to allow primary schools to reopen it for some pupils in smaller class sizes. 90 Centre Retail to start to reopen, and cultural and sporting events to take ca re cultural and sporting events to take care behind closed doors and without crowds. 90 sensual retail. Step three, no earlier than july crowds. 90 sensual retail. Step three, no earlier thanjuly the 4th, and only if the data says its safe to do so, we aim to allow more businesses to open, those including offering personal care, those in the leisure sector, together with places of worship. Next slide, please. We cant control this virus if we stay alert can. But what do staying alert can. But what do staying alert actually mean . Staying alert for the vast majority of still mean staying at home as much as possible and working from home if you can, but it also means limiting contact with other people, keeping your distance if you go out, washing your hands regularly, wearing a Face Covering in enclosed spaces, where its difficult to be socially distance, for example, on public transport. If you or anyone in your household has symptoms, you all need to self isolate. Today, i want to update you on the measures we are taking to speed up our economic recovery while keeping people safe. For two months, we have remained locked down, travelling as little as possible, and in doing so, the whole country has protected the nhs and help to reduce the number of covid 19 infections. But as we begin, making tentative steps towards restarting our economy, and people in some sectors who cant work from home are beginning to return to work places. It is clear that transport has a Critical Role to play. Last saturday, explain why i its our civic duty to avoid public transport if at all possible, because even when we have 100 of the services up and running, then there would only be socially distant Space Available for one in ten passengers. Therefore, in order to help reduce crowding, we set out a £2 billion programme to put cycling and walking at the heart of transport, with £250 million of that emergency money spending already under way. Over the past week, we follow this up by publishing three pieces of detailed guidance. First, for local authorities in england, explaining how they should prepare for significantly increased numbers of both cyclists and pedestrians. Next, for the transport sector, to ensure that they provide Safer Services for those travelling and safer workplaces for their staff. Third, and most importantly, for passengers, we are asking the public to help ensure that the transport system to help ensure that the transport syste m d oes to help ensure that the transport system does not become significantly overwhelmed by returning commuters. The guidance makes it clear that if you cant walk or cycle, but you do have access to a car, please use it rather than travelling by bus, train ortram, rather than travelling by bus, train or tram, especially where public transport is liable to be overcrowded, and for those people who absolutely need to use public transport, it also explains how you can best protect yourself and those around you. In the coming weeks, as we carefully and cautiously restart sectors of our economy, and people begin to travel once again, they should notice that whilst the country has been in downtime, with the roads and railways quiet, we have been busy, getting on with the essential work, fixing the nations infrastructure, so we can recover faster when the time comes. This upgrade programme is the kind of work that at any other time would cause inevitable disruption and service delays, whilst costing the taxpayer more, has instead carried out previously unimaginable circumstances of a largely unused transport network. For example, we have completed 419 separate network rail projects over easter, with a further 1000 upgrades being carried out throughout the may bank holiday. Meanwhile, highways england has been busy accelerating maintenance progress took my project on the main roads. Lastly, for example, we opened the vital 814 upgrade, seven months ahead of schedule. This is a route normally used by 85,000 drivers daily, which will dramatically improve access to the uks largest container port and permanently boost the distribution of goods around the uk. As Northern Powerhouse minister, i can report that in the north, we have delivered £96 million of Rail Infrastructure improvements during april, and throughout the country, we have accelerated maintenance projects on road and rail, whilst always sticking to Public Health england safety guidelines. So that altogether, highways england has delivered over £200 million of upgrades, and network rail has delivered £550 million worth during april alone. I would like to thank the army of transport and construction workers who have been grafting very hard throughout this lockdown. But to make sure that britain is ready to bounce back from coronavirus, today, i can announce nearly £2 billion to upgrade our roads and our railways, to put our transport infrastructure in the best possible shape, and to get our economy growing once again. This package includes £1. 7 billion for local roads, making journeys smoother and saferfor local roads, making journeys smoother and safer for drivers, whole years, cyclists, motorcyclists, pedestrians and others. By feeling millions of dangerous potholes, we can make our roads safer and encourage more people to cycle, or even take part in the upcoming e scooter trials, helping more people play our part in relieving public pressure on public transport. This investment will help fix the damage caused by the winter flooding, repair roads and bridges, and fund numerous road improvement schemes. As more people become mobile again, we will also be building a network of rapid charging stations for electric cars, including a big expansion of rapid charging facilities at the Motorway Service stations, helping the country to lock in the dramatic air Quality Improvements weve experienced during the coronavirus lockdown. Amid all the sad news in the tragedy of loved ones weve lost, weve somehow managed to do things and weeks that would normally ta ke yea rs. Things and weeks that would normally take years. Building new hospitals, moving Public Services online, making instant reforms and fast track new laws, extraordinary changes in the way that employers and employees work, effectively taking swathes of the economy online, almost overnight. Now, we wa nt to online, almost overnight. Now, we want to ensure that we can maintain this momentum, and building if building a new hospital takes just two weeks, why should building new roads still take as long as 20 yea rs . Roads still take as long as 20 years . If gp surgeries can move online, why are most rail passengers still travelling on cardboard tickets . We must exploit our new found capacity to respond to pace and apply it to rapidly improving our infrastructure. We must examine why it is that bureaucratic bind weed makes british infrastructure some of the costliest and slowest in europe to build. Because whilst many will continue to work from home after this crisis, both the transport trend the pressing need communities to level up pressing need communities to level up across pressing need communities to level up across the country dictate that infrastructure will be even more important in stimulating our recovery and securing supporting new jobs. So, by combining vast Home Internet access with vastly upgraded transport connections, we can help revive many of our small and medium sized towns, which over the decades, have been left behind. This has been a devastating start to the year, not just for britain, but for the world, and we are only at phase one of that recovery plan, but we all know that it is our reaction to adversity that will ultimately define how we recover. We must harness our approach to tackling the pandemic and apply it to rebuilding our own infrastructure, with the same swift action, innovation and collective determination that is characterised us over determination that is characterised us over the past few weeks. And in doing so, we can emerge stronger. I would like to turn out tojohn it for the data figures. Thank you, secretary of state. Good afternoon to you all. Im going to go through todays slides, beginning with some new data. These are social distancing data. Theyve been collected by the office for national statistics, and they represent the period from the 24th of april to the 3rd of may this year. What they showed you quite clearly is that 80 of adults in Great Britain only left their homes for the permitted reasons, if at all. 91 of adults avoided contact with Vulnerable People and compared with 12 last year, people and compared with 12 last yea r, 44 of people and compared with 12 last year, 44 of employed adults worked from home in that period. So, you can see that there have been very dramatic and very important changes that the british people have made that the british people have made that have contributed to where we are now, in terms of being able to begin easing the social distancing restrictions that weve been under for so many weeks. Next slide, please. Now, this slide shows you in a bit more detail, testing and new cases across the uk from the period 6th of april, on the left of the graph, through to the 14th of may, on the right. The top array in pink is testing. Please bear in mind that some people, very small proportion, will have been tested more than once, but nevertheless, on the 14th of may, 126,000 tests were recorded were performed. This is a new record. It goes on the back of over 2. 2 million tests delivered in total, and in terms of confirmed cases, on the 14th of may, there we re cases, on the 14th of may, there were 3446 confirmed cases against the total of 233,151. If you look carefully at the bottom graph, the green graph, you can now see a gradual downward trend in the number of confirmed cases. Next slide, please. These are new data again, recently published by the office for national statistics, based upon a survey of households that will eventually get to a total size of 10,000 households surveyed. What it shows you are data from the 27th of april through to the 10th of may. These are estimates, based upon the sample, but these are estimates for all of england. The estimate is that in that time period, 148,000 patients people were infected with covid 19, that is 0. 27 of the english population, which isjust under three people infected in every 1000. So that is really now quite a low level of infection in the community that is being picked up through the survey. This survey will be repeated regularly. 0ver through the survey. This survey will be repeated regularly. Over time, its going to be able to show us Regional Trends and regional data, and the data will feed into the joint Bio Security Centre to help us keep a very close eye on covid 19 as we move forwards. Next slide, please. Im turning now to the data from hospitals. The upper curve shows new daily admissions from the 24th of march through to the 12th of may. The bottom curve shows the percentage of Critical Care beds occupied by covid 19 patients. And therefore, traces their recovering covering the five traces, i beg your pardon, covering four traces covering the four nations of the uk. What you can see on both of those slides are now long, steady declines in admissions and the proportion of Critical Care beds occupied by covid 19 patients. This is clearly extremely good news and shows that the pressure on hospitals is now beginning to ease. The next page, please, thank you. This further data shows the total number of people in hospital with covid 19 across the uk. The general pattern across the uk, you can see now, is clearly downwards. There has been a 14 drop in the total number of people in hospital since last week, and again, this is moving in the right direction. Next slide, please. This slide, sadly, shows deaths due to covid 19. Confirmed with a positive test right across the uk, beginning at the 14th of march on the left of the slide and moving to the 14th of may. And there have been 428 deaths with a confirmed test reported on the 14th of may, but, as importantly now, if you look at the slide itself, and look at the yellow curve picking out the seven day rolling average, this decline is now continuing and is sustained. Which isa continuing and is sustained. Which is a very positive sign, indeed. Thank you, sir. Thank you, sir. Thank you, sir. Thank you very much, jonathan. We turn out to questions for us from the members of the public. Helen from cheshire. My son is due to start the final year of his engineering degree at durham in october, which cannot be done purely online. He has to start paying rent online. He has to start paying rent on his Student Housing injuly and ta ke on his Student Housing injuly and take out the student loan of £9,250 in august. If lectures move on mine, he will be thousands of pounds were soft and will also miss out on the student experience. There was no mention of students or universities in the governments plan to rebuild on monday. What does the governments plan for students and universities this autumn . Thank you. Thank you, helen. We certainly share an interest. I also have a son at university, wondering about exactly the same issues. That of course comes down to what happens with the. 0f comes down to what happens with the. Of the decline in this disease, and of course, it will be the case that if we can get those numbers down, in different parts of the economy different parts of the economy different parts of the economy different parts of the economy will start to reopen. I think its too early to say, but the education secretary will be returning to the subject and will be providing us all with further guidance, and like you, helen, im very interested to hear it when it comes. There is something we can all do in the meantime, which is when we say stay alert, we ensure that we do have that social distancing in place, particularly as some of the tentative first baby steps in the on lockdown start to happen. I think its a wait and see, but we are absolutely aware of the concerns and wa nt to absolutely aware of the concerns and want to make sure that we beat this virus ina want to make sure that we beat this virus in a way that can allow parts of society, including education, further education, to get going again. Cani further education, to get going again. Can i turn to nanny from farnborough, and this is going to be a written question. Naomi. Yes, naomi, it is definitely the case that we want the nhs, which as jonathan was just demonstrating, has capacity increasingly coming back into it, because the number of people in hospitalfor into it, because the number of people in hospital for covid 19 into it, because the number of people in hospitalfor covid 19 has been coming down, to be able to take up been coming down, to be able to take up routine operations. Many of which have been stopped, but some of which i know that the Health Secretary has referred to specifically come and he will be saying more about that soon. I dont know, jonathan, was there anything you wanted to add to that . 0nly really to say that we absolutely understand that the National Health service is not a covid 19 treatment service, it has had to focus on that in the last few months, but we are very conscious, everybody in health is conscious of the fact that as soon is physically and humanly possible, Services Must be restored to normal. But that ta kes be restored to normal. But that takes time, and it has to be done at a paste, measured in safeway. Takes time, and it has to be done at a paste, measured in safewaym takes time, and it has to be done at a paste, measured in safeway. It is worth noting that at no time has the nhs become overwhelmed, weve got the nightingale hospitals, weve managed to increase the capacity, and the nhs has done a phenomenal job of that. So, asjonathan rightly says, we want to make sure that it is therefore everything, and we also encourage people to continue contacting their gp, or dialling 111 to make sure that they are getting the support that they require from the support that they require from the nhs. Can we turn now to questions from the media, allison holt from the bbc. Secretary of state, there is growing anger amongst people within it the ca re anger amongst people within it the care sector about what they see as the ongoing slowness of the governments response to their needs, their problems. They are still waiting, for instance, for details of the Infection Control plan that was announced yesterday, its two months into the pandemic. What would you say to reassure them that this is going to change . And also a question for my sports colleagues for part the professor, you have been involved with talks with premier league players, how likely is it to be safe enough to return to competitive footballjune the 12th . Allison, thank you very much, indeed. Look, with care homes, they are actually specialist in Infection Control. Thats something that care homes i understand often routinely are the front line of handling, often more so than hospitals. Many of them, all of them, will be knowing exactly what to do, and a testament to that is that in the majority, the vast majority of care homes, covid 19 hasnt been reported at all. However, it certainly is the case, and we have seen these figures from the who who say that in europe, as a whole, over 50 of deaths have taken place and care homes, but not so in english care homes, the figure has been about 25 overall, but it is absolutely essential that they are provided with every provision from i just want to give you an example of that. Care homes often privately owned, or are actually always buying their own ppe, thats how its a lwa ys their own ppe, thats how its always worked. The government stepped in very quickly to come although, as you know, well covered, massive global shortage, helped to provide ppe to care homes with millions of pieces delivered. So there has been a sort of big National Effort to assist them, and i know that the Health Secretary will be saying more about that soon, bikes, i dont want to sort of underestimate the extraordinary work that has gone into care homes to make sure that most of them have indeed remain covert free in the meantime as well. I will go to jana for now, if you would like to come. Thank you, secretary. 0n football. As you know, the overall approach with using social distancing has been one that has been tentative, measured, slow and stepwise, that is exactly the plan that is under way for all of the lead sports, notjust football, that there will be small, carefully measured stepwise approaches to seeing what can be achieved safely. The first of those is really to return to safe training, still observing social distancing, and measures are, you know, taking place, and plans are taking place at quite some depth to be ready to do that. And that will be ready to do that. And that will bea be ready to do that. And that will be a stepwise thing. We will have to see how that goes before it is time to move on or even think about moving on to the return of competitive football matches, as you have outlined in your question. I think we have to be slow, we have to be measured. Hello. It may have turned into a pleasant afternoon out there, but it was a chilly start for the time of year this morning. Here is one of our weather watchers in derbyshire, making a statement about the frosty ice and of course the date. And there will be a touch of frost in places again tonight, but, things are changing. Were in the blue, the chilly air for the time of year at the moment, the air coming down from the north or the northwest, but a gradual change to the air beginning to gin from the south, and temperatures heading up over the weekend, not with sunshine everywhere, there will be a bit of rain in some spots, but not for everyone if you do want it on the garden. We have had a few showers today, and so we will continue overnight across particularly the northern half of scotland, the odd one to Northern Ireland, maybe a rouge one pushing into northwestern parts of england. Now, for many of us, temperatures are a bit tired tonight, but through particularly wales and the southern half of england, its staying clearest for longest overnight. This is where temperatures will get close to freezing with a touch of frost in the coldest spots. Starting with some sunshine perhaps tomorrow, but the cloud will increase, and it will be a cloudier day across much of the uk tomorrow, particularly into england and wales. Some cloud, some sunny spells for Northern Ireland and scotland, a chance of a shower, more especially again across the northern half of scotland, but you may see one in northwest england, in wales, and temperatures are a little bit higher, 17 for cardiff and for london. High pressure has kept many of us dry this week, thats now, into the weekend, being squeezed away southwards. Weather front is beginning to get closer from the atlantic, more especially by sunday. Now, for saturday, pretty much as you were. Still a few showers running into especially the northern half of scotland, one or two per Northern Ireland, much of england and wales will stay dry, some cloud, some sunny spells around, and temperatures around about the mid teens. For part two of the weekend on sunday, thats when those weather fronts i showed you start to come into play. But not for everyone, so if you do want to rain, it really is just towards Northern Ireland and scotland, and particularly western scotland will see that rain moving in. You may see some towards northwest england, thats not yet guaranteed. Again, much of england and wales will stay dry, there will be some hazy sunshine, and temperatures edging up a bit. Where you do get to see some sunshine, temperatures will more widely be heading up into next week. This is 0utside source on bbc news for viewers in the uk and around the world. Were covering all the latest coronavirus developments here in britain and globally. In the united states, the chair of the Influential Senate Intelligence Committee richard burr steps down while hes investigated for alleged Insider Trading during the coronavirus pandemic. Meanwhile, a former top official turned whistleblower warns congress
vimarsana.com © 2020. All Rights Reserved.