App which will be trialled on the isle of wight, people will be asked to download it, and then when they develop symptoms, they put that into the app which then alerts anyone they have had close contact with thatis they have had close contact with that is deemed at risk. I think we will hear about privacy assurances, because clearly it would contain a lot of personal information, but from what i understand, it works by people having a randomised anonymous id, so the government would never know who we are or where we are, and i think there will be a lot of assurance about that, because they are keen to get as many people as possible using the app, if it does work in the isle of wight and is launched nationally, they want lots of people using it. And we know that a few weeks ago, everybody was worried that the nhs would be overwhelmed by coronavirus, and thats when those nightingale Field Hospitals were set up in just a few days. But now we are hearing that the one in Londons Excel Centre is being put on standby, it is unused at the moment. It is, it is in hibernation. It currently has i believe less than 20 patients, so there is patients will be treated and discharged, and when that happens, it will be placed on standby and it wont accept any more patients. This was a Field Hospital that could take 4000 patients, but i understand they never got over 100. There are another six around the country, and only manchester is currently being used for patients. Glasgow, cardiff and belfast each have their own Field Hospitals, not known as nightingale hospitals, but i understand they also have very few patients. It is a positive sign, because we were worried, the government was worried the hospitals would become overwhelmed, so they built these big hospitals to take some of that strain, but theyve not been needed. Its a sign that the uk has been successful in suppressing the peak. I think may be in the future we will see them used as the nhs does more routine work, as they start doing elective operations. Lets go to downing street. The briefing is about to start. Matt hancock, the health secretary. Good afternoon and welcome to the downing street daily briefing. Im joined by the deputy chief medical officer, and byjohn newton, our coordinator for testing. Today i wa nt to coordinator for testing. Today i want to update you with the latest plans for our programme of test, track and trace. How we are going to use this massive testing capability that we have built in order to get r down, and keep r down. Before we do that, i want to remind you of what were trying to achieve. Our plan is to slow the spread and protect the nhs. So that the nhs is always there for you and your family whenever you need it. Whether for coronavirus for you and your family whenever you need it. Whetherfor coronavirus or anything else. That goal is working. The number of spare Critical Care beds in the nhs is 3413. On the latest figures, there have been 1,291,000 test for coronavirus, including 85,186 tests yesterday. 190,584 people have now tested positive for coronavirus, an increase of 3985. 13,258 people are in hospital with coronavirus. And 28,734 people have died, that is across all settings. That is an increase of 288. That figure is lower than at any point since the end of march. But as with testing, these reported figures tend to be lower over the weekend, so we do expect that number to rise. And remember, this is notjust a number. But it is a constant, insistent reminder that we must go further and faster in our National Effort in dealing with this virus. Over the last month, weve built a National Testing infrastructure capable of over 100,000 tests a day. Today the capacity stands at 108,000. This means we are now in a position to start implementing the next part of oui start implementing the next part of our plan, track and trace. The aim of test, track and trace is to hunt down and isolate the virus so it is unable to reproduce. And crucially, test, track and trace allows us to ta ke test, track and trace allows us to take a more targeted approach to lockdown while still safely containing the disease. Creating this system is a Huge National undertaking of unprecedented scale and complexity. Weve already taken britains small but brilliant diagnostics industry, taken it a global scale. Were building an army of human contact tracers who can man the phones and find the contact and support people. And of course we are developing the Contact Tracing app, which can help us deliver test, track and trace on the mass scale that we need across the country. The app, which takes full consideration of privacy and security, has already been tested in closed conditions at an raf base, and today i can announce the next steps. From tomorrow, we will begin to pilot test, track and trace on the isle of wight, starting with Health Professionals and rolling out this week to all citizens. Im grateful to the huge enthusiasm showed by islanders who know that by participating in this pilot, they are at the forefront of getting britain back on herfeet. Where the isle of wight goes, britton follows. The island has a single nhs trust, one local authority with the response ability for Public Health, a relatively low number of covid cases, and because it is an island, we can run the trial in controlled conditions, comparing the effect with the effect of what is going on on the mainland before we roll it out to the rest of the country. So here is how it will work. Last week we put in place the testing capability on the island. From tonight, the Contact Tracing capability will go live, and then tomorrow nhs staff on the island will be able to download the app. And from thursday, each one of the 80,000 households on the island will get a letter from the chief nurse with comprehensive information about the trial. Islanders will then be asked to install the app. Once youve installed the app, it will start logging the distance between your phone and other phones with an app nearby. It has been designed with a form of bluetooth that c0 nse rves power with a form of bluetooth that conserves power so the app wont drain your battery, and this log of proximity information will then be securely stored on your phone. If you become unwell with covert symptoms, you inform the nhs via the app. Other app users who you have had significant contact within the last few days will then be sent an alert by the nhs along with advice about what to do. A test ordering function will then be built in. If you are watching this and you live on the isle of wight, i have a simple message. Please, download the app to protect the nhs and save lives. By downloading the app, you are protecting your own health, youre protecting the health of your loved ones and the health of your community. I know the people of the isle of wight will embrace this with enthusiasm, because by embarking on this project and by embracing test, track and trace, you will be saving lives. The pilot is important so we can help make sure the app works as well as it possibly can, alongside the Contact Tracing system. And with your help, we will learn a lot. We will use it to make things better, and we want to hear from you. Will use it to make things better, and we want to hearfrom you. I want to stress, and this is really important, that this trial does not mean the end of social distancing on the isle of wight or anywhere else for that matter. We will only change the social distancing rules once our five tests are met. So i will end with the instruction that we all know. Please. Stay at home, protect the nhs, save lives. Or, if you live on the isle of wight, stay at home, install the app, protect the nhs, and save lives. I will now turn to professor va n and save lives. I will now turn to professor van tam to take us through the days charts. Thank you, secretary of state. Lets begin again with the five tests that we have in place for deciding if we are going to adjust the lockdown. The first is around the nhs capacity, and we are in a good position on that one. The second one is about a sustained and consistent fall in daily deaths from coronavirus, and it is now very clear in the data that we are past the peak. The next one is solid information that the rate of infection is decreasing to manageable levels right across the board. This is an indicator that we need to keep a close eye on over the next few days and weeks. The fourth one is around operational challenges, around testing and ppe, and being able to meet future demand. There are continuing challenges on ppe. It is an absolute priority to continue pushing on this, to get it right in the long run. But of course on testing, as youve heard from the secretary of state, we are in a very good position. And finally, we have to be confident that the adjustments we contemplate are not going to risk a second peak of infections. And this is really a matter of deep scientific discussion. Very close following and absorbing of the evidence, one that we are keeping a detailed scientific review as the days and weeks go by. Next slide, please. This slide shows search data of people looking at apple maps for directions for driving, walking routes or using public transport, and it tells the same story as it slides you have seen before about how, since we announced the social distancing measures, the public continue to observe the instructions to work with us, to work to protect the nhs and get case numbers down. And you can see very, very consistent trends over reduced searches for driving instructions, walking instructions and use of public transport. So we need to keep going. Lets keep going and continue to drop the curve further. Next slide, please. This is a graph showing from the 6th of april through to the 4th of may, daily tests completed for coronavirus. You can see on the right hand side the latest data showing 85,000 tests completed on the 4th of may. The capacity is 100,000 tests, and there is another lab opening next week, so this is all very encouraging. Tests are going up, people are using Testing Services more, and we are well within our capacity capability. Next slide, please. No, this slide shows new cases of coronavirus in the uk from the 21st of march. You can see that obvious peak up to a high level in early april, and then you can see a pattern that has occurred in terms of new cases right up until the 4th of new cases right up until the 4th of may. On this one, i have to say that new cases need to come down further. We have to continue to track this index, and we have to get cases lower. If you look to the next slide, please, here we have the number of people in hospital with covid 19 from the 17th of march through to the 3rd of may. And after peaksin through to the 3rd of may. And after peaks in the middle of april, you can see that in almost all areas now, there are steady but absolutely consistent declines occurring. Possibly in a small number of areas, the trend is somewhat flat, but overall there are no steady declines in the number of people in hospital. This is good news. Critical care beds, i see you beds, here again, across all four nations you can see largely continuing declines and possibly and more importantly, if you look at the access importantly, if you look at the a ccess o n importantly, if you look at the access on the left of the slide, you can see where we are in terms of capacity and there is plenty of ice eu capacity, which is extremely good. Next slide, please. Iturn now to deaths in all settings. Here you can see that there is a slow but consistent decline. You will see the weekend effect very clearly. Especially if you look at the three steps on the right hand side of the chart. Fewer deaths are actually recorded, reported at the weekends, thats an artefact of the way people report deaths, but overall, if you look at the orange line, the seven day smoothed out rolling average, there is this a slow but consistent decline, which is absolutely going on the right direction now. And then the final slide is one we have shown for some time, showing a comparison across countries dating back to the day when 50 cumulative deaths were recorded on each of the countries and we are now quite a way across the slide to 60 days and some other countries. The messages are the same, asi countries. The messages are the same, as i said to you before, there are three broad trends on this curve. But i do want to emphasise to you these are numbers, they are not rates, they do not adjust for the size of the underlying population. This is a difficulty in interpreting this data. We will, in the course of time, be able to get all excess mortality changed for this slide and that will give us a much clearer understanding of what is going on. And hopefully, that data will continue for a long period of time so that we can understand the fullness of the picture as we tried to beat this virus. I will stop there with the data and hand back to there with the data and hand back to the secretary of state. Thank you very much, jonathan. We are now going to take questions for the first question from a member of the public, we have a video from london. What is being done to ensure that the ame key workers are not disproportionately affected by covid 19 and what steps are being taken to provide support to the families of those victims who have sadly passed away . Thank you very much. An incredibly important question, two very important questions, both of which we are working hard to address. And im going to askjonathan to set out the details but what i would say absolutely from the start is that we recognise that there has been a disproportionately high number of people from black and ethnic minority backgrounds who have passed away, especially amongst care workers and those in the nhs. I pay tribute to them before and i will do so again because of the nhs is an amazing organisation that has been built on the dedication of people from all backgrounds and including many, from all backgrounds and including any from all backgrounds and including many, many have come to this country to give their lives working in the nhs, and disproportionately employs people from ethnic minority backgrounds. And yet we have seen this impact in the data and i think it has affected a lot of us working on it to see that and so weve got a lot of work going into fully understanding scientifically and making sure in every single case we learn what we can to protect people better. In terms of support for the families of those who have passed away, for those working in the nhs, we now have a programme of support that we have been able to put in place that is there for everybody who was from a family where somebody has died whilst in service, including across pharmacy, across social care, so i think thats a really important thing for us to do, to recognise the sacrifice of those who put themselves at risk by going to work in what can be dangerous conditions. Where they might be working with those who have covid 19. Jonathan. Working with those who have covid19. Jonathan. Yes, im extremely sorry whenever i hear of a Health Care Worker due to coronavirus, whether its someone from a black and Minority Ethnic Group or otherwise, it doesnt change the fact that it takes courage to work in the nhs at a time like this and its most difficult. The subject of the signal that we have so far on black and Minority Ethnic Groups, i want to say to you that we are taking it incredibly seriously, there is a very big piece of scientific work now ongoing that will report to the chief medical officer and we will get to the bottom of this, however long it ta kes bottom of this, however long it takes us. But i will also say that this is a complicated picture because when you start to study patterns of disease across different ethnic groups, you also have to take into account potential differences in the age structure between groups, also differences in the patterns of underlying medical conditions, which we know do vary by ethnic group and therefore it is a complicated picture. Also deprivation has to be taken into account, where people live, and all of this is complex, it ta kes live, and all of this is complex, it takes time and im not going to rush that answer. I think we owe it to Minority Ethnic Groups to get this right and to get a clear signal for you. You will have worked out i am from an Ethnic Minority Group and we will get to the bottom of this. It could be that professor newton has some further epidemiological granularity would like to mention at this point. We are looking at the data very carefully, not just on ethnicity but age and sex and other factors like obesity which we now have an impact on the effect of coronavirus, but its already clear from the published data that the impact in bame groups is greater, there are more people with the infection and those who have the infection and those who have the infection have worse outcomes in many cases, so infection have worse outcomes in many cases, so there is already cause for concern but as jonathan says, we are not entirely clear how much of that is due to Different Levels of underlying conditions, or other risk factors, so there is work to be done and we will publish this as soon as it is ready. Thank you very much. The next question is from conrad from ashford. Conrad asks, Going Forward, with the primary aim of test track and trace bead to squash covid 19 infection to very low levels or simply to flatten the curve so the nhs is not overwhelmed . That is a really important question, conrad. The answer is that test track and trace will help us to get the r down and the number of new cases down and to keep it down but not on its own. It is primarily the social distancing measures that we have taken so far that flatten the curve, and now we can see that the curve, and now we can see that the curve is going down from the presentation that the professorjust gave. The goal is to keep the number of new infections going down test, track and trace at a point where we will do tomorrow, from tomorrow in the isle of wight, and then doling out to the rest of the country, we will get those numbers down. The test, track and trace becomes more effective the lower the number and then we want to keep the number going down by keeping the r below one, the rate of infection. So our goal is not simply to flatten the curve, it is to get the occurrence of covid 19 infections to very low levels, to be absolutely clear within your question. That is the answer. Thank you very much. We will now take questions from the media. Hugh pym from the bbc. Thank you, very much. When will you have recruited