Lockdown lift
Mirror
Britain’s route out of coronavirus lockdown is a five-stage plan staggered over the next six months. Boris Johnson will set out his “roadmap” on Sunday. He said the first steps will happen the next day “if we possibly can”. The Mirror understands a draft 50-page plan has been drawn up to get the country back to normal. The Government’s blueprint aims to relax the lockdown in staggered steps between now and October. However, officials fear a second wave of coronavirus or a seasonal flu outbreak this autumn could blow their plans off course. A Government source told the Mirror: “It’s a bit of a shambles. “Nobody can quite agree what to do and when to do it. Somebody comes up with a bright idea, but the practicalities get in the way. “We’re not South Korea.”
Sun
BRITS are to be set free to enjoy unlimited exercise from Monday. Cafes could re-open outdoor spaces soon after, in an easing of lockdown restrictions. Park picnics may also be on again, as long as people stay two metres apart. The relaxation of the coronavirus lockdown is the first of many that the PM plans to roll out week by week to reward long-suffering Brits. Mr Johnson will unveil his long-awaited “unlockdown” plan on Sunday to gradually end the nation’s virtual house arrest. Aides say he will make clear the vast bulk of restrictions will remain for some weeks. But he will announce everyone can take “unlimited exercise” from Monday. Currently people are only allowed to go out for one form a day. Friends and family will be allowed to have park picnics and sit on benches – if they keep two metres apart.
BBC News
Boris Johnson will review the coronavirus lockdown with his cabinet later, after suggesting some rules could be eased from Monday. By law the government must review the restrictions every three weeks, and Thursday marks the latest deadline. The prime minister will address the nation on Sunday to outline plans for the next stage of the lockdown. It is understood the “stay at home” message could be scrapped, with ministers keen to restart the economy. Mr Johnson will chair a meeting of his top team later to discuss the lockdown restrictions, which were introduced more than six weeks ago on 23 March. However, major announcements on any changes are not expected until the prime minister makes his statement at the weekend.
Mail
Boris Johnson confirmed yesterday that draconian rules imposed under the six-week coronavirus lockdown will start to be eased on Monday, with the government set to drop its ‘Stay at Home’ message and unveil a five-step plan to lift restrictions. The Prime Minister added that he will outline proposals for a ‘second phase’ in the battle against coronavirus on Sunday, though lockdown measures will be extended for another three weeks today. On Sunday, Mr Johnson will unveil a series of ‘easements’ to the nation, which will be announced after the Cabinet finalises details. The stay at home message will be replaced with a ‘be careful when you’re out’ mantra, according to one Cabinet minister, who added that the easing of lockdown will be based on how much each step of the plan affects the rate of infection – or R.
Independent
Boris Johnson is set to scrap the government’s “stay home” slogan and relax advice on work, exercise, and socialising as he announces the first easing of the UK’s lockdown this weekend, according to reports. Picnics, sunbathing in parks and unlimited exercise are expected to be put back on the table as the prime minister begins to loosen restrictions he enforced in March to slow the spread of coronavirus. The UK has been placed under the most stringent curtailing of daily life for decades amid a pandemic which has claimed the lives of more than 30,000 people across the country. Mr Johnson has confirmed his long-awaited roadmap of options for escaping the lockdown will be unveiled on Sunday – three days after the restrictions must be reviewed under law.
Telegraph
As Boris Johnson prepares to lay out his step by step strategy for phase two of the shutdown on Sunday, all indications point to a gradual easing of the restrictions, rather than a wholesale lifting of the lockdown. On Wednesday, the Prime Minister confirmed that he hoped to “get going on some of these measures on Monday”. The Government’s next actions will be based on predictions supplied by the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage), on how much the rate of infection or ‘reproduction’ (R) value may increase under different scenarios. The R value is currently thought to be 0.7 but must remain consistently below one to avoid a second peak.
Mail
Speculation that politicians are preparing to start easing coronavirus lockdown restrictions has resulted in a spike in stress levels throughout Britain, a study claims. The suggestion that social distancing measures could be relaxed has caused people to become concerned they will be more likely to catch COVID-19 and become seriously ill, with one in four people (25 per cent) admitting it weighs on their mind. This figure is up from around 18 per cent of people before rumours began circulating that the government may lift some lockdown restrictions.
Times
Social-distancing restrictions will start to be lifted from Monday, Boris Johnson said yesterday as the government was preparing to drop its “Stay at home” message. Mr Johnson told MPs he wanted to give people notice of changes to the lockdown as the government suggested cafés with outdoor areas could reopen. More than one form of daily exercise is expected to be among the first freedoms allowed, along with plans to restart open-air sporting activities such as tennis, golf and fishing. Public Health England is understood to have told staff to drop the “Stay at home, protect the NHS, save lives” slogan from Saturday night. A new slogan urges people to “Stay safe, save lives”.
Guardian
Picnics, sunbathing and unlimited rambles will be among the first activities to be allowed when the lockdown loosens, it emerged on Wednesday, after Boris Johnson announced that restrictions would begin to ease from Monday. With the stringent restrictions due to be reviewed on Thursday – and details to be announced on Sunday – the prime minister is expected to change the rules so that people would be able to leave the house repeatedly in a single day, so long as they keep a safe distance from anyone from outside their household. Government Twitter accounts meanwhile began broadcasting a new, more nuanced message on Wednesday – “Stay Safe, Save Lives” – with the stark “Stay Home, Save Lives” slogan set to be ditched.
PPE
ITV News
Health Secretary Matt Hancock says the government is doing “as much as we possibly can” to supply hospices with personal protective equipment (PPE), after ITV News revealed they could run out within days. Mr Hancock said there was a global shortage of PPE but “hospices were part of the plan” to increase deliveries of much-needed equipment. Last week, ITV News reported providers of end of life care were running dangerously low on stocks of masks and gowns after they were denied access to government supplies of PPE. Unlike NHS hospitals and care homes, hospices in England are not included in the NHS supply chain managed by the government through Supply Chain Coordination Limited (SCCL).
Care homes
Huffington Post
The number of people dying of coronavirus in care homes is now falling, Downing Street has claimed. Boris Johnson’s official spokesperson said the prime minister’s mention of a “palpable improvement” in care homes in recent days was in reference to statistics showing the number of deaths there is now reducing. But No.10 could not immediately provide statistics to back up its claims. The latest figures published on Tuesday showed deaths in care homes rising week on week up to April 24 with only hospital deaths falling, prompting deputy chief scientific adviser Angela McLean to say the UK was yet to “get to grips with” the situation. Asked about Johnson’s comment at prime minister’s questions in the Commons, the spokesperson said: “Deaths in care homes and hospitals are both falling. “That is what that was a reference to.”
Obesity
Times
Being obese doubles the risk of needing hospital treatment for Covid-19, according to research based on data collected from hundreds of thousands of Britons. A team from Glasgow University analysed data from 428,225 people and found that as body mass index (BMI) increased, so did their risk of having a severe case of the disease. Matt Hancock, the health secretary, when asked about Britain’s high death toll compared with other European nations, told Sky News yesterday that “the age profile and factors like obesity” should be taken into account.
Sun
SCIENTISTS say they have discovered why obese people are more likely to die from coronavirus. Fat cells produce large amounts of a protein which Covid-19 uses to infiltrate human cells, according to researchers from Germany and the US. The experts discovered that more angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (Ace2) was produced in the fat cells of obese or diabetic patients than in other people. It’s this Ace2 protein which coronavirus binds to in the bodies of infected people, they said. Writing in the paper, published in the journal Obesity, the team said that therefore, fat might “serve as a viral reservoir”. They argued that certain types of cell in the lungs that contain fat might contribute to patients developing pulmonary fibrosis – or scarring to the lungs.
Furlough
Mail
Workers need to be freed from furlough and allowed to go back to work safely to ‘earn their pay packets’, Boris Johnson said today amid anger over plans to ‘wind down’ the Government’s wage support scheme. The Prime Minister spoke out following reports Chancellor Rishi Sunak will next week announce how he intends to reduce the scale of the furlough scheme with a view to eventually scrapping it. Some in Whitehall are worried that the nation is becoming ‘addicted’ to state financial help but others are concerned cutting back payments too soon could lead to a wave of redundancies. The Chancellor is widely expected to start shrinking the scheme from July after it emerged it has a current monthly cost of approximately £8 billion, covering more than six million workers.
Independent
Unions have warned Rishi Sunak against cutting support for workers affected by the coronavirus crisis, amid claims that the chancellor is considering cutting the value of the furlough scheme under which the state pays part of their wages. And businesses are calling for clarity on the chancellor’s intentions, warning that support must remain in place as long as firms’ activities are impacted by restrictions on normal life. The British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) floated proposals for a move to partial furloughs, allowing firms to phase in their return to pre-pandemic working practices. Mr Sunak is facing growing pressure over the cost of the job retention scheme, with the latest government figures showing that 6.3 million people are having up to 80% of their salaries paid by the Treasury, at a price of £8bn.
Tracing app
Telegraph
The NHS has tasked a private company to “investigate” if it can switch its contact-tracing app over to the global standard proposed by Apple and Google, it has emerged just days after the UK’s version launched on the Isle of Wight. The Swiss company Zuhlke, which is working on NHS COVID-19 App, has reportedly been told to look into the ‘feasibility’ of moving the app to the ‘decentralised’ model favoured by the tech giants and that more and more European countries are choosing for contract-tracing. The move follows warnings that the UK’s model is not compatible with emerging global standards for such apps and could affect Britons ability to travel abroad in the future.
Mail
The NHS track-and-trace app considered vital to getting the UK out of coronavirus lockdown could be illegal and may not work abroad, experts warned today. The software will be tested on the Isle of Wight from this morning onwards – but there are growing concerns about its privacy settings and why the Government shunned a Google–Apple alternative adopted by other countries. Health Secretary Matt Hancock has decided the first public tests on their contact tracing software would begin on the self-contained island of 140,000 people, with NHS and council staff the first to be given access – and has insisted they would enjoy ‘high privacy’.
Guardian
The NHS’s contact-tracing app will fail unless sufficient numbers of Android phone users sign up, experts who have examined its trial use on the Isle of Wight have said. They say NHSX, the digital arm of the health service, is relying on an “Android herd immunity” strategy to overcome shortcomings in the app. A critical mass of Android users will be required to ensure iPhone owners remain covered by the app’s contact-tracing ability. If not enough Android users are in any given community, iPhones will eventually stop broadcasting the signals required for the app to work. “The workarounds NHSX on both iOS and Android are using to create a centralised database seem to be fragile, disruptive to users and risk apps not registering contacts when they should,” said Michael Veale, a privacy expert at UCL.
Viral load
Mail
People exposed to a higher dose of coronavirus are more likely to fall critically ill, a scientist part of Number 10‘s SAGE panel has warned. Professor Lucy Yardley, from the University of Bristol, sounded the alarm today, saying evidence shows ‘viral load’ plays a big role in how sick someone will become. She said it explains why so many healthcare workers – who come into face-to-face contact with gravely ill patients – have fallen victim and died from the disease and should be factored into ministers’ lockdown exit strategy. Having a high viral load – the number of particles of the virus they are first infected with – gives the bug a ‘jump start’. It also raises the risk of a patient’s immune system becoming overloaded in its battle against COVID-19.
House of Lords
Telegraph
A member of the House of Lords has complained that peers have been “hung out to dry” after their daily allowance was halved amid the coronavirus pandemic. On Wednesday, the Lords spent an hour debating the proposal to cut the £323 rate to £162 amid calls for it to be a temporary measure with a review next month. Peers will only receive the allowance if they make a “contribution”, either sitting on the red benches or remotely. Tory peer Lord Shinkwin argued that they had been “hung out to dry” over the cut to the payment. It came after more than 200 peers wrote to the Speaker of the House of Lords demanding longer sittings “to scrutinise the Government” over its response to Covid-19.
Yahoo News
A member of the House of Lords has complained that peers have been “hung out to dry” after their daily allowance was halved amid the coronavirus pandemic. On Wednesday, the Lords spent an hour debating the proposal to cut the £323 rate to £162 amid calls for it to be a temporary measure with a review next month. Peers will only receive the allowance if they make a “contribution”, either sitting on the red benches or remotely. Tory peer Lord Shinkwin argued that they had been “hung out to dry” over the cut to the payment. It came after more than 200 peers wrote to the Speaker of the House of Lords demanding longer sittings “to scrutinise the Government” over its response to Covid-19. But a well-placed source said the intervention had raised eyebrows, claiming: “They only want longer sittings so more of them have a chance to make a contribution and claim their £162.”
Express
ALMOST 200 peers in the House of Lords have called for longer sittings to allow for more time to scrutinise the Government’s response to coronavirus. Politicians in the unelected chamber have written to the Lord Speaker requesting extra time so that more members can take part in debates on the pandemic. A cross-party group of 194 members put their name to the letter, PoliticsHome reports. The Prime Minister took part in his first PMQs on Wednesday since returning to work following hospitalization for coronavirus. He promised 200,000 tests per day by the end of the month as he was grilled by Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer.
Schools
Yahoo News
Teachers and staff in non-residential schools will not need personal protective equipment (PPE) when schools start to return to full capacity, a minister has said. Speaking at the Downing Street briefing, Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick said according to scientific advice items such as face and mouth coverings would not be required for adults in schools. It comes after Government officials reported that teachers would be allowed facemasks once the lockdown was lifted. In a draft document prepared by the business department, it was suggested that the return of schools would start with primaries next month, with older children following later if the R number, or reproduction rate of coronavirus, stays below one.
Sport
Telegraph
Premier League clubs may decide to wait past Monday’s shareholders meeting to vote on ‘Project Restart’ once captains and managers have held their own rounds of talks later in the week. With Prime Minister Boris Johnson not issuing his update on the coronavirus lockdown until Sunday, the next Premier League meeting has been moved from Friday to next Monday. But that is still rated by some as too soon to vote on the proposal to restart the season at neutral venues, given meetings with club captains and managers will not take place until after the shareholders talks. Some chairmen and chief executives believe it would be pointless to hold a vote on restarting before their players and managers have been properly briefed, and before knowing whether or not they back the plan.
China
Telegraph
Rising tensions between China and the United States are problematic for all sides and not conducive for the broad multinational cooperation needed to deal with the coronavirus pandemic, the European Union’s ambassador to China said on Thursday. Nicolas Chapuis told reporters during a briefing that China needs to act to alleviate tensions and further its economic reforms to avoid destruction of global supply chains, decoupling of top economies and rise of protectionism. Washington and Beijing are locked in a war of words over the origins of the disease, which emerged in the Chinese city of Wuhan and has grown into a global pandemic.
For goodness sake when is Matt Hancock going to resign and return to the back benches. He is quite simply not up to the task. This time is good as any to finally rid this country of the House of Lords and relegate the institution to the dustbin of history. Complaining that there allowances have been halved is an insult to the millions of our population who have been laid off and may not even have a job to go back to when this Covid 19 farce comes to an end. I didn’t know being a Peer or a member of the House of Lords was a recognised occupation. In my book they should not receive a penny, let alone 50% of their allowances.
What really boils me is the way this threat of “second virus wave” is jacked up as soon as signs of relaxation come into view. Eek, screech, the cowards will stay indoors and demand that the rest of us do likewise. I am mentally becoming very very tired of this idiocy. I have never considered the virus to be a deadly serious threat, like the Black Death, and while I acknowledge that it exists, it aint what everyone says it is. There have been massive lies mixed with just sufficient truth to make the bait attractive and people have swallowed it. Let us run our lives as individuals. We are not eels or salmon…but lemmings do come to mind often.
When we ‘ve died out . Lemmings will be able to use us as an awful lesson.
There is no once a day restriction on going out for exercise in England. That’s in Wales.
The viral load info is very interesting and worth noting for long term understanding
But two things concern me about todays news. The first and most important long term is the global approaching conquest of the airwaves.
And the second is the involvement of the Unions in anything. It is my belief that unions have a major role in the future. But they are dangerous when they provide a big power base. The amalgamation of many smaller unions into a few huge ones ( As with big business, aggressive ABUSE of size )is not good for the future. Their missuse of power is the problem, not their purpose which is admirable and needed.
I notice that in Britain we seem to be running about 3 weeks behind with everything. And four weeks behind with meaningful measures.Certain things may soon begin to dawn on our MSM slightly behind our Politics. They may notice soon that London is quit big. That we’re almost as crowded as Calcutta, that Britain is festooned in cheap crap from anywhere, that our leaders and lecturers are even more ignorant than chinese and Indian kids at our universities, that London is an echo chamber for misguided and foolish ( Corbyn ) opinion formers with clout, That our population is lemmings, and that the diet fed us by the BBC is wicked. ( I reckon the Gov’t has to do something about the BBC soon. they are running wild and not even thoughtful, just repetitive ) And the rest of the pack follow)
While it makes sense for them to wear PPE there is no evidence that there is an excessive number of deaths of front line health workers when only a hundred (some not strictly front line) have died out of 1m+ health workers. This is comparing <65 age Covid deaths in the wider population.