Tag: press conference

The Great Gamble: Johnson sets out plan for living with COVID in England

  • Prime Minister confirms next steps for living with Covid-19
  • Vaccines will remain first line of defence against the virus with further boosters this spring for the most vulnerable
  • All remaining domestic covid regulations restricting public freedoms to end this week as part of the Living with Covid Plan

Vaccines will remain the first line of defence against Covid-19 as the Prime Minister sets out the Government’s plans to live with and manage the virus.

The UK was the first country in the world to authorise the use of the Pfizer and Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines, the first European country to vaccinate 50% of its population and has delivered the fastest booster programme in Europe.

Over 31 million boosters have been administered across England and almost 38 million UK wide helping break the link between infections and hospitalisations. In England, the number of cases, hospitalisations and deaths continue to decline and are far below the levels of previous waves, with boosters offering strong protection against severe illness and hospitalisation.

Thanks to our hugely successful vaccination programme, the immunity built up in the population and our new antiviral and therapeutics tools, the UK is in the strongest possible position to learn how to live with Covid and end government regulation.

To save lives and protect the NHS, unprecedented measures were taken on a global scale that interfered with people’s lives and livelihoods. Billions of pounds were spent on supporting a locked down economy as the public stayed at home.

The Prime Minister has been clear that restrictions would not stay in place a day longer than necessary. The British public have made extraordinary sacrifices during the 2020 lockdowns, the Roadmap, and recent Plan B measures in response to the Omicron variant.

The Plan, published yesterday, sets out how vaccines and other pharmaceutical interventions will continue to form our first line of defence. The UK Government has accepted the JCVI recommendation to offer an additional booster to all adults aged over 75, all residents in care homes for older adults, and all over 12s who are immunosuppressed.

An autumn annual booster programme is under consideration, subject to further advice. Further detail on deployment on the spring booster programme will be set out in due course. The Government will continue to be guided by the JCVI on future vaccine programmes.

The plan covers four main pillars:

  • Removing domestic restrictions while encouraging safer behaviours through public health advice, in common with longstanding ways of managing other infectious illnesses
  • Protecting the vulnerable through pharmaceutical interventions and testing, in line with other viruses
  • Maintaining resilience against future variants, including through ongoing surveillance, contingency planning and the ability to reintroduce key capabilities such as mass vaccination and testing in an emergency
  • Securing innovations and opportunities from the COVID-19 response, including investment in life sciences

The public are encouraged to continue to follow public health advice, as with all infectious diseases such as the flu, to minimise the chance of catching Covid and help protect family and friends. This includes by letting fresh air in when meeting indoors, wearing a face covering in crowded and enclosed spaces where you come into contact with people you don’t normally meet, and washing your hands.

The Prime Minister yesterday confirmed domestic legal restrictions (in England – Ed.) will end on 24 February as we begin to treat Covid as other infectious diseases such as flu. This means:

  • The remaining domestic restrictions in England will be removed. The legal requirement to self-isolate ends. Until 1 April, we still advise people who test positive to stay at home. Adults and children who test positive are advised to stay at home and avoid contact with other people for at least five full days and then continue to follow the guidance until they have received two negative test results on consecutive days.
  • From April, the Government will update guidance setting out the ongoing steps that people with COVID-19 should take to be careful and considerate of others, similar to advice on other infectious diseases. This will align with testing changes.
  • Self-isolation support payments, national funding for practical support and the medicine delivery service will no longer be available.
  • Routine contact tracing ends, including venue check-ins on the NHS COVID-19 app.
  • Fully vaccinated adults and those aged under 18 who are close contacts are no longer advised to test daily for seven days and the legal requirement for close contacts who are not fully vaccinated to self-isolate will be removed.

Our testing programme has been a crucial part of our response to the virus. Over 2 billion lateral flow tests have been provided across the UK since 2020 ensuring people could stay safe and meet family and friends knowing they were free of the virus.

As set out in the Autumn and Winter Plan, universal free provision of tests will end as our response to the virus changes.

From the start of April, the government will end free symptomatic and asymptomatic testing for the general public.

Limited symptomatic testing will be available for a small number of at-risk groups and we will set out further details on which groups will be eligible shortly. Free symptomatic testing will also remain available to social care staff. We are working with retailers to ensure that everyone who wants to can buy a test.

The Test & Trace programme cost £15.7 billion in 2021/22. With Omicron now the dominant variant and less severe, levels of high immunity across the country and a range of strategies in place including vaccines, treatments, and public health knowledge, the value for taxpayers’ money is now less clear. Free testing should rightly be focused on at-risk groups.

The Government remains ready to respond if a new variant emerges and places unsustainable pressure on the NHS, through surveillance systems and contingency measures such as increased testing capacity or vaccine programmes. Our world-leading ONS survey will allow us to continue to track the virus in granular detail to help us spot any surges in the virus.

Further changes being made include: * Today the guidance has been removed for staff and students in most education and childcare settings to undertake twice weekly asymptomatic testing. * On 24 February, removing additional local authority powers to tackle local COVID-19 outbreaks (No.3 regulations). Local Authorities will manage local outbreaks in high-risk settings as they do with other infectious diseases. * On 24 March, the Government will also remove the COVID-19 provisions within the Statutory Sick Pay and Employment and Support Allowance regulations.

From 1 April, the UK Government will:

  • Remove the current guidance on voluntary COVID-status certification in domestic settings and no longer recommend that certain venues use the NHS COVID Pass.
  • No longer provide free universal symptomatic and asymptomatic testing for the general public in England.
  • Remove the health and safety requirement for every employer to explicitly consider COVID-19 in their risk assessments.

PM statement on living with COVID

Prime Minister Boris Johnson made a statement in the House of Commons on the government’s strategy for living with COVID.

Mr Speaker, with permission I will make a statement on our strategy for living with Covid.

And before I begin, I know the whole House will join me in sending our best wishes to Her Majesty the Queen for a full and swift recovery.

It is a reminder that this virus has not gone away, but because of the efforts we have made as a country over the past two years we can now deal with it in a very different way, moving from government restrictions to personal responsibility.

So we protect ourselves without losing our liberties – and maintaining our contingency capabilities so we can respond rapidly to any new variant.

Mr Speaker, the UK was the first country in the world to administer an approved vaccine, and the first European nation to protect half our population with at least one dose.

And having made that decision to refocus our NHS this Winter on the campaign to Get Boosted Now, we were the first major European nation to boost half our population too.

And it is because of the extraordinary success of this vaccination programme, that we have been able to lift our restrictions earlier than other comparable countries, opening up last summer, while others remained closed, and keeping things open this winter, when others shut down again, making us one of the most open economies and societies in Europe, with the fastest growth anywhere in the G7 last year.

And while the pandemic is not over, we have now passed the peak of the Omicron wave, with cases falling, hospitalisations in England now fewer than 10,000 and still falling, and the link between infection and severe disease substantially weakened.

Over 71 per cent of all adults are now boosted in England, including 93 per cent of those 70 and over, and together with the treatments and scientific understanding of the virus we have built up, we now have sufficient levels of immunity to complete the transition from protecting people with government interventions to relying on vaccines and treatments as our first line of defence.

As we have throughout the past two years, we will continue to work closely with the Devolved Administrations as they decide how to take forward their own plans, and today’s strategy shows how we will structure our approach in England around four principles.

First, we will remove all remaining domestic restrictions in law.

From this Thursday, 24 February, we will end the legal requirement to self-isolate following a positive test, and so we will also end self-isolation support payments, although Covid provisions for Statutory Sick Pay can still be claimed for a further month.

We will end routine contact tracing, and no longer ask fully vaccinated close contacts and those under 18 to test daily for seven days.

And we will remove the legal requirement for close contacts who are not fully vaccinated to self-isolate.

Until 1 April, we will still advise people who test positive to stay at home. But after that, we will encourage people with Covid-19 symptoms to exercise personal responsibility, just as we encourage people who may have flu to be considerate to others.

Mr Speaker, it is only because levels of immunity are so high and deaths are now, if anything, below where you would normally expect for this time of year, that we can lift these restrictions.

And it is only because we know Omicron is less severe, that testing for Omicron on the colossal scale we have been doing is much less important, and much less valuable in preventing serious illness.

We should be proud that the UK established the biggest testing programme per person of any large country in the world.

But this came at a vast cost.

The Testing, Tracing and Isolation budget in 2020-21 exceeded the entire budget of the Home Office.

It cost a further £15.7 billion in this financial year, and £2 billion in January alone at the height of the Omicron wave.

We must now scale this back.

From today, we are removing the guidance for staff and students in most education and childcare settings to undertake twice weekly asymptomatic testing.

And from 1st April, when Winter is over and the virus will spread less easily, we will end free symptomatic and asymptomatic testing for the general public.

We will continue to provide free symptomatic tests to the oldest age groups and those most vulnerable to Covid.

And in line with the practice in many other countries, we are working with retailers to ensure that everyone who wants to can buy a test.

From April 1st, we will also no longer recommend the use of voluntary Covid-status certification, although the NHS app will continue to allow people to indicate their vaccination status for international travel.

And Mr Speaker, the government will also expire all temporary provisions of the Coronavirus Act.

Of the original 40, 20 have already expired, 16 will expire on 24 March, and the last 4 relating to innovations in public service will expire six months later, after we have made those improvements permanent via other means.

Second, we will continue to protect the most vulnerable with targeted vaccines and treatments.

The UK government has procured enough doses of vaccine to anticipate a wide range of possible JCVI recommendations. And today we are taking further action to guard against a possible resurgence of the virus, accepting JCVI advice for a new Spring booster offered to those aged 75 and over, older care home residents, and those over 12 who are immunosuppressed.

The UK is also leading the way on antivirals and therapeutics, with our AntiVirals Task Force securing a supply of almost 5 million – more per head than any other country in Europe.

Third, SAGE advise there is considerable uncertainty about the future path of the pandemic, and there may of course be significant resurgences.

They are certain there will be new variants and it’s very possible those will be worse than Omicron.

So we will maintain our resilience to manage and respond to these risks, including our world-leading ONS survey, which will allow us to continue tracking the virus in granular detail, with regional and age breakdowns helping us spot surges as and where they happen, and our laboratory networks will help us understand the evolution of the virus and identify any changes in characteristics.

We will prepare and maintain our capabilities to ramp up testing.

We will continue to support other countries in developing their own surveillance capabilities, because a new variant can emerge anywhere.

And we will meet our commitment to donate 100 million vaccine doses by June, as our part of the agreement at the UK’s G7 summit to provide a billion doses to vaccinate the world over the next year.

In all circumstances, our aim will be to manage and respond to future risks through more routine public health interventions, with pharmaceutical interventions as the first line of defence.

Fourth, we will build on the innovation that has defined the best of our response to the pandemic.

The Vaccines Task Force will continue to ensure the UK has access to effective vaccines as they become available, already securing contracts with manufacturers trialling bi-valent vaccines, which would provide protection against Covid variants.

The Therapeutics Task Force will continue to support seven national priority clinical trial platforms focused on prevention, novel treatments and treatment for long-Covid.

We are refreshing our biosecurity strategy to protect the UK against natural zoonosis and accidental laboratory leaks, as well as the potential for biological threats emanating from state and non-state actors.

And building on the Five Point Plan I set out at the United Nations and the agreements reached at the UK’s G7 last year, we are working with our international partners on future pandemic preparedness, including through a new pandemic treaty, an effective early warning system or Global Pandemic Radar, and a mission to make safe and effective diagnostics, therapeutics and vaccines available within the first 100 days of a future pandemic threat being identified.

And we will be hosting a global pandemic preparedness summit next month.

And Mr Speaker, Covid will not suddenly disappear.

So those who would wait for a total end to this war before lifting the remaining regulations, would be restricting the liberties of the British people for a long time to come.

This government does not believe that is right or necessary.

Restrictions pose a heavy toll on our economy, our society, our mental wellbeing, and the life chances of our children.

And we do not need to pay that cost any longer.

We have a population that is protected by the biggest vaccination programme in our history.

We have the antivirals, the treatments, and the scientific understanding of this virus, and we have the capabilities to respond rapidly to any resurgence or new variant.

And Mr Speaker it is time to get our confidence back.

We don’t need laws to compel people to be considerate of others.

We can rely on that sense of responsibility towards one another, providing practical advice in the knowledge that people will follow it to avoid infecting loved ones and others.

So let us learn to live with this virus and continue protecting ourselves without restricting our freedoms.

And in that spirit, I commend this Statement to the House.

PM statement at Covid press conference

The Prime Minister gave a press conference on the plan to live with COVID-19

Good evening, when the pandemic began, we had little knowledge of this virus and none about the vaccines and treatments we have today.

So there was no option but to use government regulations to protect our NHS and save lives.

But those restrictions on our liberties have brought grave costs to our economy, our society, and the chances of our children.

So from the outset, we were clear that we must chart a course back towards normality as rapidly as possible, by developing the vaccines and treatments that could gradually replace those restrictions.

And as a result of possibly the greatest national effort in our peacetime history, that is exactly what we have done.

Thanks to our brilliant scientists.

Thanks to the extraordinary men and women of our NHS and to every one of you who has come forwards to get jabbed and get boosted – the United Kingdom has become the first country in the world to administer an approved vaccine, and the fastest major European nation to roll out both the vaccines and the booster to half our population.

We have emerged from the teeth of the pandemic before many others, retaining one of the most open economies and societies in Europe and the fastest growth in the G7 last year.

And while the pandemic is not over, we have passed the peak of the Omicron wave, with cases falling, and hospitalisations in England now fewer than 10,000 and still falling, and so now we have the chance to complete that transition back towards normality, while maintaining the contingencies to respond to a resurgence or a new variant.

As we have done throughout the past two years, we will continue to work with the Devolved Administrations as they decide how to take forwards their own plans.

In England, we will remove all remaining domestic restrictions in law.

From this Thursday, it will no longer be law to self-isolate if you test positive, and so we will also end the provision of self-isolation support payments, although Statutory Sick Pay can still be claimed for a further month.

If you’re a fully vaccinated close contact or under 18 you will no longer be asked to test daily for seven days.

And if you are close contact who is not fully vaccinated you will no longer be required to self-isolate.

Until 1 April, we will still advise you to stay at home if you test positive.

But after that, we will encourage people with Covid symptoms to exercise personal responsibility, just as we encourage people who may have flu to be considerate towards others.

It is only because levels of immunity are so high and deaths are now, if anything, below where you would normally expect for this time of year that we can lift these restrictions.

And it is only because we know Omicron is less severe, that testing for Omicron on the colossal scale we have been doing is now much less valuable in preventing serious illness.

We should be proud that the UK established the biggest testing programme per person of any large country in the world.

But its budget in the last financial year was bigger than the Home Office – and it cost – the testing programme cost – £2 billion just last month alone.

So we must scale back and prioritise our resources for the most vulnerable.

From today, staff and students in most education and childcare settings will no longer be asked to undertake twice weekly asymptomatic testing.

And from 1st April, we will end free symptomatic and asymptomatic testing for the general public.

But we will continue providing free symptomatic tests to those at the highest risk from Covid.

And in line with the practice of many other countries, we are working with retailers to ensure you will always be able to buy a test.

We should be clear the pandemic is not over and there may be significant resurgences.

Our scientists are certain there will be new variants and it’s very possible that those will be worse than Omicron.

So we will continue to protect the most vulnerable with targeted vaccinations and treatments and we have bought enough doses of vaccine to anticipate a wide range of possible JCVI recommendations.

Today this includes a new Spring booster, which will be offered to those aged 75 and over, older care home residents, and those over 12 who are immunosuppressed.

We will also retain disease surveillance systems and contingency measures which can ensure our resilience in the face of future waves or new variants.

And we will build on the innovations that defined the very best of our response to the pandemic, including continuing the work of the Vaccines Task Force, which has already secured contracts with manufacturers trialling new vaccines which could provide protection against new variants.

Today is not the day we can declare victory over Covid, because this virus is not going away.

But it is the day when all the efforts of the last two years finally enabled us to protect ourselves while restoring our liberties in full.

And after two of the darkest grimmest years in our peacetime history, I do believe this is a moment of pride for our nation and a source of hope for all that we can achieve in the years to come.

Thank you very much.

REACTION:

Responding to the statement from the Prime Minster on the Government’s ‘Living with Covid’ strategy, which includes the removal of free Covid-19 tests for the public from 1 April in England, Dr Chaand Nagpaul, BMA council chair, said: “Today’s announcement fails to protect those at highest risk of harm from Covid-19, and neglects some of the most vulnerable people in society.

“We recognise the need, after two years of the pandemic, to begin thinking about how we adjust our lives to manage living alongside Covid-19, but as the BMA has persistently said the decision to bring forward the removal of all protective measures while cases, deaths and the number of people seriously ill remain so high is premature.

“Living with Covid-19 must not mean ignoring the virus all together – which in many respects the Government’s plan in England seems to do.

“On the one hand the Government says it will keep monitoring the spread of the virus, and asks individuals to take greater responsibility for their own decisions, but by removing free testing for the vast majority of the population on the other, ministers are taking away the central tool to allow both of these to happen.

“Far from giving people more freedom, today’s announcement is likely to cause more uncertainty and anxiety.

“Crucially, it will create a two-tier system, where those who can afford to pay for testing – and indeed to self-isolate – will do so, while others will be forced to gamble on the health of themselves and others.

“Covid-19 has already disproportionately impacted those on lower incomes, in insecure employment and from ethnic minorities. This move threatens to exacerbate these health inequalities.

“People will want to do the right thing, and not knowingly put others at risk if they are infected, but how can they make such a judgement if they have no way of knowing if they’re carrying the virus or not? This is especially important for those who come into contact with people who are at much greater risk of becoming ill with Covid-19, such as elderly relatives or those who are clinically vulnerable.

“Providing free tests to clinically vulnerable people – and only once they develop symptoms and are potentially very unwell – but not providing any free tests to friends or family who come into contact with them is completely illogical, as the priority should be protecting them from infection in the first place. The same goes for care home staff, who will only be tested if they have symptoms, by which time they could have passed on the virus to vulnerable residents.

“There must also be urgent clarity around testing provision for NHS workers. People visit hospitals and surgeries to get better, and not to be exposed to deadly viruses, and the continuation of testing for healthcare workers is invaluable in protecting both staff and patients.

“That plans are underway for a new booster programme is sensible but we must not – as we have continued to state – rely solely on vaccination to protect the nation. The necessity for further boosters underlines that Covid-19 will continue to present a challenge for healthcare services and wider society for potentially many years to come. And while the Prime Minister talks about Omicron resulting in a mild illness for most, others will still become very unwell with Covid-19, and an estimated more than one million people continue to live with long-Covid – themselves needing ongoing care.

“As part of ‘learning to live with Covid’, protections must be maintained for the most vulnerable, including the provision of enhanced face masks, and clear guidance for both patients and clinicians.

“Meanwhile, all people must be financially supported to do the right thing, and the removal of self-isolation payments, and then access to statutory sick pay in a months’ time, is incredibly concerning, as it will mean people cannot afford to stay at home if they are unwell. In healthcare settings, enhanced infection prevention measures – including mask-wearing for patients and enhanced PPE for staff – must remain, while in the longer-term premises are in desperate need of improvements, such as higher standards of ventilation, to limit the spread of infections.

“And with such a planned scale back of free testing, it is imperative that the Government keeps its commitment to continue other surveillance methods, including the ONS infection survey1, and to not hesitate to act on worrying surges of infections or new dangerous variants.”

Responding to today’s ending of Covid restrictions, Morgan Vine, Head of Policy and Influencing at older people’s charity Independent Age, said: “We know that many people aged 65 and over are worried about the upcoming relaxation of Covid restrictions, particularly the ending of self-isolation.

“We are concerned that this sudden change in direction of public safety is likely to increase anxiety among older people, and even cause some to shield themselves and limit daily activities.

“Our research revealed that the challenges faced by those in later life due to the pandemic have worsened many people’s mental health with many people we spoke to expressing fear at catching the virus in public settings. If the requirement to isolate is removed at the same time free lateral flow tests for most age groups stop, this fear is likely to increase as is the likelihood of coming into contact with someone who has Covid.

“Recent polling showed that a majority (56%) of older people thought isolating should always be a requirement for somebody who has tested positive for Covid, and a further 27% said it should at least be a requirement for the next few months.

“It’s essential that older people are able to live their daily lives safely. Now the government has announced the relaxation, it must clarify how it plans to protect those in later life from the virus.”

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon will lay out Scotland’s response when she addresses the Holyrood parliament this afternoon.

So Boris Johson urges ‘personal responsibility’? Yes, Boris ‘Partygate’ Johnson – the great leader who would not even follow the rules he wrote himself? Oh, the irony! It really would be funny it it wasn’t quite so serious. #covid #gieyetheboak

Boris Johnson: Let’s carry on giving Omicron both barrels

Prime Minister Boris Johnson held a COVID-19 press conference last night following news that the UK had just recorded the highest ever daily number of Covid cases:

Good afternoon everybody.

As of today, every eligible adult in England can use the national booking service to Get Boosted Now.

If you’re over 18 and had your second jab at least three months ago, then you can get jabbed right now. And it’s absolutely vital that you do.

Because the wave of Omicron continues to roll in across the whole of our United Kingdom, with over 78,000 Covid cases today, the highest ever daily number reported, and the doubling rate of Omicron in some regions is now down to less than two days.

And I’m afraid we are also seeing the inevitable increase in hospitalisations, up by 10 per cent nationally week on week and up by almost a third in London.

But we are also seeing signs of hope, because since we launched our Emergency Omicron appeal on Sunday night a great national fight back has begun and people have responded with an amazing spirit of duty and obligation to others.

And I want to say that each and every one of you who rolls up your sleeve to get jabbed is helping this national effort.

And I want to thank everyone who has come forwards, whether you’ve had to queue around the block at a walk-in centre, or whether you’ve booked online.

And, of course, on behalf of the whole country, I want to thank our NHS, our GPs our pharmacists, who with barely a day’s notice – 48 hours’ notice, have so accelerated the programme that we began this week with the biggest Vaccination Monday ever in England and yesterday the biggest booster day yet, with more than 650,000 boosters delivered across the whole UK.

And across the country, after all they have been through, those teams are going to keep going through Christmas and beyond.

Jab heroes like Kim Kirk, leading the King’s Mill hospital vaccination hub in Mansfield, who was asked a year ago to do it for four weeks and has been doing it ever since, with 180,000 jabs and counting.

Dr Laura Mount and the team at Central and West Warrington PCN, who have been organising pop-up vaccination clinics for the homeless.

Or the team at Home Park in Plymouth who have been regularly jabbing until 2am, because they just carry on for as long as there are people there wanting a booster.

And I want to thank those from every walk of life who are stepping forward to support them.

The military personnel deployed across every region of the country, including an additional 100 in Scotland from yesterday – as well as 2,500 firefighters.

And since Sunday night, we’ve seen more than 20,000 new volunteers signing up to help with the booster effort as stewards, taking the total number to almost 33,000.

With every day we’re expanding the ranks of these healthcare auxiliaries, an emerging Territorial Army of the NHS – in a race against time to get those jabs in arms and save lives.

And if you’re watching this and you want to get involved, just visit the website nhsvolunteerresponders.org.uk and do something this Christmas that you can tell your grandchildren about many Christmases from now.

In total, we’ve now boosted more than 45 per cent of all adults in England, including more than 88 per cent of those aged 70 and over,

And while hospital admissions are going up, nationwide we are starting to see admissions coming down among some of the more vulnerable older age groups where we have already got those boosters in arms.

From tomorrow, we’re speeding things up even further by removing the 15 minute post-vaccination waiting time.

And while we’re at it, from Monday, 12 to 15 year olds can book in for a second jab.

And we know how crucial it is to keep children in school, so let’s all make sure our children and young people are vaccinated before they go back next term.

As we take forward our national mission, we are of course supporting similar efforts by the Devolved Administrations, which are also rapidly increasing vaccination rates across Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

A COBR meeting with Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast is taking place this evening.

But already the pace of rollout across the four nations is such that the UK as a whole now has twice as many boosters per head as the EU and more than twice as many as the United States.

So let’s keep going.

Let’s carry on giving Omicron both barrels.

Let’s slow its spread and give the vaccines more time:

  • Wear face masks indoors
  • Use ventilation
  • Get tested if you’re going to an event where you’re likely to meet lots of people
  • And get tested if you’re going to meet elderly and vulnerable relatives.

And we’re helping to get you the tests that you need. I want to thank the Royal Mail who are doubling home deliveries of testing kits to 900,000 a day from Saturday.

So let’s slow down Omicron’s spread – and at the same let’s reduce the harm Omicron can do to us by building up our vaccine defences.

We’re jabbing in hospitals, we’re jabbing in surgeries, We’re jabbing in pharmacies and in pop-up centres, We’re jabbing in shopping centres and on high streets and in football stadiums – with mass events planned at Stamford Bridge and Wembley this weekend and daily “jabbathons” at Elland Road in Leeds.

We’re throwing everything at it.

Wherever you are, we’ll be there with a jab for you.

So please Get Boosted Now.

Thank you very much.

‘Tis the season to be jolly … but ’tis also the season to be jolly careful – PM Boris Johnson

Lockdown to end in England next week

It seems that almost every week we learn of some new scientific breakthrough to help us beat Covid. Last week it was good news about the vaccine from Pfizer BioNTech and then Moderna.

This morning we heard the fantastic news that the Oxford Astra Zeneca vaccine has been highly effective in clinical trials – there are more tests to be done, but the signs are that this vaccine – financed partly by British taxpayers, working in partnership with a great British company – this vaccine could be both affordable and easy to use and highly effective.

We have ordered 100m doses, and thanks to the work of the Vaccines Task Force we have secured more than 350m doses of potential vaccines of all kinds – but we are not out of the woods yet

We can hear the drumming hooves of the cavalry coming over the brow of the hill but they are not here yet.

Even if all three vaccines are approved, even if the production timetables are met and vaccines notoriously fall behind in their production timetables it will be months before we can be sure that we have inoculated everyone that needs a vaccine and those months will be hard.

They will be cold – they include January and February when the NHS is under its greatest pressure and that is why when we come out of lockdown next week we must not just throw away the gains we have all made. So today we have published out Covid Winter Plan which sets out a clear strategy to take the country through to the end of March.

We will continue to bear down hard on this virus. We will use tough tiering – in some ways tougher than the pre-lockdown measures and details of those tiers are on the gov.uk website later this week when we have the most up to data and we will be sharing details of which tier your area is going to be in.

I should warn you now that many more places will be in higher tiers than alas was previously the case, and we will simultaneously be using the new and exciting possibilities of community testing – as they have done in Liverpool – and there will be a clear incentive for everyone in areas where the virus prevalence is high to get a test, to get one of these rapid turnaround lateral flow tests and do your best for the community.

Get a test to help to squeeze the disease and reduce the restrictions that your town or city or area has endured and that way – through tough tiering and mass community testing we hope to let people see a little more of their family and friends over Christmas.

Now I know that many of us want and need Christmas with our families; we feel after this year we deserve it but this is not the moment to let the virus rip for the sake of Christmas parties.

‘Tis the season to be jolly but’ tis also the season to be jolly careful, especially with elderly relatives.

And working with the Devolved Administrations we will set out shortly how we want to get the balance right for Christmas and we will be setting this out later this week.

Christmas this year will be different and we want to remain prudent through Christmas and beyond into the new year, but we will use the three tools that I have described to squeeze the virus in the weeks and months ahead: tiering, testing and the roll-out of vaccines, employing all three techniques together so as to drive down R and drive down the infection rate.

And I really am now assured things really will look and feel very different indeed after Easter and that idea of and end goal or date is important because at last – if the promise of the vaccines is fulfilled – we do have something to work for a timescale, a goal around which businesses can begin tentatively to plan and with luck and with hard work we will be seeing improvements before then.

But for now the problem is not a shortage of hope or a lack of optimism, not with the amazing news that we are getting from the laboratories in this country: the challenge now as we face this difficult winter ahead is to fight down any over-optimism to master any tendency to premature celebration of success.

That success will come all the faster if we work together to follow the guidance maintain the basic disciplines as people have done so heroically over the last few months: hands, face, space and get a test if you have symptoms because that is the way we will beat it together.

Coronavirus update – First Minister’s speech Friday 24 April

Statement given by the First Minister Nicola Sturgeon at a media briefing in St Andrew’s House, Edinburgh:

Good afternoon. Thanks for joining us for today’s briefing.

I want to start – as I always do – by updating you on some of the key statistics in relation to Covid-19 in Scotland.

As at 9 o’clock this morning, there have been 9,697 positive cases confirmed – an increase of 288 from yesterday.

A total of 1710 patients are in hospital with Covid-19 – that is a decrease of 38 from yesterday.

A total of 141 people last night were in intensive care with confirmed or suspected Covid 19. That is also a decrease of 7 since yesterday.

These figures for hospital admissions and intensive care are giving us real and growing cause for optimism that the current lockdown is working to suppress the virus.

That’s the good news, perhaps the less good news is that also tells us why we must stick with these lockdown restrictions, because as I’ve said many times before standing here, any easing up on that at all right now would risk us putting all that progress into reverse and the virus quickly running out of control again.  So please stick with the restrictions because as you can see they are working

I am also, in some other good news, able to confirm today that since 5 March, a total of 2,271 patients who had tested positive for the virus and been admitted to hospital have been able to leave hospital, and I wish all of them well.

However on a much sadder note, I also have to report that in the last 24 hours, 64 deaths have been registered of patients who have been confirmed through a test as having Covid-19 – that takes the total number of deaths in Scotland, under that measurement, to 1,184.

As I’ve said before, we provide these statistics for a very important reason, it helps tell us and tell you what is happening with the virus and how it is progressing across the country and what impact it is having. But the people behind these statistics could be the loved ones of any of us and that’s what I always bear in mind when I report the numbers to you every day. Each and every one of these statistics was a real person and across the country right now their deaths are being mourned by family members whose lives will never be the same again without them. So once again today I want to convey my deepest  condolences to everyone who is grieving for a loved one as a result of this virus.

I also want to thank again – as I always do and always will – our health and care workers.  Last night, I – along with thousands of people across the country – once again took part in the applause at 8 o’clock.  It has become a regular – and very special – feature of our week and our Thursday evenings in particular.  And it’s just one small way in which we show our appreciation, for the extraordinary work that all of you do and I again today I give my sincere thanks to all of you.

That Thursday night applause has also become a way for all of us in streets and communities up and down the land to briefly come together to share some kindness and show some solidarity. At a very grim and difficult  time these really are special moments indeed.

Now, there a two issues I want to cover today before handing on to my colleagues and opening up to questions.

The first issues is just to recap the paper the Scottish Government published yesterday, on how we might begin to go through a process over the weeks to comes of restoring some level of normality to our everyday lives, while we also continue to contain and suppress the virus and minimise the harms that it does.

I can tell you today that since it was published – this time yesterday –  more than 250,000 people have viewed the paper on the Scottish Government’s website.

So thank you to those of you who have taken the time to engage with this and I would encourage those who haven’t had the opportunity to do so yet to take some time to read the document.

I noted yesterday that most people will never read a government document but if you are ever going to do it at all this is the time. So please take some time to read what we set out, the principles that are going to guide us, some of the factors we have to take into account. And if you’ve got views that you would like us to consider in this next phase of our work then please don’t hesitate to tell us what they are.

As I said yesterday, this publication is an attempt to have grown up conversation with the wider public in Scotland.  We want to be really frank with you every step of the way about the complexities and uncertainties of the decision that lie ahead.

We need to be clear now that lockdown remains essential for the reasons I mentioned a moment ago, and that even as we are able to start to ease some of these restrictions, we’re going to have to do so very carefully, very cautiously  – probably very slowly and gradually. We’re going to have to take what I described this morning as baby steps in doing this. We’ve got to try to seek a new normal, because how we are living our lives right now has consequences and can’t go on forever, but we have to recognised the virus has not gone away, so there will be changes in how we live our lives  that will be necessary for some time to come, until science in the form of treatments and a vaccine offer new solutions to us.

So this really is about all of us and its impact on the lives of each and every one of us and that’s why it’s important everyone feels part of this process.

What’s important to me as First Minister, in contrast to the uncertainties that politicians usually like to express, is that I can also be frank with you about the uncertainties and the complexities of the decisions that lie ahead.

Those decisions will make demands on all of us and the lives that we lead so I want that process to be as open as possible. And the paper that we published yesterday, which so many of you have already taken the opportunity to read, is the start of that process.

As I said yesterday,  in the days and few weeks ahead, we will set out more detail on the different options we will consider, as well as the modelling and scientific advice that underpins and informs our decisions.  And of course, as we develop and assess those options, we will continue to engage as widely as possible, across the different sectors and groups of society.

Lastly,  I want to reemphasise an important point.  It’s one that I made yesterday it and it’s one I’ve made already in my remarks to you today.

Moving on from where we are now will only be possible only if and when we get the virus under control and we have more confidence that is the case. And so it remains absolutely vital that all of us continue to comply with the public health guidance and rules that are in place.

To reiterate, that means staying at home, unless you are going out for essential purposes – such as exercising once a day, or buying food and medicines.

It means that if you do go out, do not meet up with people from other households, and please stay two metres apart from other people.

And it means wash your hands thoroughly and regularly.

By following these rules, we can continue, as we are doing right now, to slow the spread of this virus.  And we can hasten the day, when we return if not to complete, but to some semblance of normality in our everyday lives.

The second item I want to update you on, is our work to ensure that Scotland’s NHS has the supplies that it needs to care for people in this time.

Over the past month, the Minister for Trade Ivan McKee has been leading work to ensure that any shortages are overcome – and that supply chains can continue to meet demand.

That has involved at times sourcing equipment from alternative supply chains.  And where necessary, we have looked overseas to source the equipment we need.

For example, last weekend, a major consignment of PPE arrived at Prestwick Airport, from China. It included 10 million fluid-resistant face masks, as well as equipment for use in intensive care units and laboratories.

I can confirm that, just an hour ago, another of those consignments arrived at Prestwick.  It includes 100,000 testing kits, as well as another 10 million face masks.

Of course, alongside international procurement, we’re also working to boost Scotland’s domestic supply lines.

About a month ago, we put out a call to action, to Scotland’s businesses.  We asked them to support the flow of supplies and equipment, to our health and social care sector.

To date, more than 1,600 businesses and individuals have answered that call.  And I want to thank each and every one of them.

We are working hard to assess and coordinate each of those offers, as quickly as possible.  And in doing that, we are prioritising the support that is needed most.

Our work with Calachem – a company based in Grangemouth – is a good example.  Calachem have now produced 20,000 litres of hand sanitiser.  The sanitiser was manufactured using denatured alcohol from Whyte & Mackay.  It was bottled by the Stonehaven-based company, McPhie.  And deliveries of the product – to our front line services – will begin from next week.

The Scottish Government has formed this supply chain, in an incredibly short space of time.  It will produce 560,000 litres of hand sanitiser, over the next four weeks.  And that will be enough meet the needs of Scotland’s entire health and social care sector.

Another example is the work we’re doing with the firm Alpha Solway.  They are currently manufacturing 20,000 face visors per day, at their factory in Annan.  And in total, they are supplying an order of over one million visors, to our NHS.

These businesses – and many more like them – are doing hugely important work. Rightly and properly we will continue to talk about getting supplies of this kind of equipment to the front line, but I thought it was useful today to give you an insight into the work that’s being done to ensure these supplies keep flowing and the we have sufficient of them to get through this crisis.

So these companies and many more in addition to the ones I’ve mentioned today are playing a critical part in our overall collective national endeavour in Scotland to tackle this crisis and I want to put on record today my heartfelt thanks to each and every one.

Let me close today by saying something about this weekend.  I’m conscious that it will be the fifth weekend, since Scotland went into lockdown.  And I know that they only get harder, as time goes on.

I also know that this weekend will be particularly difficult for Scotland’s Muslim communities – who are now observing the holy month of Ramadan.  It will be tough not to be able to host people in your home, or visit friends and family, or attend your local mosque.  And the Justice Secretary, who is himself observing Ramadan, will say a bit more about that, shortly.

However, I want to end by emphasising the sacrifices we’re all making, are having a positive impact.  We have a long way to go, I shared some of that with you yesterday, but it is equally true to say that we are seeing hopeful signs and so it’s vital that we stick with it – and build on the work we’ve done, so far.

By doing that, we are slowing the spread of this virus, we are protecting our NHS, and despite the horrible statistics I report to you on a daily basis, we are saving lives.  So I want to thank all of you, once again, for playing your part and doing that.

Raab: “Making progress, but we’re not out of the woods yet”

Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab gave the 22 April 2020 daily press briefing on the government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic:

Welcome to today’s Downing Street Press Conference. I’m pleased to be joined by Chief Medical Officer Professor Chris Whitty and also our Chief of the Defence Staff, Sir Nicholas Carter.

Before CDS talks through the fantastic work that our brilliant armed forces have been doing during this crisis, let me give you an update you on the latest data from the COBR coronavirus data file.

I can report that through the Government’s ongoing monitoring and testing programme, as of today:

559,935 people have now been tested for the virus.

133,495 have tested positive.

Of those who have contracted the virus, 18,100 have very sadly died.

We express our deepest condolences to the families and friends of these victims and my heart goes out to every single one of those who have lost a loved one throughout this crisis.

As a Government, we continue to take the steps necessary to slow the spread of this virus.

The social distancing measures that people have overwhelmingly adhered to have meant that fewer people have needed hospital treatment.

That has protected our NHS capacity as we continue through the peak of this virus and it has undoubtedly helped to save lives.

At every point in this crisis, we have considered the scientific and the medical evidence that we have received very carefully.

And we have been deliberate in our actions so that we take the right steps at the right time.

Now I know it has been tough going for businesses, for families and for vulnerable members of our communities up and down the country.

It’s been a physical strain as we adapt to living and working at home while not seeing our family and our friends in the usual way we’d like to.

It’s been an economic strain as businesses have had to furlough staff which is why the Chancellor launched the various business support measures to help see businesses and workers through these difficult times.

But it has also been an immense mental strain on everyone: people stuck at home, families worried about their finances and the elderly more isolated than we’d ever want them to be.

We’re making progress through the peak of this virus, but we’re not out of the woods yet as SAGE advised last week.

That’s why the measures we introduced must remain in place for the time being.

The greatest risk for us now, if we eased up on our social distancing rules too soon, is that we would risk a second spike in the virus with all the threats to life that would bring, and then the risk of a second lockdown which would prolong the economic pain that we’re going through.

That was a point that Andrew Bailey, the Governor of the Bank of England, also made earlier on today.

So with that in mind, last Thursday, I set out the five principles that will guide our approach going forward to the next phase, and which must be satisfied before we are willing and in a position to make any changes, which will of course be based on the advice that we receive form SAGE.

That way we will ensure that our path out of this crisis is sure-footed, protecting both the public’s health but also our economy.

If we stick to our plan, if take the right steps at the right time, we can get through this crisis, and I know we will.

There’s no hiding the scale of this tragedy.

But even in our darkest moments, the crisis has also shone a light on the best amongst us.

The nation has come together to applaud our heroic NHS staff, our carers every week, and we pay tribute to their dedication and their professionalism and care with which they look after those who have fallen sick.

With General Carter here, today, I think it is only fitting to pay tribute to the amazing work of our fantastic armed forces and the whole MoD led by Defence Secretary Ben Wallace.

They have been there every step of the way, helping us to build the new NHS Nightingale hospitals to reinforce our critical care capacity. Supporting our Local Resilience Forums in delivering Personal Protective Equipment where it’s needed most.

And helping also deliver the mobile labs which are critical to ramping up of testing capacity right across the country.

As a result of those efforts and that team work, hospitals have been able to treat more patients, as result they save more lives and we have ensured that the peak of this virus has not overwhelmed the NHS.

And, today, our armed forces are again part of that team as we announce two new deployments to the NHS Nightingale facilities in Harrogate and Bristol.

Across the UK, this extra hospital capacity which itself comes on top of the 33,000 additional beds we’ve managed to free up across the NHS.

That is the equivalent of building an extra 50 district general hospitals. And as I said, that has safeguarded the capacity in our hospitals to care both for coronavirus patients but also make sure other people get the urgent care or the emergency treatment they need.

People used to joke in this country that you could never build a hospital that quickly.

Well, we didn’t just build one, we built seven and we thank our armed forces for helping to make that happen.

And, you know, for many countries around the world, including modern democracies, the sight of their military on the streets in a national emergency could be a cause for concern or even trepidation.

But for the British people, the sight of our armed forces working side by side with our brilliant NHS staff offers a calm reassurance that the task is at hand, that we will come through this crisis.

Now I make no bones about it. There have been challenges, there still are challenges.

We’re not there yet. We continue to ramp up the testing capacity, which will play a really important role in the next phase of the crisis.

Amidst a global shortage in Personal Protective Equipment, we’ve distributed over a billion items to the front line, where its needed most.

We’ve just brought in Lord Deighton who helped organise the London Olympics to boost our domestic supply even further.

And I am on the phone every day pursuing the next batch of deliveries from abroad with the support of our tireless diplomatic service. The first of several new deliveries landed from Turkey in the early hours of this morning.

We will only come through this global pandemic, if we come together as a nation, and if we bring other countries around the world together so that we can rise to this international challenge.

As we work with our partners abroad to get the PPE we need, to get the ventilators we need to pursue a vaccine for this terrible virus, we’re also working night and day to return stranded British nationals from all four corners of the world.

We’ve kept airports open and airlines running to bring over a million Brits home on commercial flights. A massive endeavour.

On top of that, at the FCO, we set up a £75 million special charter arrangement with the airlines and that’s already brought home over thirteen thousand people back on 63 flights from more than a dozen countries.

And, we’re organising more charter flights in the days ahead from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, New Zealand, Nigeria and Sierra Leone.

So at home and abroad, we’re meeting the whole range of challenges that coronavirus presents.

And if we stick together, and if we stay the course, we will defeat this virus for good.

Boris Johnson: We can turn the tide within the next 12 weeks

Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s latest statement on Coronavirus

I want to begin by thanking everyone, by thanking you, in the media, and also thanking everyone for the huge efforts that the country is making to comply with the advice that we’ve been given.

And we’re asking such a huge amount,

asking students to put their education on hold,

we’re asking people not to socialise in the normal way

And already we can see the impact that this is having on the UK economy and on business, on great, great companies

And so it’s vital that we in Government stand behind them when what we are asking everyone to do is so crucial for saving literally thousands of lives by defeating this virus

And I am conscious as the days have gone by that people will want to know how long we are expecting them to keep it up

And I wanted to try to say something today about how I see the timescale of this campaign and where we’re going and what we need to do

I do think, looking at it all, that we can turn the tide within the next 12 weeks

And I am absolutely confident that we can send coronavirus packing in this country but only if we take the steps, we all take the steps we have outlined,

And that is vital because that is how we are going to reduce the peak

and once we’ve achieved that, and I think that we will, if take the steps that I have said,

then the scientific progress that we’re making will really start to come into play and I wanted to discuss a little bit of that this afternoon with you

because we are rapidly becoming so much better at understanding the genomics at the heart of this virus, a lot of that is going on in this country,

we’re getting better at understanding the medicines that may treat and cure it

And today we have put the first British corona patient into a randomised trial for drugs that may treat the disease

UK experts and scientists expect to start trials for the first vaccine within a month

And above all we are getting better at testing

This crisis is so difficult because the enemy is invisible

And the answer is to remove the cloak of invisibility

And to identify the virus, and to be able to know which of us, is carrying it or who has actually had it and now got over it

And to give you an idea of what is coming down the track

We are in negotiations today to buy a so called antibody test

As simple as a pregnancy test

That could tell whether you have had the disease

And it’s early days, but if it works as its proponents claim then we will buy literally hundreds of thousands of these kits as soon as practicable because obviously it has the potential to be a total gamechanger

Because once you know that you have had it, you know that you are likely to be less vulnerable, you’re less likely to pass it on, and you can go back to work

And of course by the same token we are massively increasing the testing to see whether you have it now

And ramping up daily testing from 5000 a day to 10,000 to 25,000 and then up to 250,000

And that knowledge of where the virus is, will make a huge difference to our management of the disease and our ability to reduce disruption and economic difficulties

And I wanted to set that out because this is rapidly coming down the track as I say, but it will take time to come on stream

And that is why in the meantime, to get back to a theme that you know I’m going to repeat, it is absolutely vital that we follow the advice that we’ve been hearing over the last few days,

The announcements we’ve already made about staying at home if you have the symptoms, if your family has the symptoms,

about avoiding unnecessary contact

Avoiding gatherings where you may pick up the disease

pubs, bars, restaurants

Please, please follow all that advice scrupulously

Work from home if you possibly can

Wash your hands, wash your hands

And it’s by this combination of ruthless, determined, collective action and scientific progress that we’re already seeing that we will succeed

And I know how difficult it may be, or it may seem right now, but if we do this together we will save, as I say, many many thousands of lives

and to everybody in the UK, business world, everybody who is worried about their jobs, and everybody who faces difficulties because of the advice that we are giving,

I say to business, stand by your employees, stand by your workers because we will stand by you

And you’ll be hearing more about that in the course of the next day or so

And that is how, by a mixture of determined, collective action and scientific progress, I have absolutely no doubt that we will turn the tide of this disease and beat it together.