E3: UK coronavirus live: Covid-19 death toll reaches 578 after biggest daily rise

Death tolls rise in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland; police get new powers to enforce lockdown

Yesterday in the House of Commons Boris Johnson said he shared Ian Blackford’s desire to get “parity of support” for the self-employed with the employed in the coronavirus rescue package. The reference to parity was taken as implying that they could get 80% of earnings up to £2,500 a month, but because Johnson only talked of his “desire” to achieve this, no one could be sure. Today this is what Rishi Sunak, the chancellor, did announce. That was more generous than some people expected, although of course there is a catch.

By any international standards, the package we’ve outlined today represents one of the most generous and comprehensive ways to support those in self-employment anywhere in the world.

I would conclude by saying this: to all those who are self-employed, who are rightly anxious and worried about the next few months, you haven’t been forgotten, we will not leave you behind and we are all in this together.

Once again, the Chancellor has shown his ability to listen. This move is welcome & will help millions. But initial feedback says June will be a stretch. Case for an up-front blanket £1k payment in April to tide people over? Just an idea. Could be deducted from the final figure.

Leaving the 5 million self-employed Brits without any support until June is a slap in the face. Many will be bankrupt by then. And why is there an eligibility cap for the self-employed but not the employed? This is not what I call fair.

I must be honest and point out that in devising this scheme in response to many calls for support, it is now much harder to justify the inconsistent contributions between people of different employment statuses. If we all want to benefit equally from state support, we must all pay in equally in future.

Rather than be too specific right now about future tax policy, it’s just an observation that there’s currently an inconsistency in contributions between self-employed and employed.

And the actions taken today, which is very significant tens of billions of pounds of support for those who are self-employed treating them the same way as those who are employed, it does throw into light the question of consistency and whether that is fair to everybody going forward.

More than 84 million mobile devices were sent the government’s text alert on Tuesday announcing the imposition of a lockdown, the Guardian has learned.

At BT alone, which serves 43 million devices through the mobile networks it owns and operates, the network was sending out a thousand alerts a second from 8am in the morning – but it wasn’t until 8:30pm at night that every single customer had received the alert.

The Department of Health says the coronavirus death toll has risen to 578, up by 115 on the previous figure.

But the department is changing the way it releases the figures so the death toll figure is a change from the figure at 9am yesterday to the figure at 5pm yesterday, not a change over 24 hours.

UPDATE on coronavirus (#COVID19) testing in the UK:

As of 9am 26 March, a total of 104,866 have been tested:

93,208 negative.
11,658 positive.

As of 5pm on 25 March, of those hospitalised in the UK, 578 have sadly died. pic.twitter.com/lHKa29lab7

To ensure data can be verified and published in a timely, consistent way, we are moving to a new system for publication of deaths.

The latest figures counted from the previous day (for a period from 5pm-5pm) will be published at 2pm the following day.

Yesterday’s figures did not cover a full 24 hour period while we adjust to the new system. These figures comprised the period from 9am 24 March to 5pm on 24 March.

Figures issued today are recorded as of 5pm 24 March to 5pm 25 March.

Going forwards, figures on deaths will be recorded for the 24 hour period as of 5pm the previous day.

Figures on tests remain as of the 24 hour period from 9am that day.

We're working hard with colleagues at @PHE_uk and @NHSEngland to provide you with reliable and timely data.

The number of people who have died from coronavirus in UK hospitals has risen by 115 in a single day to 578, as of 5pm on Thursday. It is the biggest daily rise in deaths across the country since the outbreak began.

As of 9am this morning, 11,658 out of 104,866 people who have been tested for the virus were confirmed as positive cases.

Here is the Treasury press release with full details of Rishi Sunak’s package of help for the self-employed.

Just as the press conference was about to start, Downing Street announced what amounts to a U-turn over participating in the EU-wide effort to procure ventilators and other medical equipment. A Downing Street spokesman said:

Owing to an initial communication problem, the UK did not receive an invitation in time to join in four joint procurements in response to the coronavirus pandemic.

As the commission has confirmed, we are eligible to participate in joint procurements during the transition period, following our departure from the EU earlier this year.

Sunak ends saying he thinks this is a very generous package by international standards. And he ends with a message to the self-employed:

You have not been forgotten, you will not be left behind, we are all in this together.

Harries says the government may want to test a sample of the population, once an antibody test becomes available, to get a sense of how coronavirus has spread.

Harries says there may be “measures of lockdown” in the coming months.

But she says “flexing” the measures may be an option.

Q: Is this open to fraud? And do you accept people might try to cheat?

Sunak says he has taken the view that the perfect should not be the enemy of the good. He says checks will be carried out.

Q: What are the self-employed meant to live on until June?

Sunak says he has looked hard at the quickest way to deliver this. The employment scheme covers 90% of the population. That will be up and running by April. This scheme uses the same system, so some of the work will have to be done later. He has also given some people another four weeks to file a tax return.

Q: What about people who do not have three years’ worth of accounts? They might just have entered the workforce recently.

Sunak says, for those without three years’ worth of accounts, the Treasury will look at what they do have. For those who do not have accounts, there is nothing they can do. He says they will have to go with the information they have.

Q: People won’t get this money until June. You say they can get universal credit, but they do not get money for the first five weeks. Can you guarantee that if people apply for UC, they will get an advance payment?

Sunak says the government has made UC more generous.

At the press conference Jenny Harries, the chief medical officer for England, says it is too early to predict when the epidemic will peak.

She says “we must not take our foot off the pedal”.

The Treasury has posted details of the scheme in a Twitter thread starting here.

1/ The Government has announced a new Self-Employed Income Support Scheme to support those who work for themselves. pic.twitter.com/GTxO5Br4iO

Sunak says he is treating the self-employed like the employed.

But in return, everyone must pay in, he says.

Sunak says he knows many self-employed people are deeply anxious. They are not covered by the employment support packaged announced on Friday last week.

He says he is announcing a new self-employed income support scheme.

First Sunak covers other coronavirus developments.

The government is supporting the NHS, he says. It is vital people stay at home to save lives.

Rishi Sunak, the chancellor, is holding his press conference now. He says he is announcing support for the self-employed.

According to the Times’s Chris Smyth, we may not get a UK figure for coronavirus deaths today.

Death figures update: last night only 28 new fatalities recorded.

Alas this is not good news, it is because there are now so many deaths NHS using a 7.30am cut off instead of 1pm.

So govt looking at changing how they are reported 1/2

We may not get any death figures today, as they are looking at moving to publishing first thing in the morning.

Aim is to give more time to collate NHS data and inform families before ages and locations made public 2/2

The UK is now spending £544m of its international aid money on the fight against coronavirus, according to No 10. Most of that is new funding announced today.

There have been four announcements today.

The first rescue flight for British travellers stranded abroad has landed in Heathrow with 171 passengers including up to 20 vulnerable EU citizens.

The government is seeking permission for three more flights, the first one expected this weekend, to help repatriate up to 1,000 Britons it believes are abroad.

Some of the 4,000 beds at the new emergency NHS Nightingale hospital being set up at the ExCeL centre in Docklands, London, will be equipped with ventilators, it has emerged. Avensys, a firm that provides medical equipment and trains engineers in how to use it, has told the Guardian it has been asked to put together a training programme for engineers at the Nightingale so they can repair the ventilators there. Dan Sullivan from Avensys said:

We’ve been asked to provide training for engineers at the Nightingale to get them up to speed on ventilator maintenance. Which is a pretty big deal. You’ve got people who know how to fix a syringe pump but maybe don’t know how to fix a ventilator. The training will be on site. It will cover defibrillation, ventilation, monitoring of equipment.

Around 100 animals face an indefinite stay at Battersea Cats and Dogs Home after the shelter shut its doors to the public during the coronavirus pandemic.

Staff across the home’s sites in London, Berkshire and Kent had launched a campaign to find foster homes for around 130 animals in the run-up to the lockdown.

Boris Johnson has called on governments around the world to work together to create a vaccine as quickly as possible and make it available to anyone who needs it.

Speaking after a virtual summit of G20 leaders, Johnson said that a race to find a vaccine for coronavirus will be boosted by £210m of new British aid funding.

While our brilliant doctors and nurses fight coronavirus at home, this record British funding will help to find a vaccine for the entire world. UK medics and researchers are at the forefront of this pioneering work.

My call to every G20 country and to governments around the world is to step up and help us defeat this virus.

Police in west and mid Wales have begun stop checking drivers to check that only those who need to travel do so and are also patrolling public spaces and tourist hot spots.

Dyfed-Powys roads policing inspector Andy Williams said:

We appreciate that the situation over the last week has changed rapidly but it is vital that people understand what we are doing and why.

Our main priority remains the same – keeping everyone safe. But we are calling on people across the force to help us do that.

The economic impact of the coronavirus epidemic is set to plunge the UK into a deeper recession than that of the 2008 financial crisis, experts have warned.

As activity grinds to a halt, economists are predicting declines in gross domestic product (GDP) that would dwarf the 6% decline seen during the last recession.

In normal recessions, many businesses report relatively small incremental declines in output.

By contrast, many firms now likely are reporting huge declines in activity.

This morning John McDonnell, the shadow chancellor, called for employers who were forcing people to go to work unnecessarily to be named and shamed. See 9.11am. His Labour colleague, Louise Haigh, the shadow Home Office minister, has had a go herself, in a Twitter thread starting here.

I know everyone is struggling to get to grips with the steps needed to tackle #COVID19 but that doesn’t mean egregious employer behaviour is excusable.

Many of the examples I’ve heard ought to be utterly ashamed at the lack of basic decency they are showing in this crisis.

Northern Ireland’s Public Health Agency have confirmed 32 new positive cases of Covid-19, bringing the total number of recorded cases to 241.

The number of patients who have died also rose by three to 10 on Thursday.

The government has published new powers for police to enforce the coronavirus lockdown. They will allow officers to use force to make people go back home if they are out in breach of the emergency laws.

According to the Home Office, police can “instruct” people to go home, leave an area or disperse.

The prime minister has been clear on what we need to do: stay at home to protect our NHS and save lives.

All our frontline services really are the best of us and are doing an incredible job to stop this terrible virus from spreading.

Emergency services faced a test of their ability to cope against the backdrop of the Covid-19 pandemic as firefighters fought to contain a major blaze at a flat above a supermarket in London, Ben Quinn reports. His full story is here.

Greater Manchester police have confirmed that members of the public are allowed to travel to and from allotments as part of their daily exercise set out by the government.

The clarification comes after a BBC Radio Manchester listener asked the chief constable, Ian Hopkins, if they could still tend to theirs.

Almost half of all childminders and early years care providers in England and Wales have closed due to the coronavirus outbreak, according to a poll.

Many have shut their doors because they are not needed while parents work from home, as well as because their staff are sick or self-isolating.

Before the coronavirus, we had a high-quality childcare and early years sector - one that struggled with government underfunding but was vibrant and with a wide variety of choice of provision for families.

“We can return to that in the future but only if government support for childcare businesses, including registered childminders, is urgently put in place and, rapidly following on from this, government works with the sector to define the support and advice all childcare providers will need to recover from this disaster and build up their childcare services once more.”

Jonathan Ashworth, the shadow health secretary, has also criticised the government’s decision not to join the EU-wide procurement effort for ventilators and other medical equipment. (See 2.33pm.) He said Labour raised this with ministers in the Commons, but did not get a satisfactory explanation. He went on:

With widespread concerns about our ventilator capacity and the urgent need to scale-up that capacity, we should be co-operating through international schemes to ensure we get these desperately needed pieces of kit.

Justin Welby, the archbishop of Canterbury, has joined those expressing support for the Clap for our Carers event planned for 8pm tonight. (See 11.28am.) In a statement provided to LBC, he said:

The NHS expresses everything that is best in what has made this country what it is. It expresses our Christian values and hopes. It expresses the values of people of faith and no faith. It is a place of hope and giving. Thank you, NHS. Let us applaud the NHS.

I applaud the NHS, I clap for the NHS, I love the NHS. Well done everyone who works for the National Health Service and our care services and all the GP practices and everywhere else. You’re doing a fantastic job and I think the whole country has begun to realise how much we rely on you and on each other to get through this particular crisis. Thanks a lot and well done.

Sir Ed Davey, the acting Lib Dem leader, has criticised the government for refusing to take part in in the EU’s joint procurement scheme for ventilators and other NHS equipment. (See 12.37pm.) Davey said:

There is no reasonable justification for Boris Johnson’s refusal to participate in the EU’s procurement of ventilators. Surely we should be trying every possible means to get people seriously ill with coronavirus the ventilators they need ...

Of course we want factories in the UK manufacturing ventilators and let’s source them from abroad where we can, but it looks deeply irresponsible not to work with our European neighbours on this too.

There have been 113 new coronavirus cases in Wales and six new deaths, bringing the total number of deaths in Wales to 28, Public Health Wales has said in a statement.

UPDATED STATEMENT:

There are 113 new cases have tested positive for Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) in Wales, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to 741, although the true number of cases is likely to be higher.

Read more here: https://t.co/Z1N6KvyokQ pic.twitter.com/hxcRbS6uud

A care home in Hove where around three-quarters of the residents have symptoms of Covid-19 has been refused protective equipment by the government.

It was only after the local MP intervened that the prime minister apparently promised to distribute protective equipment for all the care home staff by tomorrow. Peter Kyle, the Labour MP for Hove, said he will “be watching the situation and ensure this materialises”.

I’m so upset for the families and staff that the worst possible result has come in as regards this resident who has tested positive; it’s an incredibly worrying time and I’m hoping for the very best recovery.

This has now highlighted the urgent need for more testing and quicker testing. A 10-day wait to be tested is not acceptable and I hope lessons can be learned, and learned quickly.

Our North of England editor Helen Pidd has noted that Derbyshire Police are using drone surveillance to spot those flouting essential travel rules under the coronavirus lockdown.

Shame by drone...Think you can sneak into the Peak District to walk your dog without anyone knowing? @DerbysPolice are watching https://t.co/si04rI7WVt

The NHS nurse who posted a tearful video of herself outside a supermarket with empty shelves after she was unable to buy food, has developed coronavirus symptoms and is self-isolating.

Dawn Billbrough’s emotional plea for people to stop panic buying went viral last week, and has now been shared over 28,000 times on Facebook.

'We are worried people in the UK are not taking this seriously. People are going to die.'

Critical care nurse Dawn Bilbrough calls for everyone to follow government advice to stay at home and save lives. pic.twitter.com/AzbmjQ24Ol

Productions by the National Theatre are heading to YouTube after the venue was forced to close.

One Man, Two Guvnors, with James Corden, will be the first play to be broadcast on the streaming site for free.

The Crown Prosecution Service has put out a statement today saying that anyone using “coronavirus coughs” to threaten emergency workers could face serious criminal charges. It follows reports that police officers, shop workers and others have been coughed at by people claiming to have the disease.

The CPS says that using coughing in this way as a threat could lead to someone being charged with common assault. And it says that assaults specifically against emergency workers are punishable by up to two years in prison.

Emergency workers are more essential than ever as society comes together to tackle the coronavirus pandemic.

I am therefore appalled by reports of police officers and other frontline workers being deliberately coughed at by people claiming to have Covid-19.

At her daily briefing, Nicola Sturgeon has confirmed that as of 9am there are a further 175 cases of coronavirus in Scotland, taking the total to 894 positive tests, and a further three deaths, taking that total to 25.

Setting out the enforcement measures that stem from the passing of the Covid-19 legislation, which was given legislative consent in Holyrood on Tuesday, Sturgeon said that Police Scotland could now direct people to return home if they were not complying with the guidance on public gatherings, and also use prohibition notices and on-the-spot fines. The details of these will be set out later today.

A 14-year-old boy has been arrested after a doctor was robbed on his way to hospital last night.

The victim was forced to withdraw a “two-figure” sum from a cash machine after being approached by two people on foot and one on a bicycle in Harlow, Essex.

Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland’s first minister, is currently holding her daily coronavirus briefing. Here are some of her main points.

First Minister @NicolaSturgeon: "I can confirm as of 9am there have been 894 positive cases confirmed, an increase of 175 from yesterday. These numbers will be an underestimate."

FM: "The Coronavirus bill passed by the UK Parliament yesterday gained royal assent. The Scottish Government now has the power to make regulations to enforce the social distancing measures we announced on Monday."

FM: "If people don't follow prohibition notices or instructions to return home, they could be liable to an on-the-spot fine or, ultimately, prosecuted."

FM: "I recognise how out of character these regulations are. They will have important safeguards - they must be reviewed at least once every 21 days. We will act to remove these restrictions as soon as it is safe to do so."

FM: "These regulations would have been unimaginable a few weeks ago, but the measures - I repeat - are essential in order to tackle this virus and the impact it will have on all of us."

FM: "I want to take the opportunity to emphasise to NHS workers that we know how important protective equipment is. We have brought an extra 1.5 million face masks back into use from the NHS Scotland central stockpile."

FM: "These protective masks were stockpiled because they were past their expiry date, but they have now undergone extensive testing which has shown them to be fit for use."

The National Education Union, which represents almost half a million teachers and education workers, has called for greater support for supply teachers who play a vital role in schools.

Commenting before the chancellor’s briefing on support for self-employed workers during the Covid-19 crisis, Mary Bousted, NEU joint general secretary, said: “In these unsettling times it is imperative that the government gives support to those who need it. Sadly, their response to the plight of self-employed workers in recent days has been far from adequate.

Here are the main points from today’s Downing Street lobby briefing.

The Bank of England and the FSA will be monitoring the situation closely and will be in regular contact to discuss developments.

NHS England is actively preparing for a number of scenarios and is working with clinicians and teams of military planners to support the health service around the country.

What I stress is, if we are able to find an antibody test that works, that could be a game changer. For that reason, you will understand why the government is doing everything it can to get a test that works.

New orders are all dependent on machines passing regulatory tests.

You can see the efforts that we are making to secure ventilators ... We are working hard to ensure that we get extra ventilators into the NHS as far as possible.

We have always said if there were further steps that need to be taken, we are not going to rule anything out.

The PM will take every opportunity that is available to express his support for the NHS.

The Isle of Wight festival is the latest annual event to have been cancelled due to concerns about the spread of Covid-19.

The festival was scheduled to take place between 11 and 14 June in Newport, with performances expected from Lionel Richie, Lewis Capaldi, Duran Duran and the Chemical Brothers.

Isle of Wight Festival 2020 Statement pic.twitter.com/sn8lTj5NHp

Childline has given more than 900 counselling sessions to children worried about coronavirus, with the majority taking place over the last week.

Almost two thirds – 597 – of sessions relating to the Covid-19 outbreak took place between March 16 and March 22, as school closures were announced.

The price farmers are getting for selling lamb has collapsed due to the coronavirus shutdown, according to the chief executive of the National Sheep Association.

Phil Stocker said:

It is the number one priority that the health of society is protected at this time. However, the result is proving highly damaging for many businesses, and industries, and the sheep farming sector is now amongst these.

The trade collapsed at the start of this week with prices down by £1 per kg liveweight – on a 45kg lamb that’s between £40 and £50 a head less, on a value that was maybe just over the £100 mark. The main underlying reason is the closure of the restaurant and catering trade, both here and in the EU.

Pest control technicians have warned of potential rat infestations due to the stockpiling and hoarding of food during the Covid-19 outbreak.

The National Pest Technicians Association (NPTA) said people buying huge quantities of perishable goods coupled with rubbish piling up due to missed bin collections could lead to the problem.

Move any rubbish to an outside bin as soon as possible and try and ensure that this is tightly sealed.

“Inspect your home or office for cracks or holes in walls, unfilled voids around pipework etc, and remember that mice can squeeze through gaps as small as 5mm. If you find any, fill or seal them as soon as possible.

North Yorkshire Police have said they will use checkpoints to stop vehicles and ask drivers if their journey is essential during the lockdown.

Officers will ask motorists where they are going and why, and remind them of the message to stay at home.

The new and significant restrictions announced by the prime minister on Monday evening spell out very clearly what each and every one of us must do to save lives. The message is clear and the warning stark. Stay at home, save lives.

“These are the lives of the people we know and love. Our partners, mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, children, grandparents.”

The Downing Street lobby briefing has just finished. Here are two of the top lines.

If we can reach 750,000, that would be fantastic.

More than 1,000 people have contacted MPs to raise concerns about being told to continue travelling into work despite the government’s plea for them to stay at home.

Office and call centre workers, TV engineers, and estate agents are among the workers who have replied to an appeal for information by the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy committee (BEIS).

“From the evidence we’ve received it’s clear that many businesses are still not doing the right thing. This must change now. This is a health emergency - it cannot be business as usual.

“Workplaces, even those deemed essential, should be doing all they can to ensure that their workers are able to work from home or, if they do have to attend work, that they can undertake social distancing.

While we await confirmation of the government’s plan to pay the self-employed whose incomes have collapsed during the virus outbreak, the Royal Society of Arts has run the numbers and thinks the chancellor’s widely trailed strategy is not as effective as it could be.

Rishi Sunak, who has said working out a solution for the self-employed has been “extremely complicated”, is expected to offer the self-employed payments equivalent to 80% of their earnings over the last three years up to £30k. But the RSA thinks a temporary basic income of £1,500 initially to help manage immediate cashflow, followed by a weekly payment of £100 per week for three months would leave more people better off. It says:

For people earning £17,000 – the average earnings for a self-employed person, according to the ONS – they would be better off under the scheme. This would therefore cover people in vulnerable roles like Deliveroo riders and Uber drivers. For people earning more than £17,000, the benefits of this proposal compared to the government programme would taper off progressively.

Our worry is that basing grants on 80% of average earnings over three years, or even one, will throw up too many anomalies given the changeable nature of year-to-year earnings of this segment of the workforce, leaving some with very low incomes short. It may also prove to be too slow and bureaucratic. It will also mean that some who are fit and healthy to work would be discouraged from doing so.

Members of the public are being urged to take part in a national round of applause for NHS employees at 8pm this evening.

The Clap for our Carers campaign is trying to get as many people as possible to take part in the event from their gardens, front doors, balconies and windows to show their appreciation and support for health workers.

Let’s show our appreciation for our brilliant #NHS staff and all carers TONIGHT at 8pm - we owe them so much - please do share
#clapforcarers #clapforourcarers pic.twitter.com/Gvagajcj9p

A group of youths spat in the face of an RSPCA officer and shouted “have corona bitch”, as she tried to rescue a swan, the animal charity have said.

Leanne Honess-Heather was helping the bird, which had become tangled in a fishing line, when five teenagers – aged around 16 – approached her close to Rush Lyvars Fishing Lake in Hedon, Hull.

The NHS in Wales has issued around 3.5m extra pieces of PPE (personal protective equipment) to staff from its pandemic supplies, the chief executive of NHS Wales, Dr Andrew Goodall, said. This includes face-masks, gloves and clothing.

Goodall told a press conference in Cardiff this had gone to hospitals, GP surgeries and social care workers.

The mayor of London’s press office has said early-morning tube use was down by another 13% on Thursday compared with yesterday, while early-morning bus usage in the capital was down by a further 8%.

It added that compared with this time last year, tube passengers were down by a whopping 92%.

In the comments some readers have been asking about the fact that the government released the UK coronavirus death figures yesterday much later than usual, and that the increase on the previous day (41) was much lower than the previous day’s increase (87).

According to Newsnight’s Nicholas Watt, that is because the government is changing the way it is compiling the figures.

Well, this is very interesting from @nicholaswatt – the govt is changing the way it is releasing death figures, which “may not actually be the deaths that have taken place over the last 24 hrs” as family consent is now required: pic.twitter.com/dks70PDK1I

The Royal Manchester children’s hospital is asking for donations of food, drink and toiletries for its workforce during the coronavirus outbreak.

Requested donations from the hospital’s charity include tea, coffee, snacks, deodorant and toothpaste for those who may have to sleep over.

John McDonnell, the shadow chancellor, is saying that the Treasury employment support package for the self-employed being announced by the government this afternoon must include measures that can be delivered quickly. In a statement he said:

Many self-employed people have been hit hard in the pocket by the coronavirus crisis and have been calling for proper protection of their incomes by the government ... After days of delay and uncertainty the government must announce a package today that can be delivered quickly, giving the self-employed the same level of security as other workers.

Officials have discussed plans which will mean people’s income being assessed on the basis of a “blended” mixture of their revenues and profits over the past three years. They would then be paid a significant proportion of their usual income up to a capped amount, which some in industry have suggested should be £1,700 a month.

The scheme will be designed to ensure that wealthier people who are self-employed such as lawyers and TV presenters are not able to take advantage. There are an estimated 5 million self-employed workers in the UK, but not all will have been directly affected by the outbreak. The bailout is expected to be means-tested, with discussions that those earning over £50,000 a year should not be able to benefit.

An eligibility cap is expected to be set at around the median income level – £30,353 last year – meaning it will include cleaners, childminders and cab drivers but not high-earning professions like lawyers or tech programmers.

One likely option being studied last night is to use January’s tax return for the financial year 2018-19 as the new scheme’s benchmark.

That the self-employed are far less protected from temporary job loss is particularly worrying in light of the jobs they do. Figure 3 [see below] shows the share of self-employed workers in sectors that are directly affected by social distancing measures. It shows that 22% of the self-employed work in sectors that are badly hit, compared to 17% of employees (note that the total number of employees affected is still much larger). This is because the self-employed are much more likely to work in personal services (eg cleaning and hairdressing), arts and leisure (eg performing arts or fitness instruction) and passenger transport (eg taxi services).

In total, nearly a million (0.9 million) self-employed people work in sectors that will be mostly shut down during the crisis period. If restrictions are tightened further, the 0.8 million self-employed workers in the construction sector may also be affected (if they haven’t been already). And on top of the 0.9 million workers in badly hit sectors, a further 0.4 million self-employed workers have a young child (aged 0-9) and no key workers or non-working adults in the family, such that they may have to disrupt their work to provide childcare.

A rise in the number of domestic abuse incidents during the lockdown has already been observed, according to a Greater Manchester police leader.

Beverley Hughes, the deputy mayor for policing and crime, said there had been cases of abuse linked to the coronavirus outbreak and the force was anticipating more serious incidents.

I think we are beginning to see a rise in domestic abuse incidents. We anticipated this might happen in the very stressful circumstances for many families.

The potential for tension to arise in the home as a result of what we are asking people to cope with, in order to suppress the virus, is going to increase and therefore we would be right to think this might display itself in an increase in the number of domestic incidents we are called to.

Rick Stein has refused to to pay his workers’ wages for over a month while his restaurants are closed, according to the Daily Mail.

The Mail reports that the celebrity chef and TV presenter told staff across the 14 sites they would not be paid until the end of April when the government is scheduled to pay wage subsidies to businesses that have shut down.

The proximity of south-east Wales to the English border is believed to be one of the reasons behind a cluster of Covid-19 cases there, the Welsh chief medical officer has said.

Frank Atherton added that there may be more cases in the area because more testing has been done there. He said: “As the epidemic unfolds, there will be areas that will flare up and calm down.”

In Gwent, we are seeing a rapidly rising increase in the number of cases of coronavirus in all our communities and a daily increase in the number of people being admitted to hospital and the number of people dying from the virus.

The pattern we are seeing in Gwent is the same pattern as was seen in Italy, where their healthcare system is now overwhelmed.

The Department for Work and Pensions has published a report today (pdf) on households living in poverty, looking at the trends going up to 2018-19. Its headline finding is that “median household income before housing costs (BHC) decreased slightly between 2017/18 and 2018/19 and was flat after housing costs”.

Pascale Bourquin, a researcher at the Institute for Fiscal Studies who has published an analysis of the figures (pdf), said:

The current crisis will almost certainly result in a sharp, if hopefully temporary, fall in living standards. It comes on top of a desperately disappointing decade for living standards, and most recently three years of essentially stagnant incomes.

Incomes were starting to rise again before 2016. That rise was choked off by the higher inflation caused in part by the depreciation of sterling following the Brexit referendum. There are signs from other sources of data that income growth had just begun to pick up again during 2019–20. The coronavirus crisis will have abruptly put a halt to that recovery.

Co-op has announced new measures to enforce social distancing in its stores.

The retailer has introduced tactics including floor markers which will define a one-metre distance throughout the store, and two-metre spacing for customer queues across its 2,600 stores.

Banks are under pressure to revise the fineprint of emergency coronavirus loans that mean business owners could be personally liable for government-backed debts.

The government and banking industry have been criticised after it emerged some company owners had been told they must give personal guarantees to access the taxpayer-backed loans.

The terms of the loans mean that banks can seek to seize assets owned by directors if their business fails and they cannot pay back the emergency loan.

According to Matt Hancock, the health secretary, more than 500,000 people have now expressed interest in joining the NHS volunteer responders scheme. Yesterday afternoon the figure was 405.000.

NEWS: Fantastic that 560,000 people have now responded to our call to volunteer to support our NHS to defeat #Coronavirus. Join us: https://t.co/gtYR6xW0jE pic.twitter.com/Ajvy31aa3y

NHS leaders are identifying staff to be imminently deployed to the new 4,000-bed temporary hospital being set up to treat seriously ill coronavirus patients.

Health secretary Matt Hancock announced earlier this week that the ExCeL centre in east London would become a field hospital. The site will have two wards of 2,000 beds to cope with any dramatic increase of patients in the capital.

The Today programme also interviewed Prof Neil Ferguson, the lead author on the Imperial College paper that persuaded the government to drastically escalate its social distancing strategy. Repeating a point he made in evidence to the Commons science committee yesterday, he said he thought the NHS would now be able to cope with the peak of the coronavirus epidemic, which he said would come in about three weeks’ time. He told the programme:

We are going to have a very difficult few weeks, particularly in hotspots - London for instance.

But we think, overall, with the capacity which is rapidly being put in place across the country, that whilst the health system will be intensely stressed, particularly in areas of London, it won’t break.

London hospitals are facing a “continuous tsunami” of seriously-ill patients because of coronavirus, a health service leader said this morning. Chris Hopson, chief executive of NHS Providers, which represents NHS trusts, used the phrase in an interview on the Today programme. Commenting on the situation in London, he said:

They are struggling with two things. The first is the explosion of demand they are seeing in seriously ill patients. They talk about wave after wave after wave - the word that’s often used to me is a continuous tsunami.

We are now seeing 30%, 40% and indeed in some places 50% sickness rates as staff catch the virus or are in vulnerable groups or have to self-isolate. That’s an unprecedented absence rate.

The government has ordered 10,000 ventilators to help tackle the coronavirus pandemic, billionaire entrepreneur Sir James Dyson has said. As PA Media reports, in an email to staff, the inventor said his eponymous company designed the “CoVent” at the request of Boris Johnson, and promised to donate 5,000 to the international relief effort. Dyson said teams of engineers had been working solidly on the design since receiving the call from PM 10 days ago, and the UK government had placed an initial order of 10,000 units. He added:

We have received an initial order of 10,000 units from the UK government, which we will supply on an open-book basis.

We are also looking at ways of making it available internationally.

The core challenge was how to design and deliver a new, sophisticated medical product in volume and in an extremely short space of time. The race is now on to get it into production.

Ventilators are a regulated product so Dyson and TTP will be working with the Medicines and Healthcare Regulatory products Agency and the government to ensure that the product and the manufacturing process is approved.

John McDonnell, the shadow chancellor, wants the government and the media to name and shame companies that are forcing people to go into work for non-essential business.

Reports pouring in to MPs of businesses ignoring lockdown & forcing workers to work, putting them at risk of Covid 19 & spreading it. They are putting all our lives at risk by their greed.The Gvt must act to shut them down & the media should be naming & shaming.#phoneylockdown https://t.co/nmpWKqvxnq

Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London, has been criticised by ministers in recent days for not running more services on the tube (leading to some carriages being crowded, increasing the coronavirus transmission risk). This morning he has been tweeting to say that he cannot run more services, and to thank Londoners for reducing their uses of buses and the tube this week.

⚠️ One in three @TfL staff are off sick or self-isolating: we cannot run more services

⚠️ Employers: staff must work from home wherever possible to help protect our key workers who need to travel

⚠️ If you have to go to work, please don’t travel at rush hour #COVID19 pic.twitter.com/67SmQ7q3kp

Thank you to all Londoners who are following the rules and staying home.

Early-morning tube use is down another 13% compared to yesterday, bus use by a further 8%.

The more we stay at home the more lives we can save. #StayAtHome

Hospital car parking charges are to be waived for all NHS and social care staff in England while they tackle the coronavirus outbreak, health secretary Matt Hancock announced last night.

The move follows huge public support for an online petition calling on the government to suspend charges for frontline staff during the Covid-19 outbreak, which attracted over 415,000 signatures in four days.

This is a HUGE announcement and it would not have been possible without you. The momentum you created and the clarity in the message that you delivered have brought about this change.

I am in no doubt that our government did not begin this week intending to cover the cost of all parking charges for NHS staff. This is a massive success, thanks to the hundreds of thousands of you who signed this petition. I would like to pay special thanks, directly and sincerely to the secretary of state for health and social care, Matt Hancock. I cannot overstate how refreshing it feels as a doctor to have somebody in that position actually listen and respond.

Our NHS is facing an unprecedented challenge, and I will do everything I can to ensure our dedicated staff have whatever they need during this unprecedented time. So we will provide free car parking for our NHS staff who are going above and beyond every day in hospitals in England. My enormous gratitude goes out to the many NHS trusts and other organisations already providing free car parking and I urge other trusts to do the same with our backing.

Good morning. Today we’re expecting the Treasury to release details of its plan to support the self-employed who are losing work because of the coronavirus crisis. Here is an extract from our overnight preview story.

The chancellor, Rishi Sunak, is expected to announce that the taxpayer will pay self-employed workers up to 80% of their recent earnings to help contain the economic impact of coronavirus, as 470,000 extra benefits claims sparked warnings of an “unemployment crisis”.

Sunak has been under growing pressure to do more for the UK’s 5 million self-employed after announcing an unprecedented job retention scheme for employees last Friday, that will see thousands paid to stay at home ...

Related: UK government fends off criticism with plan to pay self-employed

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