E3: UK coronavirus live: hospital deaths up by 823; MPs told of 'political decision' not to join EU ventilator scheme

MPs vote for virtual parliament sessions; Boris Johnson to speak to Trump and the Queen

The Tony Blair Institute for Global Change has published a paper today saying how a programme of mass testing could be used to help the UK exit from the lockdown. Daniel Sleat, one of its co-authors, said:

This paper, we believe, lays out the best information available on the state of testing. It sets out a path for the government to reach mass community testing. This must form a central element in any credible and sustainable exit from lockdown. To achieve this ambition the Government must make systemic and structural changes in the coming weeks - including appointing a senior minister responsible solely for testing. We cannot afford to be behind the curve on preparing to test at scale and conduct sophisticated contact tracing.

Mass contact tracing is the only internationally proven alternative to mass lockdown. We need to act fast: https://t.co/O9I0MBBrwX

This is from the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg.

Just spoken to Keir Starmer on PPE problems - 'what we’re seeing here is an increasing gap between what the government says or thinks is happening and what the frontline are telling us'

UK ministers took a political decision not to be involved in an EU ventilator scheme, Sir Simon McDonald, the Foreign Office permanent under-secretary said today, so challenging previous claims that the UK did not take part due to missed emails.

McDonald was asked by a Labour MP, Chris Bryant, at the foreign affairs select committee whether the ventilator scheme was put to ministers. He said:

It was a political decision. The UK mission (UKREP) briefed ministers about what was available, what was on offer and the decision is known.

The Department for Health and Social Care has published the latest UK hospital death figures. There are 823 new deaths, taking the total to 17,337.

As of 9am 21 April, 535,342 tests have concluded, with 18,206 tests on 20 April.

397,670 people have been tested of which 129,044 tested positive.

As of 5pm on 20 April, of those hospitalised in the UK who tested positive for coronavirus, 17,337 have sadly died. pic.twitter.com/rLnm7MWxEw

The Commons has now adjourned for the day.

In the Commons Jacob Rees-Mogg, the leader of the Commons, has just been asked to justify why the owners of second homes can qualify for £10,000 grants under the scheme to help small businesses affected by coronavirus. (See 3.09pm.) Rees-Mogg said, as he understood it, this money was only available if the second home was genuinely being run as a business. He said that seemed reasonable to him.

Sir Keir Starmer will lead for Labour at PMQs tomorrow even though he will be up against Dominic Raab, the foreign secretary and first secretary of state, not Boris Johnson. In recent years, when the PM is absent and someone else is deputising at PMQs, the leader of the opposition has normally nominated a stand-in too. But Starmer has never had a PMQs as Labour leader, and Johnson may be away for some time. There is no rule saying he cannot appear himself, and it seems sensible for him to ensure that no one else gets the limelight tomorrow.

Smaller juries with as few as seven people could be in Scottish courts as part of attempts to restart criminal trials during the lockdown, writes the Guardian’s Scotland editor, Severin Carrell.

Scotland’s justice secretary, Humza Yousaf, told a reduced number of MSPs on Tuesday, spaced out in Holyrood’s chamber for their sole weekly session, the Scottish government was focusing on proposals to cut jury sizes, speed up trials and giving sheriffs enhanced powers to allow trials to take place.

Here is Damian Carrington, the Guardian’s environment editor, on the research featured earlier showing a link between higher levels of air pollution and deaths from Covid-19 in England. (See 12.44pm.)

Related: Preliminary study links air pollution to coronavirus deaths in England

Jacob Rees-Mogg, the leader of the Commons, has just made a short statement on the Commons business for next week. He confirms that the second reading of the immigration bill has been shelved for the moment. Next week MPs will debate the finance bill, the domestic abuse bill and the fire safety bill.

Scotland’s justice secretary has announced that there will be limited release of prisoners in order to ease the pressures of coronavirus on the prison service, some weeks after equivalent moves in England and Wales.

Humza Yousaf told the socially distanced sitting at Holyrood: “After careful consideration, I will be asking the Scottish Prison Service to consider the release of a limited number of short term prisoners towards the end of their time in custody.” Describing it as a “necessary and proportionate response to the current situation”, he confirmed that around 450 prisoners with less than three months to serve would be eligible. Early release will not be considered for those convicted of sexual offences, terrorism offences, domestic abuse offences or Covid-19 related offences, nor will anyone with a non-harassment order be eligible.

Back in the Commons, Jacob Rees-Mogg, the leader of the Commons, is winding up the debate. Responding to Sir Desmond Swayne (see 3.36pm), Rees-Mogg says he wants MPs to be able to contribute to debates. He says that if an MP were unable to enter the chamber because the 50-person limit had been reached, he would leave the chamber himself to allow them in. He says MPs have had the right to attend parliament unimpeded since 1340. He does not want to to be the leader of the house who brings that to an end, he says.

MPs then pass the two motions by acclamation, without opposition.

A consortium of British textile firms is aiming to make millions of protective gowns to help the NHS.

Kate Hills said manufacturers had come together to form the British Textile Consortium in order to make vital personal protective equipment (PPE) for health workers.

Gowns and masks are the main things, gowns in particular are critical. Through the consortium a number of manufacturers are having their gowns tested with a view to then supply them to the NHS.

They will be able to provide gowns in the hundreds of thousands, if not millions, per month. But they are disposable products so it is not everything that is needed but a good proportion of what is needed. The rollout will be in a few weeks.

Oxford has become the latest UK university to announce a raft of cost-cutting measures in response to the damage caused by the Covid-19 pandemic and resulting lockdown.

They include a 12-month recruitment freeze and a pilot furlough scheme initially in six departments, which will then be rolled out across the university, using the government’s coronavirus job retention scheme.

Our aim is to ensure Oxford emerges from this crisis as a stronger institution, and these measures will help reduce the financial impact of the lockdown. We believe the changes are the best way to support staff through the current situation and to sustain the excellence of our teaching and vitally-needed research.

Back in the Commons chamber the Conservative MP Sir Desmond Swayne said told MPs that he was particularly worried by paragraph six of the motion (pdf) being voted on this afternoon. It says:

Members may participate in scrutiny proceedings virtually, by electronic means approved by the Speaker, or by attending in the chamber. The Speaker may limit the number of members present in the chamber at any one time.

It would be outrageous if members elected to this house were unable to come and bring their concerns to this chamber because there were already a sufficient number of members within it.

Barclays is introducing temporary interest-free buffers of £750 on pre-agreed overdrafts from the start of May.

This is more generous than the £500 interest-free overdraft buffer that many providers are offering to help borrowers cope with the financial impact of the coronavirus pandemic, PA Media reports.

The peak in the number of coronavirus deaths in England and Wales happened on April 8, according to scientists. As PA Media reports, commenting on the death data released by the Office of National Statistics today, a panel convened by the Science Media Centre said the death rate had been consistent for the last 13 days. Prof Carl Heneghan, director of the Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine at the University of Oxford, said:

From an epidemiological perspective we can say that the numbers are consistent with the peak happening on April 8.

We’ve now tracked for 13 days that that has been consistent - it hasn’t jumped up.

Tim Farron, the former Lib Dem leader, is urging the Treasury to stop people with second homes who rent them out being able to claim £10,000 from the fund set up to help small businesses affected by coronavirus.

The loophole which allows second home owners to pretend to be businesses so they can avoid paying council tax, now means they can claim £10k from the coronavirus relief fund meant for struggling small businesses.

I've written to the Chancellor urging him to close the loophole. pic.twitter.com/aanF0cipeJ

Rapid coronavirus antibody home tests cannot currently be relied on to provide reliable results, a new study suggests.

But researchers said a laboratory test called Elisa showed promising results when indicating whether someone had developed Covid-19 antibodies.

In the Commons Jacob Rees-Mogg says MPs who are in the chamber will try to observe social distancing rules. But he says there will be times when it is not possible for them to stay two metres apart from each other. But he says what matters is that they will try to observe these rules whenever practical.

Sir Desmond Swayne, a Conservative, says Rees-Mogg is referring to social distancing rules that have never been debated or explored by parliament. That is “shocking”, he says.

Wales has enough personal protective equipment (PPE) to last “a few days”, the Welsh health minister Vaughan Gething told a press conference earlier. He said:

We have enough stocks of all items to last us for a few days, partly because of the mutual aid we’ve received from other UK countries, partly because of the UK supplies that have come in.

But we’re not in a position to say we have weeks and weeks of advance stock on all of those items. And that’s why I’m certainly not at all complacent or blasé about where we are.

Jacob Rees-Mogg, the leader of the Commons, is now opening the debate. Asked if he will be asking the Commons to vote tomorrow on a motion calling for the introduction of electronic voting in the Commons, he declines to answer, saying that that is a matter for tomorrow.

He also says that in the immediate future the government wants to avoid calling votes on controversial motions. He says the government does not envisage the need for any divisions in the business coming up next week.

In the Commons Sir Lindsay Hoyle, the Speaker, is opening this afternoon’s proceedings. He is in the chair, as normal, but there are only a small number of MPs in the chamber. (MPs have agreed that no more than 50 should be in the chamber at any time.)

Hoyle says, unusually, he is allowing two motions to be moved without the usual formal notice. They relate to coronavirus and to the plan for the Commons to move to “hybrid” proceedings - with some MPs attending in the chamber, but most participating via video conferencing.

The Treasury has said that by the end of yesterday there had been 185,000 applications to furlough workers under the government’s coronavirus job protection scheme. A Treasury spokesman said that 1.3m jobs had been benefited as a result, and that the value of the applications was £1.5bn.

Another 778 people in England have died from coronavirus in hospital, according to the latest daily update from NHS England, bringing the total for England to 15,607.

Patients were aged between 22 and 103, and 24 of the 778 patients had no known underlying health conditions; they were aged between 49 and 91.

A further 25 people have died after testing positive for coronavirus in Wales, bringing the total number of deaths there to 609, according to the latest update from Public Health Wales.

Because we all need more recipes without tinned tomatoes right now....

Related: No tinned tomatoes? Here are 10 great pasta sauces that don’t need them

One in five UK adults expect to apply for benefits as a result of coronavirus or have already done so, according to Citizens Advice.

A survey between 2 and 7 April found this figure rose to seven in 10 (68%) people on zero-hours employment contracts.

Behind today’s figures are families whose world has been turned upside down by coronavirus.

The government has worked hard to shore up protections for workers and process soaring claims for universal credit. But we know that some people are still slipping through the safety net, often with desperate consequences.

Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s temporary release from an Iranian jail has been extended by a month, according to her MP.

The British-Iranian mother has been freed from Evin prison in Tehran in response to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Very happy to hear from Richard Ratcliffe that Nazanin’s furlough has been extended for a month - in line with other prisoners in Iran.

Now is the time for our government to do all it can to make it permanent.

There should be no question of Nazanin ever being sent back to Evin Prison. There are numerous reports of Covid-19 in Iranian jails, with detainees pleading for basic things like soap to help combat the disease.

We’re urging the Iranian authorities to finally do the right thing and free Nazanin permanently, allowing her to return to her family back here in Britain.

While the extension of Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s temporary release is a welcome step, we continue to urge Iran to make it permanent so she can return to her family in the UK.

We will continue to do everything we can to help secure the release of all UK dual nationals arbitrarily detained in Iran.

We already know that the UK non-coronavirus- related death rate has risen, but now an academic has warned that delays in treatment and diagnosis could lead to a “cancer epidemic”.

New research has found that the efforts to tackle coronavirus are “significantly affecting” the treatment and care of patients with cancer, reports PA Media.

We are already seeing the indirect effects of the Covid-19 crisis on cancer care. Urgent referral numbers are dropping, endoscopies and other surgical procedures are being postponed and many cancer specialists are being redirected to Covid-19 specific care. If we don’t act, we risk the unintended consequence of the current Covid-19 pandemic precipitating a future cancer epidemic.

The Greater Manchester mayor, Andy Burnham, has said he will have to close Manchester’s Metrolink unless the government offers financial support, because there has been a 95% drop in the number of passengers.

@MayorofGM says he will have to temporarily close the @MCRMetrolink system unless government offers financial support within days because of a 95% fall in passengers.

Lord Justice Leggatt, the latest appointment to the UK’s highest court, has been sworn in at a ceremony watched online by most of his supreme court colleagues, writes my colleague Owen Bowcott.

As the justice system adapts to remote working, the court in Westminster held a closed ceremony in the supreme court library at which the only other justice present was the court president, Lord Reed.

The Downing Street lobby briefing has just finished. Here are the main points.

The Downing Street source said: “The problem is with this arbitrary target. There is a faint irrationality behind it, just because there was a clamour for mass testing. Hancock’s 100,000 target was a response to criticism in the media, and he decided to crank out tests regardless.

“Hancock’s not had a good crisis. The prime minister will say he has confidence in him, but it doesn’t feel like that. He set out to buy time by setting this target, and it threatens to come back to bite him. The 100,000 figure was Hancock’s idea – but he made that figure up.”

If the government is going to consider advising the general public to wear facemasks it must fully assess the impact on the NHS. Fluid repellent masks for health and care staff are key to safety and to avoid the spread of coronavirus.

Securing the supply of masks, when there is huge global demand, is crucial. This must be a key consideration. There needs to be clear evidence that wearing masks, along with other measures, will deliver significant enough benefits to take us out of lockdown to potentially jeopardise NHS mask supply.

A total of 985 patients have died in Scotland after testing positive for coronavirus, up by 70 from 915 on Monday, Nicola Sturgeon has said. In the 24 hours before there were 12 deaths recorded.

The first minister said 8,672 people had now tested positive for the virus in Scotland, up by 222 from 8,450 the day before.

Higher air pollution could be linked to increased deaths and cases of coronavirus in England, a preliminary study suggests.

An analysis by the Medical Research Council Toxicology Unit at Cambridge University compared regional data on total Covid-19 cases and deaths, against levels of three major air pollutants.

Our results provide the first evidence that SARS-CoV-2 case fatality is associated with increased nitrogen oxide and nitrogen dioxide levels in England.

London, the Midlands and the north- west show the largest concentration of these air pollutants, with southern regions displaying the lowest levels in the country, and the number of Covid-19 deaths follows a similar trend.

Our study adds to growing evidence from Northern Italy and the USA that high levels of air pollution are linked to deadlier cases of Covid-19.

This is something we saw during the previous Sars outbreak back in 2003, where long-term exposure to air pollutants had a detrimental effect on the prognosis of Sars patients in China.

Dave Prentis, the general secretary of Unison, a union which represents many workers in the health and care sector, said that the latest ONS figures about care home deaths (see 9.45am and 10.59am), were “shocking evidence of the government’s shambolic handling of the Covid crisis”. In a statement he went on:

Staff working in care homes and those looking after people in the community have been massively let down. The ongoing lack of protective kit has left many terrified they’ll spread this deadly virus or become infected themselves.

There’s still widespread confusion among workers and their employers over what equipment they should have. Some staff are being told off for wearing masks while others can’t even get hold of hand sanitiser, according to reports still coming into Unison’s PPE alert hotline.

There could be a “bloodbath” for the UK’s pubs and restaurants unless the government extends coronavirus support for the hospitality industry, a trade body has warned.

The UKHospitality chief executive, Kate Nicholls, said the industry was the “canary in the coalmine” for the British economy and said firms could go to the wall without further help from Whitehall, PA Media reports.

If we don’t get a resolution at a global level, if you rely on landlords and lessees to sort it out individually themselves, it would be a bloodbath come June when we have the next quarter rent that becomes due.

We were the canary in the coalmine that went first into the coronavirus crisis and it looks like we will be last out.

If we don’t get that intervention on rent, if we are forced to remain closed until Christmas, then I think you could put a third of the sector at risk.”

Tributes have been paid to mental health nurse Khulisani Nkala, 46, who died on Friday after contracting coronavirus, PA Media reports. Dr Sara Munro, chief executive of Leeds and York Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, said:

This is the first member of our particular NHS family to lose their life to Covid-19 and I sincerely hope it will be the last. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family at this difficult time.

It is with great sadness that we announce that Khulisani (Khuli) Nkala, a Charge Nurse in our Forensic Services, died from Coronavirus on Friday 17 April 2020. Full tribute from our Chief Exec, colleagues and service users on our website.https://t.co/rGTXpVoArw#NHSheroes pic.twitter.com/Tl4u45DDhI

On Saturday the government assured the public that a “major consignment” of PPE was on its way from Turkey, and was set to arrive on Sunday after growing criticism of a critical shortage for frontline workers.

But Sky News has since reported Turkish sources claiming that Britain only made a formal request to Turkey over a consignment of personal protective equipment on Sunday.

An RAF A400M Atlas transport plane is on the tarmac at Istanbul, but it is yet to start loading the 400,000 gowns and other vital equipment for the NHS and is not expected to do so until later on Tuesday at the earliest.

It was sent out on Monday night by the UK in a desperate attempt to put diplomatic pressure on Ankara, despite the fact that Turkey, which is centrally controlling PPE exports during the coronavirus crisis, had not cleared them for release.

Related: RAF plane sent to pressure Turkey to release gowns for NHS

The first online hearing in a Scottish court has begun in a defamation case over claims a pro-independence blogger was called a homophobe by the former Scottish Labour leader, Kezia Dugdale.

Stuart Campbell, who blogs under the pen name Wings over Scotland, is appealing against a sheriff’s decision last April to dismiss his £25,000 damages claim over an opinion piece by Dugdale in the Record in March 2017.

Household claims for universal credit in Scotland have surged by 90,000 a month as the coronavirus pandemic continues to seriously affect family finances, writes my colleague Libby Brooks.

UC claims increased from an average of 20,000 per month in 2019 to over 110,000 between 1 March and 7 April, the Scottish government has announced, as it launches a new campaign to raise awareness of the financial support available in partnership with the Citizens Advice network.

Super League’s Magic Weekend, one of English rugby league’s major events, been postponed as a result of the ongoing pandemic.

The event, which was scheduled for 23-24 May at Newcastle United’s St James’ Park, will not go ahead as planned but it may be rescheduled for a later date, according to organisers.

Here is our news story on the ONS figures from Robert Booth and Pamela Duncan.

Related: Coronavirus deaths in care homes in England and Wales more than quadruple in a week

Covid-19 fatalities in care homes in England and Wales have more than quadrupled in a week, rising to 1,043, according to the latest official figures.

By 10 April, more than 1,000 people were confirmed to have died in care homes from the virus, up from 217, the previous week. The number of people who died in private homes also more than tripled, to 466.

Nick Stripe, the health analysis and life events division at the ONS, gave a sobering interview to the BBC’s Victoria Derbyshire a few minutes ago about the latest mortality figures. (“Life events” presumably include dying.) Here are the key points.

So actually that number is slightly deflated because if the registration offices had been open, maybe another couple of thousand, if not more, deaths would have been registered.

Compared to the five-year average of the same week in the year, it’s 8,000 deaths above that average, of which 6,200 - about 80% of of those deaths - involved Covid.

John Lewis sales have plunged after it was forced to shut stores in face of coronavirus despite a surge in online orders.

The John Lewis Partnership group also said sales at its Waitrose supermarket chain saw surged as shoppers stocked up on essentials.

The ONS has also published a paper looking at how its death figures compare with the ones published by the government for coronavirus deaths in hospitals.

Our weekly deaths data show that

- of all deaths in England and Wales that occurred up to 10 April (registered up to 18 April), 13,121 involved COVID-19

- Comparatively @DHSCgovuk figures show that 9,288 deaths occurred by 10 April https://t.co/g3G5KGuOel #COVID19 #coronavirus pic.twitter.com/0tu6lP9WyT

There is a difference in the numbers because we include all deaths where COVID-19 was mentioned on the death certificate, even if only suspected, and we include deaths that happened in hospital and the community.

Read our blog post for more detail https://t.co/GwZsiemGcn

We’re working with the @CareQualityComm (CQC) to better understand deaths occurring in care homes. From 28 April, we will publish counts of deaths involving #COVID19 in care homes, based on reporting from care home operators to the CQC https://t.co/HDbeiZn611 #coronavirus

This is from Jonathan Portes, an economics professor, on the ONS figures.

About 8,000 extra deaths (England and Wales) in week to April 10.

Big difference between "extra" deaths in care homes and those directly attributed to covid-19. https://t.co/CynaFg36rG pic.twitter.com/fSKoKTUNGZ

Here are three of the most revealing charts from today’s ONS report.

This chart from the ONS report shows how the weekly death rate in England and Wales is now soaring above the long-term average.

Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s temporary release from an Iranian jail has been extended for one month, her MP has said.

Tulip Siddiq tweeted on Tuesday morning: “Very happy to hear from Richard Ratcliffe that Nazanin’s furlough has been extended for a month - in line with other prisoners in Iran.

The Office for National Statistics has just published its latest weekly death figures for England and Wales. They cover the week ending 10 April.

Here are the main points.

Yesterday there was a rehearsal in the Commons for the new “hybrid” procedures, that will see a few MPs asking questions in the chamber, but most of them taking party virtually, via video conferencing. Here are some pictures showing how it worked.

Britain only made a formal request to Turkey over a consignment of personal protective equipment on Sunday, Turkish sources have told Sky News.

This is the day after Robert Jenrick, the housing secretary, said at the daily Downing Street press briefing on Saturday that 84 tonnes of the gear was already heading to the UK.

Good morning. I’m Andrew Sparrow, joining the blog.

Here are the main events on the agenda for the day.

An NHS nurse has recovered from coronavirus despite recently having a kidney transplant.

Charlene Nelson managed to fight off the disease after spending just one week in hospital.

A consignment of personal protective equipment being collected by the RAF from Turkey will be in the UK “in the next few days”, local government minister Simon Clarke has said.

Asked whether it had left Turkey yet, he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme:

I can’t speak to that, I’m afraid. All I know is it set off last night.

It will be with us obviously in the UK in the next few days, which is the core priority.

The Lord Speaker, Lord Fowler, said he would chair the upper chamber from home, and all proceedings would be digital by Thursday.

He said the House of Lords Commission would consider on Monday whether peers would be able to claim their daily attendance allowance for the virtual proceedings.

Lord Fowler said peers’ membership of select committees would have to be considered, but it was a “pretty strong argument” that members would not have to leave their homes to contribute to proceedings in the chamber.

The Commons Speaker, Sir Lindsay Hoyle, has urged MPs to “stay at home” as parliament returns following the Easter recess.

He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme:

My advice is please stay at home, let’s do it remotely.

Those that insist on coming - we can have up to 50, I’m not expecting 50 members in at once, far from it, I’m hoping that number is much reduced.

Related: MPs expected to approve plans for 'virtual parliament'

Dentists and anaesthetists are among the latest groups to say they are working without adequate personal protective equipment (PPE) in the fight against Covid-19.

The British Dental Association (BDA) said dentists in England were facing “critical shortages” of PPE, while the Royal College of Anaesthetists (RCA) said doctors should not treat patients without proper equipment.

Over half (54%) of dentists in England said PPE shortages were hampering efforts to treat patients at urgent dental care (UDC) hubs, according to a survey of 1,010 UK dentists by the BDA.
Only one in five dentists in Scotland are reporting the same issues, the poll found.

Some 35% of all UK dentists surveyed said they felt fully protected against Covid-19 while 46% said they felt partly protected, and almost 12% said they were not protected at all.

Almost two-thirds of dentists at sites in England also reported shortages of FFP3 masks and gowns needed for high-risk procedures known as aerosol-generating procedures.

Morning all. I am running the live blog this morning, so please do get in touch if you would like to share any news tips of information with me this morning. Your thoughts, comments and insight are always very welcome. Thanks in advance.

Twitter: @sloumarsh
Instagram: sarah_marsh_journalist
Email: sarah.marsh@theguardian.com

UK job vacancies dived in the three months to March as the labour market contracted in the face of the coronavirus, official statisticians have revealed.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said the number of job vacancies plunged by 52,000 to 795,000 for the quarter.

It said the manufacturing and retail sectors reported the largest decline in hiring over the period.

The ONS also revealed that growth in the number of people on British companies’ payrolls slowed to 0.8% in March from 1.1% in February, according to preliminary tax data.

Economists also revealed on Tuesday that unemployment increased by 22,000 to 1.36 million in the three months to February, before Covid-19 gripped the UK.

Meanwhile, employment for the quarter to February jumped by 352,000 against the same period last year, rising to a record high of 33.07 million. It said this was heavily driven by a jump in the number of women in work, which rose by 318,000 to a record high of 15.73 million.

The owner of budget fashion firm Primark has said 68,000 staff have been furloughed across Europe amid the coronavirus lockdown as it revealed a £248m hit for unsold stock as all its stores remain shut.

Associated British Foods boss George Weston said the group had been “squarely in the path of this pandemic”, but would not reopen Primark stores until the disease is under control.

Primark has seen sales plunge from £650m a month to zero as coronavirus has caused the 376-strong chain to shut completely, with no online business to fall back on.

Half-year results showed pre-tax profits slumped as Primark was left with piles of stock it was unable to sell amid the global coronavirus lockdown, falling 42% to £298m in the six months to 29 February.

Total charges in the first half soared to £309m, compared with £79m a year earlier, including the £248m stock costs.

Simon Clarke, minister of state for regional growth and local government, said 49 NHS staff had died in the coronavirus fight. He told BBC Breakfast:

Their service and their sacrifice will never be forgotten and we will look into every one of those cases to understand what has happened, I can give that total assurance.

It is not straightforward, precisely because clearly this is an unprecedented challenge, and however much we have been able to put out, and it is a huge quantity, the demand is incredible.

Katie Sanderson, a junior doctor in London, told BBC Radio 4’s Today there were “very, very significant gaps” in PPE provision.

Referencing a Doctors’ Association UK survey with more than 1,100 responses in 250 settings, she said 38% of doctors had no eye protection, 38% who need FFP3 masks do not have access to them and 47% do not have access to long-sleeved gowns.

The shadow Cabinet Office minister Rachel Reeves said the shortage of personal protective equipment was a “disgrace” as she urged the government to use smaller UK manufacturers to source items.

She told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme she had been “inundated” with manufacturers who have contacted the government offering to make PPE but have heard nothing back.

There are many, many businesses around the country who have perhaps furloughed workers but have the capability and the capacity and the skills to make this personal protective equipment and clothing - particularly the gowns - but have not heard back from the government.

Some of them are doing it on an ad-hoc basis for local hospitals or care homes, but this needs to be systematic - it needs to be a national effort, using all of our manufacturing and textile capacity and capability to ensure that the doctors and nurses and care workers ... have that equipment and clothing that they need.

It is a disgrace that we’ve got people working on the frontline who aren’t properly protected and government’s first and foremost responsibility is to protect its citizens, and this now is our main priority.

Hello everyone, and welcome to the UK coronavirus live blog, bringing you the latest updates on Covid-19.

Please do get in touch if you would like to share any news tips of information with me this morning. Your thoughts, comments and insight are always very welcome. Thanks in advance.

Continue reading...

Back Original Source