E3: UK coronavirus live: lockdown likely to be extended as Boris Johnson remains in hospital

All the day’s developments in the UK’s Covid-19 crisis

Organisers of the BBC Proms are still hoping to present a programme this summer although they say “that will involve adapting and changing the festival we originally planned”.

In a statement, BBC Proms said it was delaying the announcement of the season, something which usually happens in mid-April. Publication of the Official Proms Guide and the sale of tickets is also being delayed. An update will be given by the end of May.

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Almost three in 10 business have cut jobs in the face of the coronavirus pandemic, according to the Office for National Statistics.

The ONS said 29% of the 4,598 businesses it surveyed over the past fortnight said they had to temporarily reduce staff numbers during the period from 9 March to 22 March.

A&E attendances at hospitals in England were down nearly a third last month compared with a year ago, new figures from NHS England show.

A total of 1.53m attendances were recorded in March 2020, a 29% drop on the 2.17m attendances in March 2019.

NEW A&E DATA: NHS performance v 4-hour target hits record low for a March month last month. 84.2% of patients were admitted, transferred, discharged within 4 hours (v 95% target) compared to 86.7% in March 2019. Figure up from 82.8% in February 2020https://t.co/icjLsQUWkQ

The NHS has worked night and day to surge capacity to manage coronavirus but it’s also there for you if you have symptoms of a stroke, symptoms of a heart attack.

Indeed if you have any emergency condition whether it’s a sick child, whether it’s a mother in pregnancy who’s worried about movements of the baby, you should be seeking emergency services just as you always have done.

A number of people who have spat or coughed at emergency workers, or exploited coronavirus for their own gain, have been charged and prosecuted recently, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said.

Max Hill QC, the director of public prosecutions has made it clear that anyone using coronavirus to threaten emergency and essential workers would face criminal charges, as a snapshot of the cases the CPS has charged and prosecuted recently show. Here are a few examples:

It is disappointing to see charges come in on a daily basis of hard-working police officers, NHS staff and other vital workers, being coughed or spat at, sometimes deliberately exposing them to the risk of infecting them with coronavirus.

We take these offences immensely seriously and want to make it absolutely clear – that where there is evidence to do so, people will be prosecuted and can face up to one year in prison.

The mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has issued a reminder that any protective equipment, including masks and gloves, should not be discarded on the ground – they should be disposed of properly in a bin. He highlighted that such carelessness only puts other people, particularly waste collectors and street cleaners, at risk of infection.

Please make sure you throw gloves, masks and any other protective equipment you might use in the bin to keep everyone safe. We must ensure that our refuse collectors and those who keep London’s streets clean can do so without risk of infection. #Care4YourCrews https://t.co/bYIy6seKG0

Good morning. This is Lucy Campbell, I’m taking over the live blog for the rest of the day covering all the latest coronavirus developments in the UK. If you have any tips, comments or suggestions, feel free to email me at lucy.campbell@guardian.co.uk or contact me via Twitter @lucy_campbell_.

The chief constable of Northamptonshire police, Nick Adderley, has said the force will now ramp up the enforcement of coronavirus regulations.

Adderley said the “three-week grace period is over”, and people in the county could now face fines or a criminal record.

These are not guidelines anymore. This is the law. We haven’t issued any fixed penalty notices, but we have charged a number of people with Covid-related offences.

We’ve had examples of people sunbathing in the park, having barbecues in the park, we’ve had large gatherings of family members.

The Co-op has pulled its planned Easter television advertising campaign, instead donating the airtime to the national food redistribution charity FareShare.

The £2.5m campaign was originally planned to promote its chocolate Easter eggs, but in the wake of coronavirus, the retailer has turned over the airtime to promote “local heroes” and encourage people to support food banks.

From today, UK Airbnb bookings will be restricted to key workers and other essential stays only, the site has announced.

The platform will temporarily block all calendars from receiving new bookings for stays up to at least 18 April, unless they are for key workers or other types of essential stays.

Chocolate giant Mondelēz, the manufacturer behind popular brands such as Cadbury and Oreo, has joined forces with engineering company 3P innovation to help make thousands of medical visors every day to protect front line NHS staff.

The company is repurposing 3D printing technology normally used to make chocolate sculptures at its Bournville factory south of Birmingham to help print the medical visors.

Some NHS workers are sending their children to live with relatives in a bid to protect their loved ones from Covid-19.

Staff caring for Covid-19 patients on the frontline are fearful of catching the new coronavirus themselves and potentially passing the infection on to their loved ones.

The government said it has expanded its overdraft with the Bank of England to ensure it has sufficient cash to cope with disruption caused by coronavirus.

It said the central bank will directly finance the extra spending the government needs on a temporary basis.

People working in the cultural sector are facing “grave difficulties” and risk missing out on government help during the coronavirus pandemic, according to the Arts Council England boss, Sir Nicholas Serota.

He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that some workers in the sector risk “falling through the gap” of support packages announced by the chancellor Rishi Sunak.

Tower Hamlets council in London has announced Victoria Park will reopen on Saturday 11 April from 8am, with reduced opening hours and new control measures in place.

Restrictions include no gatherings, sunbathing, picnics or sport games, and leisure cycling is only allowed for children under the age of 12 who are accompanied by an adult.

Victoria Park will reopen on Saturday 11 April from 8am, with reduced opening hours and new control measures in place.

Visit our website for further information https://t.co/bMiZBtkMoC pic.twitter.com/2gS0Fs5N83

The director general of the National Trust has appealed to people not to travel to visit its open spaces over Easter as part of the effort to contain coronavirus, on what would normally be one of its busiest weekends of the year.

Though the conservation charity has closed all of its properties and car parks across a vast portfolio that includes more than 500 historic houses, ancient monuments, gardens and parks, it also cares for large areas of open land, including some of the country’s most famous beaches, forests and stretches of coastline.

We know how sad our members and visitors are that they can’t travel to their favourite places to mark Easter and celebrate the arrival of spring this year, but our biggest priority has to be staying at home to help our NHS and keep ourselves and one another safe.

The culture secretary, Oliver Dowden, has insisted the home secretary, Priti Patel, is still working after she was accused of avoiding scrutiny.

Patel has also not chaired any of the daily press conferences on the coronavirus response, unlike other senior cabinet members.

With their heavy spring workload of lambing, calving and field work under way, a major concern for farmers is who can take over and look after their animals should they become unwell through coronavirus, especially with their potential workforce restricted by lockdown measures.

Scottish farmers have recently been urged by the rural support body RSABI to write down the details of their daily routines so that animals can continue to be fed and essential work carried out if they become ill.

There has still yet to be an update on Boris Johnson’s condition today, but yesterday the chancellor, Rishi Sunak, said the prime minister was improving and sitting up in his hospital bed.

Sunak said yesterday: “The latest from the hospital is the prime minister remains in intensive care where his condition is improving.

Related: Boris Johnson improving and sitting up in bed, chancellor says

John Lewis has teamed up with the British Medical Association to deliver care packages to NHS staff at the UK’s busiest hospitals.

The retailer is also creating a wellbeing area for medics and volunteers at the new NHS Nightingale hospital in east London.

The culture secretary, Oliver Dowden, has said no decision on lockdown measures will be made at the Cobra meeting today, with the announcement instead coming next week.

Dowden said it is unlikely that the lockdown will change now it is beginning to have a positive impact on the spread of Covid-19.

The health secretary of Wales has said progress was being made as a result of lockdown measures and social distancing, but there was “zero prospect” of these being eased yet.

Speaking ahead of the Cobra meeting with Dominic Raab and leaders of Scotland and Northern Ireland, Vaughan Gething said the lockdown measures will continue for “a number of weeks”.

The home secretary, Priti Patel, has been accused by a group of senior MPs of avoiding scrutiny during a time of national emergency.

Patel had been due to give evidence in public to the home affairs select committee on the Home Office’s response to the coronavirus pandemic since January, but a date for a hearing is yet to be set.

Related: Priti Patel accused of avoiding MPs’ scrutiny during national crisis

This morning the chief executive of the Lloyds Pharmacy chain revealed 2,500 members of staff are self-isolating but that all employees have access to personal protective equipment (PPE).

Speaking on BBC Breakfast, Toby Anderson said: “It’s important that, with more than 20% sickness in our frontline teams, we ensure all healthcare workers have access to Covid-19 tests so that we can help frontline staff back into helping patients in the community.”

Good morning, this is Jessica Murray, I’ll be running the blog covering coronavirus developments in the UK for the next few hours, as the country prepares for an extension of lockdown measures beyond three weeks, and Boris Johnson spends his third night in intensive care.

It was confirmed that a planned review of the UK’s lockdown measures will take place next week, and it is expected Dominic Raab, the foreign secretary deputising for Johnson, will signal the lockdown is to be extended.

Related: UK coronavirus lockdown 'to be extended beyond next week'

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