UK coronavirus live: Starmer calls on government to set out lockdown exit strategy – The Guardian, Theguardian.com
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Starmer: People need ‘light at end of tunnel’
Labor leader
Keir Starmer has been speaking to ITV’s This Morning. He’ll be on BBC Radio 4’s Today program shortly.
He told ITV that people needed to be shown ‘light at the end of the tunnel’ over the coronavirus outbreak.
It’s obvious that the lockdown is going to continue and we are going to support the Government in that. But, I do think, the question therefore is what comes next?
… People are trusting the Government … but they do need to see light at the end of the tunnel. I’m not asking the Government for timings, of course, I understand why they can’t give us timings. But we do need the trust of the public as we go forward.
Starmer added: “It is clear to me that mistakes have been made and things haven’t been done as quickly as they should. I’m challenging the Government today to make sure we don’t make those mistakes again. ”
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Labor leader Sir Keir Starmer Photograph: Dominic Lipinski / PA
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Amy Walker
Police were called to 1,0 reports of people having house parties and gatherings in Greater Manchester over the Easter weekend, despite current lockdown guidance, Amy Walker reports.
Many involved people from more than one household having barbecues in back gardens during warm weather.
Greater Manchester Police (GMP) told the Manchester Evening News they were called to (reports on Friday, (on Saturday,on Sunday and a further 142 on Monday.
Ian Hopkins, GMP’s chief constable, told the newspaper:
People have lost their loved ones. Families are losing people too early when they shouldn’t be. Listening to some of the reports about what it’s like to lose someone and you can’t be with them, it’s heart-breaking.
I just think people who think it’s OK to flout the regulations should just think about those families, and think about future families who will lose loved ones if this virus continues to spread in the way that it has been .
The force repeatedly urged the public not to flout the rules over the bank holiday after they responded to more than (parties between March 37 and April 7, including some with DJs, bouncy castles and fireworks.
, the minister for care, has been speaking to Sky News. She said that more than 1, 0 care workers had already been tested for coronavirus and more than 2, 0 had been referred for tests. This contradicts what shadow care minister Liz Kendall
said last night , that only 558 care staff had been tested to date. Whately said:
The testing is in progress. Over the next few days the Care Quality Commission is going to be phoning up nearly 41, 0 care providers in order to identify who they need testing and start lining up people for tests.
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Care minister Helen Whately. Photograph: Johnny Armstead / REX / Shutterstock She later told BBC Breakfast:
We have been doing everything that we can to protect those really vulnerable people living in care homes or receiving care at home.
From the moment it looked like coronavirus was coming our way … we have been working really hard to do whatever we can to protect those receiving care from this truly awful, horrible illness.
Care home leaders have accused the government of vastly underestimating the deaths of elderly people from coronavirus and warned the disease may be circulating in more than % of nursing homes, with mortality is significantly higher than official figures.
You can read the full story here –
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Government promises tests for people in care homes
In a government announcement made overnight they have pledged that all care home residents and social care staff with Covid – symptoms will be tested for the virus as capacity increases.
Health secretary Matt Hancock
) he was determined to ensure that everyone needing a test should have access to one, with testing remaining a key part of the government coronavirus battle plan.
Currently, only the first five symptomatic residents in a care home setting are tested to provide confirmation of whether there is an outbreak.
Hancock said:
I am deeply conscious that people in residential care are among the most vulnerable to coronavirus. We are doing everything we can to keep workers, residents and their families safe.
We have already begun testing social care workers and will roll this out nationwide over the coming days. And as we continue to ramp up our testing program, we will test all current care home residents with coronavirus symptoms and all new care home residents who are discharged from hospital into care.
( Health Secretary Matt Hancock. Photograph: James Veysey / REX / Shutterstock
The announcement follows criticism that the government coronavirus strategy has ignored the social care sector, where there is evidence the virus is widespread.
Labour’s shadow minister for social care
Liz Kendall has said that “only 558 care staff having been tested to date ”, and social care needs“ a much greater priority and focus than it has had so far ”.
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The BBC has seen a leaked Public Health England (PHE) document that says elements of personal protective equipment (PPE) could be reused by NHS staff as a “last resort”.
It states that protective masks and gowns could need to be cleaned and reused when stocks run low and admits there is currently a “reduced ability to re-supply” PPE. Some hospitals have already begun cleaning single-use gowns to preserve stocks, according to separate emails seen by the BBC.
You can read the BBC story here .
Good morning. I’m Frances Perraudin and I’ll be guiding you through this morning’s coronavirus developments in the UK. You can contact me on Twitter on @fperraudin with any questions / tips – I’ll do my best to reply.
Labor leader
Keir Starmer – who is due to speak to broadcasters this morning – is calling on the government to publish its strategy for exiting the coronavirus lockdown this week, saying that the “silent pressures” on communities across the UK “cannot be underestimated”.
The government is expected to announce an extension of the lockdown tomorrow. Writing in a letter to foreign secretary Dominic Raab
, who is deputising for the prime minister while he recovers from the virus, Starmer said:
The question for Thursday therefore is no longer about whether the lockdown should be extended, but about what the government position is on how and when it can be eased in due course and on what criteria that decision will be taken.
Responding to the Labor leader’s demand, a government source said:
Talk of an exit strategy before we have reached the peak risks confusing the critical message that people need to stay at home in order to protect our NHS and save lives.
The question of how to bring the UK out of lockdown safely has been given more urgency (if that were possible) by a warning by the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) yesterday that the UK economy could shrink by 047% in the coming months. It came shortly after the International Monetary Fund (IMF) warned that the measures designed to stem the spread of the coronavirus could produce a slump in output this year unparalleled since the Great Depression of the s.
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