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HomeUK NewsGovernment press conference live 20th April 2020

Government press conference live 20th April 2020

Watch the government’s press conference live today!

Chancellor Rishi Sunak is leading today’s daily coronavirus press briefing

More than 1 million people to be helped by furlough pay scheme

The chancellor has started today’s briefing by announcing that the job retention scheme opened today to help pay the wages of people furloughed has had applications from 140,000 firms. He says the money provided to them will help pay the wages for more than a million people.

This news comes as the UK’s furlough scheme opened, with 67,000 claims from workers within the first 30 minutes.

Sunak on the economy

Sunak says he wants to “protect as many people as possible in their existing jobs”, help businesses stay afloat and those who are self-employed too. 

He adds the Treasury has been “sowing the seeds of our ultimate recovery” – saying entrepreneurship will drive the UK’s economy recovery. 

He went on to say that the:

“most important thing we can do for the health of our economy is protect the health of our people”

PPE for NHS staff

Chancellor Rishi Sunak says the government is “working hard” to get frontline workers the personal protective equipment they need – and they are “working to resolve” a Turkish shipment of PPE after some “unexpected delays”

Sunak says all medics “deserve to have the equipment they need to do their job safely”

Dr Yvonne Doyle confirming that 12 million pieces of it were delivered to 141 trusts over the weekend.

When will the lockdown end?

The chancellor will only say “we are not there yet” and the country should focus on current guidance, adding any other speculation “is wrong”.

Professor Dame Angela McLean says the number of new confirmed UK cases of COVID-19 have “stopped rising and is now pretty much stable and flat”.

Dr Doyle says that 9/10 deaths do occur in hospitals, but there is an “uneven pattern” of those across the country – depending, say, on how many care homes there are in each region.

Angela McLean is asked what the government’s behavioural scientists say about how quickly and ready people will be to go back to work, when the order is finally issue. 

She says “I think will be a very hard thing to predict given just what strange days we’re in”.

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