Senior minister Michael Gove now opens the daily UK press conference on the coronavirus.
Michael Gove starts by outlining the latest figures for the number of those in the UK who have tested positive and the number of those who sadly have died.
He says every death is the “loss of a loved one” and expresses his sympathies to the bereaved families.
Michael Gove says the UK had a lack of domestic manufacturing capacity for mechanical ventilators – vital for treating the poorliest coronavirus patients – before the pandemic.
But he says production has been ramped up hugely in response to an appeal from government.
He suggests thousands of new ventilators will begin “rolling off the production line” this weekend, manufactured by a group of businesses including GKN and Mercedes.
He says these will be “rapidly distributed” to the NHS front line early next week.Article share tools
“we are not out of the woods”, says NHS England national medical director Dr Stephen Powis.
He says the number of people using transport services has “reduced dramatically” in the past few weeks.
“We have had a rise in the number of UK cases, but recently we have had a bit of a plateau,” he continues.
“It’s early days, we’re not out of the woods – we’re very much in the woods – but it’s very important we keep complying with those instructions.
More to come soon…
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