The Secretary of State for Housing, Robert Jenrick, is leading today’s daily coronavirus press briefing
Robert Jenrick starts today’s press conference by announcing that there have been 649 more deaths of people who tested positive for the coronavirus.
This means the UK’s confirmed COVID-19 death toll has passed 30,000.
69,463 tests were carried out yesterday, with a total of 201,101 people now having tested positive for the virus
Jenrick says the government will work on how the leisure, transport and manufacturing sectors can operate guided by the scientific advice.
“We want to ensure appropriate and safe social distancing” so people have the confidence to get back to work, Robert Jenrick says.
He adds that local economies will need a “plan to restart and recover”.
“We will be informing these plans with our own detailed work in areas such as: how workplaces from factories to construction sites to offices can be adapted; how outdoor spaces, leisure and businesses from parks to high streets to markets can be managed; and how public transport networks from the Tube to trams to buses can operate,” he says.
“In each case, guided by scientific and medical advice, we want to ensure appropriate and safe social distancing, providing the public with the confidence to return to work and to return to public spaces and public transport knowing that it is always safe to do so.”
International comparisons
“It is difficult to make international comparisons with certainty today, there will be a time for that,” Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick told the daily coronavirus briefing.
“That’s a hard calculation to do with accuracy today.”
According to Public Health England medical the numbers of both COVID-19 deaths and hospital patients with the disease are continuing to fall.
Religious events
“We are in conversation with faith leaders across the country to consider how, when the time is right, they will be able to recommence services in churches and mosques and synagogues across the country,” Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick says.
“But that moment is not now.”
Will schools need PPE?
Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick told the daily COVID-19 briefing: “We’ve taken scientific advice with respect to the level of PPE required in schools.
“As I understand it, the advice is that staff in non-residential education settings don’t require PPE but we will obviously keep that under close review.”
