Boris Johnson leaves intensive care as Raab warns of no early end to lockdown – as it happened

In just three months, the coronavirus has turned the world upside down. But how did it play out so quickly? We take a look back to where it all began – from its origins in south-east Asia, to its acceleration across Europe and the US. As the infection rate increased and countries went into lockdown, people began to find imaginative and inspiring ways of coping with our new reality.

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9 Apr 202008.33 EDT

Rebecca Smithers

The environment secretary, George Eustice, has agreed to the National Farmers’ Union’s request for a “crisis meeting” – due to be held this afternoon – to discuss measures to help the UK’s stricken dairy sector.

The Covid-19 outbreak has seen the almost complete loss of the food service and hospitality markets – as well as increasing price volatility in global markets – which has left farm businesses and processors under increased pressure.

The milk continues to be produced, despite the slump in demand, which has led to some dairy farmers with no other option but to pour it down the drain.

NFU president Minette Batters is urging George Eustice to “ to take immediate steps to ensure the sustainability of the dairy sector.”

She said: “For weeks now, we have been flagging to government in our daily calls the issues within the dairy sector and working with Defra to try and find solutions. But the situation is becoming untenable. Only four weeks ago all of this milk was being used, losing businesses at this stage will leave consumers reliant on convenience stores and other difficult to reach outlets not being able to have access to the same supply of milk.

“We believe there may be at least 2,000 dairy farmers suffering severe financial pressure and that number is growing by the day as a result of the impacts of the coronavirus outbreak and as things develop very few dairy businesses will be left unaffected. We need to move fast to mitigate the impacts of this unfolding crisis on dairy farming businesses across the country.”

The Royal Association of British Dairy Farmers has also contacted the government, seeking a short-term financial aid scheme for farmers.

The Bank of England’s temporary extension of the use of “ways and means” is to smooth government cash flows, Downing Street said.

The prime minister’s official spokesman said: “The Bank of England will temporarily extend use of the government’s longstanding ways and means facility to help government cash flows and provide a temporary short-term source of additional funding.”

Pressed if the government was running out of money, he said: “The government will be raising the finance through the debt markets and continues to use the markets as a source of financing.

“For example, there have been four debt auctions this week and they all have been successful.”

Downing Street has said police have the full support of the government in enforcing the coronavirus lockdown.

The prime minister’s official spokesman said individual police forces would use their discretion as to how the measures were enforced.

“We have given them a job to do. They will use their own discretion about how they best do that job,” the spokesman said.

“The powers which we have given the police are there to save lives. The police have our full backing and they have the public’s backing too. They have set out in advice to officers that they should engage, explain and finally enforce.”

However, asked about a warning by the Northamptonshire police chief constable, Nick Adderley, that police could start searching shopping trolleys for non-essential purchases, the spokesman said: “Shops that are still open are free to sell any items they have in stock.”

9 Apr 202008.26 EDT

Steven Morris

The chief executive of NHS Wales is one of a number of officials who have signed an open letter calling for people to stay at home over the Easter weekend.

Speaking at a briefing in Cardiff, he thanked people for following guidelines, adding: “You have given the NHS time to prepare - to increase our capacity and to recruit and retrain staff. But we are still planning for the pressure on our health and care system to be significant and visible as the virus continues to spread. Please stay at home, protect the NHS and help us to save lives.”

Goodall said:

• There are 816 people with confirmed coronavirus in hospitals in Wales and a further 344 suspected cases.
• There are now 369 critical care beds in Wales. 50% are currently available.
• Close to 7,000 extra beds will be available in the next 10 to 12 days thanks to new field hospitals.
• One in four 999 calls are coronavirus-related. The number of 111 calls has doubled.
• A 2,000-bed field hospital is taking shape at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff. The hospital will be known as Ysbyty Calon y Ddraig, the Dragon’s Heart hospital. It will open on 11 April, when the first 300 beds will be available.

Researchers who mapped some of the original spread of coronavirus in humans have discovered there are variants of the virus throughout the world.

They reconstructed the early evolutionary paths of Covid-19 as infection spread from Wuhan, China, out to Europe and North America.

By analysing the first 160 complete virus genomes to be sequenced from human patients, scientists found the variant closest to that discovered in bats was largely found in patients from the US and Australia, not Wuhan.

Dr Peter Forster, geneticist and lead author from the University of Cambridge, said: “There are too many rapid mutations to neatly trace a Covid-19 family tree. We used a mathematical network algorithm to visualise all the plausible trees simultaneously.

“These techniques are mostly known for mapping the movements of prehistoric human populations through DNA.”

Fire bosses have issued a fresh plea for the public to avoid lighting sky lanterns, describing a recent attempt by companies to market them as a means of showing support for NHS workers as “misguided”.

Emergency services have long described how the flimsy items – which often comprise a thin wire frame inside a paper shell containing a tealight – pose a fire risk to property and wildlife, as well as to livestock.

They have been linked to large fires while farmers have reported animals becoming entangled in the wire detritus once it has burned out and fallen from the sky.

Scotland’s first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, said the lockdown would continue, with no likelihood of it lifting after the Easter weekend.

9 Apr 202008.05 EDT

Boris Johnson 'continues to improve', No 10 spokesperson says

Rowena Mason

No 10 has given an update on the prime minister’s condition and the wider coronavirus response:

The prime minister’s spokesman said: “Boris Johnson has a good night and continues to improve in intensive care at St Thomas’ hospital. He is in good spirits.” He continues to receive standard oxygen treatment.

He is able to be in contact with No 10 if required but is not doing any work.

No 10 thanks everyone for their messages of support for the prime minister and said the clap for carers provided a “wonderful unifying moments for the whole country”.

Dominic Raab will chair Cobra this afternoon at 3.30pm, which will
look at the process for reviewing social distancing measures, looking at evidence from Sage and others.

Dominic Cummings is not back working although he is in “contact with No 10“ and Sir Edward Lister is still working from home.

No 10 signals the lockdown will continue as it is important to keep “bearing down on the rate of transmission which means continuing with social distancing measures”.

Johnson is not working and so will not be part of the lockdown
review decision-making at the moment.

The focus is on keeping to existing measures rather than extending them and people “really do need to stick with them at this critical juncture”, says No 10.

No 10 rejects view of Tory MP Jack Lopresti that churches should be open for Easter Sunday. “Work is under way on an exit strategy but the public wants us to be focused on stopping the spread of the disease while building up the NHS and saving lives,” Johnson’s spokesman says. “Whitehall is working extensively on this but peak is not reached and the government needs to focus in its public messaging on staying at home to save lives.”

On the Home Office deputy chief scientific adviser who said 80% of the population would get coronavirus and you can’t hide away from it forever, No 10 suggested it disagreed but did not say what its assumption was for what proportion of the population will get the
virus. “The government’s view is on stopping the spread of the disease to save lives. I think you’ve heard on a daily basis from (the chief scientific and medical advisers) - they have been very very clear on the need for people to stay at home and save lives.”

No 10 insists personal protective equipment (ppe) is getting to care homes and “full weight of the government is behind this effort” to address problems, despite criticism from the Alzheimer‘s Society that there is not widespread testing, not enough PPE and deaths not properly recorded.

On why our death toll looks likely to match or exceed that if Italy, No 10 directs all questions to the chief medical and scientific officers.