UK coronavirus: Sweden and Germany put on quarantine list; Johnson raises Christmas hopes - as it happened

Andrew Sparrow

from on 2020-11-05 18:21 (#59ZPW)

This live blog is now closed. For all the latest coronavirus updates from around the world, head to our global live blog

6.20pm GMT

I have every confidence, if we follow this package of measures [ie, the lockdown] in the way that we can, as we have done before, I have no doubt that people will be able to have as normal a Christmas as possible and that we will be able to get things open before Christmas as well.

6.04pm GMT

Anthony Costello, a paediatrician, former World Health Organization director and member of Independent Sage (a group of scientists critical of the government's approach), has criticised Boris Johnson's responses to questions about test and trace. (See 5.45pm.)

It is unacceptable for the PM not only to suggest test, trace and isolate is improving (it isn't) but also to avoid answering a question about funding (12 billion to private companies) being returned to the more effective public health teams. pic.twitter.com/iMYmeyvsCD

5.58pm GMT

Germany and Sweden are being removed from England's travel corridor following an increase in Covid-19 cases, meaning arrivals from the countries will be forced to isolate for two weeks.

Under the newly imposed month-long lockdown in England, people are not allowed to travel abroad on holiday, with those breaching the rules facing fines - up to 6,400 for repeat offenders.

5.50pm GMT

Johnson is wrapping up now.

He says he must alas" ask people to stay at home and save lives.

5.49pm GMT

Q: More than 1.2 million people are waiting for an NHS test. But the NHS is short of testing equipment. Will it get more resources?

Johnson says the pressure on the NHS caused by Covid has affected other NHS services. But he says he announced more funding for the NHS just before Covid began. You need staff too, he says. He is recruiting more nurses, he says.

5.45pm GMT

Q: Wouldn't it be better to spend the money going on NHS test and trace on contact tracing by local public health officials instead?

Johnson says he understands people's frustrations with it. But they are improving rapidly at the moment, he says. (See 11.55am.)

5.38pm GMT

Q: What is your response to concerns about the data presented by government? (See 4.11pm.)

Johnson says the government is happy to share the data it has.

5.36pm GMT

Q: Won't we have to live with restrictions for some time?

Stevens says the NHS is prepared for coronavirus.

5.33pm GMT

Q: Is it realistic to think Christmas can go ahead? Won't that just send the virus soaring again?

Johnson says the overwhelming number of people will work to get it down.

5.31pm GMT

Q: What do you say to people who lost their jobs before you extended furlough?

Johnson says it has been one of the most generous and imaginative schemes applied. It has been extended exactly to provide that certainty.

5.28pm GMT

Q: What consideration has been given to the prospect that vaccines might have only a limited effect?

Johnson says there is a tripod" of medical interventions: treatments, vaccines, and testing.

5.24pm GMT

The first question comes from a member of the public who wants to know why outside football has been banned.

Johnson says he would love to allow this to continue.

5.23pm GMT

Stevens says the NHS needs our help too.

There is a slogan protect us to protect you", he says. NHS staff get Covid too, he says.

5.21pm GMT

Stevens says new treatments are available.

For some patients, death rates in hospital have halved.

5.19pm GMT

Stevens is now showing a video.

It shows that it can take up to five days for someone to get ill after being infected, between two and five days for them to get to hospital if they are seriously ill, and then between nine and 19 days for them to leave hospital, either dead or discharged.

5.17pm GMT

Stevens is talking about the second wave.

He presents this graph, showing how the hospital numbers have gone up.

5.16pm GMT

Sir Simon Stevens, chief executive of NHS England, says he asked NHS staff what message they would like him to pass on to viewers.

First, they wanted him to say this second wave of coronavirus is real.

5.14pm GMT

Johnson says two thirds of homeless people who were helped during the first lockdown are still off the streets.

And he says today the government can announce it is spending a further 15m on support for rough sleepers.

5.13pm GMT

Johnson says the mass testing pilot will start in Liverpool tomorrow.

And there is a very real chance of safe and effective vaccines, he says.

5.12pm GMT

Johnson reads out the latest coronavirus figures.

New rules are in place from today, he says. The full rules are on the government's website.

There is light at the end of the tunnel.

5.09pm GMT

Johnson says there is a shared goal across the UK - to suppress the virus, to ensure the NHS is not overwhelmed and to save lives.

5.08pm GMT

Boris Johnson is speaking now.

He says across the country people are engaged in a huge joint effort to put the coronavirus back in its box".

5.08pm GMT

These are from Grant Shapps, the transport secretary.

In line with the new COVID-19 guidance, travel outside of home, with the exception of a limited number of reasons including work or education, is not permitted during lockdown. #TRAVELCORRIDORS do remain critical to the Government's COVID-19 response, keeping imported cases DOWN.

We are removing SWEDEN and GERMANY from the Travel Corridor list. From 4am Saturday 7th November, if you arrive into the UK from these destinations you will need to self-isolate. All arriving passengers should complete a passenger locator form on arrival.

We are NOT adding any countries to the list of TRAVEL CORRIDORS this week. TRAVEL CORRIDORS remain open for those returning to the UK. Further guidance available here: https://t.co/Ks4L8SDmdp

4.54pm GMT

Public Health England has published its weekly coronavirus surveillance report (pdf). Here is an extract from its summary.

Surveillance indicators suggest that Covid-19 activity at a national level has increased or remained high during week 44 [the week ending 1 November]. There is currently limited testing for other respiratory viruses, however, laboratory indicators suggest that influenza activity is low.

Detections of Covid-19 cases in England remained high in week 44. Case detections decreased slightly compared to last week though this is likely to be driven by reduced testing over the half term period as well as a lag in results for the most recent days. Overall positivity rates continued to increase. Incidence and positivity rates remain highest in the north of England though there are some indications that positivity is starting to decline in the north-east and north-west. By age group, cases rates were highest in the 20 to 29 year olds with decreases continuing to be noted in the 10 to 19 year olds. Positivity rates were highest in the 80+ year olds tested through both pillar 1 (NHS and PHE testing) and in the 10 to 19 year olds tested through pillar 2 (community testing).

4.46pm GMT

Boris Johnson will be holding a press conference at 5pm.

He will be appearing with Sir Simon Stevens, the NHS England chief executive.

4.45pm GMT

4.29pm GMT

Leading theatre producer Nica Burns has praised Rishi Sunak's extension of the furlough scheme until March as a major step forward" for England's theatres. Her venues have been given their mojo back", she said, despite a lockdown that will keep them dark until at least the first week of December.

My colleague Chris Wiegand has the full story here.

4.27pm GMT

In Northern Ireland, where a month-long lockdown started on 16 October, there have been 516 further coronavirus cases. The details are here.

That is 24% down on the total for yesterday (679), 37% down on the total for last Thursday (822), and 50% down on the total for the Thursday two weeks ago (1,042).

4.14pm GMT

4.11pm GMT

The Office for Statistics Regulation has issued what amounts to a rebuke to the government for not releasing a full explanation of a controversial graph used at the press conference on Saturday, where Boris Johnson announced the English lockdown.

The graph showed that, under one worst case scenario produced by modellers, coronavirus deaths would reach 4,000 a day. The chart has been strongly criticised by Tory MPs and newspapers opposed to the lockdown, who argue that by the time the graph was made public the assumptions behind it were already out of date and that its use amounted to scaremongering.

Our aim is to uphold public confidence in statistics that serve the public good. During the pandemic there have been high profile public briefings, media interviews and statements in each of the four nations of the UK. These have rightly drawn on data and analysis.

We welcome the range of data that has been published and we recognise that those producing the data and advising government face significant pressures.

3.54pm GMT

3.52pm GMT

Public Health Wales has recorded 1,272 more coronavirus cases. Although that is 70 more than the total for yesterday, it is below the total for last Thursday (1,375), which may be a sign the Welsh lockdown is having an impact.

But there have been 30 further deaths - up from 21 a week ago today, and seven two weeks ago today. Because people who do die from coronavirus tend to die three to four weeks after infection, the Welsh lockdown, which started on 23 October, was not expected to have an impact on these figures yet.

3.40pm GMT

Kate Forbes, the Scottish government's finance secretary, has welcomed Rishi Sunak's furlough announcement. She said in a statement.

I welcome the chancellor's positive, but long overdue, announcement that the job retention scheme will be extended until March 2021. We have repeatedly urged the UK government to safeguard jobs by guaranteeing that this support will be available for as long as employers need it ...

The upfront guarantee of further consequential payments to cover the rest of the financial year meets another of our long term requests and will enable us to quickly tackle the impacts of the pandemic in Scotland as they arise. This covers consequentials arising from a number of areas including health.

3.37pm GMT

NHS England has recorded 236 further coronavirus hospital deaths. There were 100 in the north-west, 49 in the north-east and Yorkshire, 47 in the Midlands, 14 in the south-east, 11 in London, 10 in the east of England, and five in the south-west. The details are here.

That is 66 fewer than the total for yesterday (302), but 44 more than the total for this time last week (192).

3.26pm GMT

Lives are being put at risk by universities who are insisting that students and lecturers travel to campuses for face-to-face teaching, unions have claimed.

While some large institutions have shifted large amounts of work online, pressure was being put on universities in areas such as Nottingham and Lincoln as the government said that all education should remain open during the new lockdown across England.

2.51pm GMT

Rishi Sunak must be getting used to having to rewrite his Covid economic rescue plans, but this was one of the bigger and more significant U-turns he's yet has to perform. It has multiple consequences. Here are preliminary thoughts on five of them.

1) For the economy

Gosh: Rishi Sunak's announcement to March creates an enormous safety net underneath the end of the Brexit transition process - into our new deal or no deal with the EU.

That's a helluva thing

Taken aback by ChX statement.

Basically return to March schemes (dreamt up on the hoof in 24 hrs) as if nothing learnt since.

Wasteful & badly targeted for self-employed. No effort at targeting sectors/viable jobs for employees. Big contrast to position just days ago.

here's the @ft story - it's hard to think of an economic statement that has been as comprehensively ripped to shreds as Sunak's September winter economy plan"https://t.co/z5g4btw4WV

Another day, another U-turn

Reminder of what @RishiSunak said in September as he attacked Starmer for calling for extension of furlough

"[That's} not the kind of certainty that British businesses or British workers need."https://t.co/cr4Iqo35yc

With the August iteration of Job Retention Scheme extended to end of March, & SEISS levels enhanced (eligibility levels maintained), the Chancellor is now ahead of events - rather than playing catch-up - for the first time since early Sept. Risk of fewer #groundhogdays with WEP

2.24pm GMT

The UK's largest education union has reacted with fury after education secretary Gavin Williamson accused its leaders of failing to put the education of children first by calling for schools to close during lockdown.

As schools in England opened for the first day of the new restrictions, Williamson wrote a column in the Telegraph, accusing the National Education Union (NEU) of putting pupils' progress in jeopardy.

When the risks are being managed, when the benefits of being in school are so clear, this seems to be an isolated position that doesn't put the best interests of pupils first.

What we see, time and time again from Gavin Williamson is poor propaganda unmatched by the decisive action that is needed to support pupils' continuing access to education.

Far from there being nothing he wouldn't do, the reality is that he is doing very little to keep schools open safely and to support children and young people with practical ways so that they can keep learning during this pandemic.

1.49pm GMT

From Torsten Bell, chief executive of the Resolution Foundation thinktank

What can you never have enough of? Different furlough schemes - here's the EIGHT versions we've had during this pandemic (although three of them never happened) pic.twitter.com/Y76vUtKfjO

1.41pm GMT

The Welsh economy minister, Ken Skates, has said businesses in Wales will have a captive market" when they reopen on Monday following a 17-day firebreak" lockdown.

Skates said the four-week English lockdown for non-essential shops would give Welsh businesses an advantage.

Those [Welsh] businesses will have a very captive audience. People in Wales will not be able to access non-essential retail across the border in Chester or Oswestry.

Hospitality businesses, non-essential retail in Wales will have a captive market and that is something they surely will be able to celebrate for four weeks during which their equivalents in England are in lockdown.

1.22pm GMT

At first minister's questions, which began as Rishi Sunak was making his furlough statement, Nicola Sturgeon confirmed a further 1,216 new cases of coronavirus in Scotland and 39 deaths, adding that the latest estimate of the country's R number was likely to show it hovering around 1".

She said this was thanks to tough measures taken earlier in the autumn, as well as public compliance starting to have an effect on the infection rate.

1.18pm GMT

Back in the Commons David Linden (SNP) asks Rishi Sunak why the furlough scheme is being extended to March, but support for the self-employed is only being extended until January, according to the statement. (See 12.24pm.)

Sunak says that the self-employed employment support scheme would be extended until March, but the Treasury had not decided yet how much it would be worth during that phase.

1.12pm GMT

These are from my colleague Heather Stewart.

Wow: Sunak confirms 80% furlough to be extended to end-March - and 1k a head Job Retention Bonus "falls away".
Quite hard to exaggerate how comprehensively the Winter Economy Plan of 24 September has been steamrollered. Makes pasty tax U-turn look like a triumph of consistency.

Sunak tries to explain the shift - says at the time, "our belief was that we could stay ahead of the virus," they were supporting an economy that was, "broadly open, but acting under restrictions".
But as he also says, a second wave was always expected.

1.11pm GMT

Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross was quick to claim his part in the U-turn, after Rishi Sunak confirmed that the furlough extension would be available to devolved nations, describing this as a demonstration of the strength of the union".

Ross said:

Scottish Conservative pressure has delivered. All week, we've made the case that Scottish jobs had to be protected at all costs. We've worked constructively with the UK government and pushed them for answers where necessary.

1.10pm GMT

Back in the Commons Peter Bone (Con) asks Rishi Sunak how the government will pay for this.

In the short term, says Sunak, through extensive borrowing". He says the debt to GDP ratio will reach 100% this year.

1.02pm GMT

As the BBC's Nick Eardley points out, the Treasury briefing (pdf) says that workers who were made redundant in advance of the planned end of the furlough scheme on 31 October can be rehired under the furlough extension.

Important detail from Treasury pic.twitter.com/GPJJ7kpRYB

12.59pm GMT

From the FT's George Parker

Big moment: the Rishi Sunak signature has disappeared from Treasury graphics, along with the word "chancellor". He now appears to be a tree https://t.co/k3XPqf0hVf

12.57pm GMT

And here is a five-page Treasury briefing (pdf) with more details of the furlough announcement.

12.54pm GMT

Here is the Treasury's new release about today's announcement.

12.53pm GMT

In the Commons Christine Jardine, the Lib Dem Treasury spokesperson, has said the furlough scheme should be extended until the summer.

Sunak said that there would be a review in January, and that today's statement covered the medium term.

12.51pm GMT

Frances O'Grady, the TUC general secretary, has given a partial welcome the the chancellor's announcement. In a statement she said:

Agreeing to extend the job retention scheme at 80% until the spring, as unions have called for, is a positive step.

But there are still gaps in the government's support package.

12.49pm GMT

Boris Johnson is holding a press conference with Sir Simon Stevens, the chief executive of NHS England, at 5pm, No 10 has announced.

12.47pm GMT

Margaret Greenwood (Lab) asks why the government only made job support more generous when people in the south of England were affected.

Sunak says the government treats everyone the same. He says it is simply wrong" to claim that people in the north were treated less generously.

12.44pm GMT

Alison Thewliss, the SNP's Treasury spokesperson, says she has been calling for these measures for months. She says the Treasury only responded when England was under threat.

Can Sunak confirm that furlough will be maintained at 80%, and not tied to any sector?

12.40pm GMT

Mel Stride, the Tory chair of the Commons Treasury committee, asks if the Treasury will publish its analysis of the economic impact of lockdown.

Sunak says there is not a specific report on this. But the Treasury has looked at the economic impact, he says.

12.38pm GMT

From the Independent's Ben Chu

This is the THIRD major policy change related to furlough since the Winter Economy Plan on 24 September

Yes the circumstances have worsened since then - but note that many were calling for these precise changes back in September https://t.co/hiMnPLl1Ic

Note that in August this year Germany extended its furlough scheme to the end of 2021: https://t.co/MtUXbLmgrt

12.38pm GMT

Sunak is responding to Dodds.

He says the claim that the government acted late is a misapprehension", in the words of government health advisers. He says there is no perfect time for these measures.

In the face of such an unprecedented crisis, the government must be flexible to ever-changing circumstances.

It is not a weakness to be agile and fast-moving in the face of a crisis, but rather a strength and that will not change.

12.34pm GMT

Dodds says the government will not accept that, until it deals with the health crisis, it won't be able to deal with the economic crisis.

12.32pm GMT

Anneliese Dodds, the shadow chancellor, is responding to Sunak.

She says Labour asked for a short lockdown weeks ago.

12.29pm GMT

Sunak says the government thought it would be able to stay ahead of the virus.

Over the summer it came up with policies to support an economy that would remain open.

12.24pm GMT

Sunak confirms that the employment support scheme for the self-employed is being made more generous.

For self-employed people, I can confirm the next income support grant which covers the period November to January will now increase to 80% of average profits up to 7,500.

I also want to reassure the people of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. The furlough scheme was designed and delivered by the government of the United Kingdom on behalf of all the people of the United Kingdom, wherever they live.

That has been the case since March, it is the case now and will remain the case until next March.

12.23pm GMT

Sunak says the government's highest priority is to protect jobs and livelihoods.

He says he has announced furlough for November.

We can announce today that the furlough scheme will not be extended for one month, it will be extended until the end of March.

The government will continue to help pay people's wages up to 80% of the normal amount. All employers will have to pay for hours not worked is the cost of employer NICs and pension contributions.

12.20pm GMT

Sunak says the government has also spent 200bn on Covid measures.

Today's announcement follows the one from the Bank of England this morning, he says.

12.19pm GMT

Rishi Sunak starts by summing up some of the job and business measures already introduced.

12.18pm GMT

Rishi Sunak, the chancellor, is about to give his Commons statement about the future of furlough.

From Sky's Sam Coates

Government source: Chancellor expected to extend the furlough scheme until March

Rishi Sunak did not want to do this - he wanted a MUCH less generous scheme in September
https://t.co/nnRHAhbA9I

When asked why they made the scheme more generous - to 80% of salary up from 67% of salary - the Treasury argue circumstances have changed.

But a closed business is a closed business - unclear why Covid being worse is an argument.

For all the talk of the Chancellor having a magic political touch, he made his biggest gamble politically in September - that those unable to work could survive on less - and has had to reverse it.

Unless I'm missing something?

12.13pm GMT

In response to an urgent question in the Commons earlier Matt Hancock, the health secretary, clarified that people are allowed to leave their homes to travel abroad for assisted dying purposes during the new English lockdown. He told MPs:

The new coronavirus regulations which come into force today place restrictions on leaving the home without a reasonable excuse. Travelling abroad for the purpose of assisted dying is a reasonable excuse and so anyone doing so would not be breaking the law.

11.55am GMT

The Department of Health and Social Care has published the latest weekly performance data (pdf) for NHS Test and Trace. Its performance has been widely criticised because it has consistently failed to meet key targets, but on some metrics this week there have been notable improvements.

Between 22 October and 28 October, the median time taken to receive a test result for regional test sites decreased to 31 hours from 39 hours in the previous week. Similarly, the median time decreased for local test sites to 33 hours from 40 hours and for mobile testing units to 29 hours from 33 hours during the same period.

Between 22 October and 28 October, 67.0% of people (75,446) were reached within 24 hours. The proportion of people reached within 24 hours has been declining since mid September but has notably increased in the latest week from 43.6% in the week before. Since test and trace launched on 28 May, 58.9% of people (285,461) have been reached within 24 hours.

Between 22 October and 28 October, 75.4% of contacts who weren't managed by local HPTs [health protection teams - they only deal with a small proportion of cases] were reached and advised to self-isolate within 24 hours of being identified. This proportion has notably decreased since mid-September. [However it] has increased over the past 3 weeks. Overall, since Test and Trace launched, 70.6% of these contacts have been reached and advised to self-isolate within 24 hours.

11.06am GMT

Tom Bower's new biography of Boris Johnson has had some rather poor reviews but it has at least prompted Rory Stewart, the former Conservative cabinet minister and a leadership candidate in the contest that Johnson won, to write a superb and blistering essay about his former ministerial colleague. Here's an excerpt on Johnson's mastery of dishonest, but do read the whole thing in the Times Literary Supplement.

Johnson is after all the most accomplished liar in public life - perhaps the best liar ever to serve as prime minister. Some of this may have been a natural talent - but a lifetime of practice and study has allowed him to uncover new possibilities which go well beyond all the classifications of dishonesty attempted by classical theorists like St Augustine. He has mastered the use of error, omission, exaggeration, diminution, equivocation and flat denial. He has perfected casuistry, circumlocution, false equivalence and false analogy. He is equally adept at the ironic jest, the fib and the grand lie; the weasel word and the half-truth; the hyperbolic lie, the obvious lie, and the bullshit lie - which may inadvertently be true. And because he has been so famous for this skill for so long, he can use his reputation to ascend to new levels of playful paradox. Thus he could say to me Rory, don't believe anything I am about to say, but I would like you to be in my cabinet" - and still have me laugh in admiration.

10.56am GMT

10.48am GMT

Cardinal Vincent Nichols, the archbishop of Westminster and the leader of the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales, told the Today programme this morning that he expected the government to ease its ban on collective worship during the lockdown in England. He said:

I think it will be changed.

I think the evidence we've seen over the last couple of days is that this particular aspect of the decision by the government is not supported by any scientific evidence and clearly shows a misunderstanding of the importance of religious faith.

10.42am GMT

In the Commons Oliver Dowden, the culture secretary, has been taking questions. Asked by his Labour opposite number Jo Stevens when live performances would be allowed to return, he said he could not give a date. He said:

Once we're through this lockdown period I very much hope that socially distanced performances will be able to return ...

At the moment I hope she'll appreciate, given the wider context, it's very difficult to give an accurate date - as soon as we can I want to be able to do that.

10.33am GMT

The Office for National Statistics has published one of its regular reports on the impact of coronavirus on business.

It says a third of firms in the hotel or food sector have little or no confidence that they will survive for the next three months.

10.00am GMT

The second national lockdown in England has been caused in part by a lack of public compliance, Robert Buckland, the justice secretary has claimed, saying it will be a huge challenge" to get the public to follow the strict rules the second time around. My colleague Jessica Elgot has the story.

9.58am GMT

The number of coronavirus cases in London was slightly falling in the final week of October, compared to the previous week, according to the latest figures from the mayor's office. This is from Sadiq Khan.

UPDATE: #COVID19 in London

On 4 November the daily number of new people who tested positive for COVID-19 in London was reported as 2,307.

The latest reported number of patients in London hospitals was 990.

Full update here: https://t.co/vfZosmK8Zc

In the most recent week of complete data, 24 October 2020 - 30 October 2020, 13,103 people tested positive in London, a rate of 146 cases per 100,000 population. This compares with 13,650 cases and a rate of 152 for the previous week.

For England as a whole there were 229 cases per 100,000 population for the week ending 30 October 2020.

9.27am GMT

I really do not know how to exhaust my affirmative vocabulary any further," Boris Johnson told an SNP MP in the Commons yesterday, as he was asked for the umpteenth time if the government would agree to fund a furlough scheme beyond November, if Scotland needed a lockdown but England didn't. They won't take yes for an answer."

This issue has been bubbling for three days now and this afternoon in the Commons we should finally get a resolution. It might sound technical - Rishi Sunak, the chancellor, will explain how furlough policy might operate going into the new year - but it's about how power and spending is distributed around the UK, and about the extent to which devolution will allow lockdown policies to vary.

The chancellor was preparing to announce that the flagship wage subsidy scheme - which pays 80% of workers' wages - would continue to be made available for parts of the UK under the highest levels of Covid restrictions, sources said, in a significant climbdown for the government.

As lockdown shutters come down for many firms, extending furlough till next Spring is the right thing to do. Firms and employees need more certainty and stability to plan and recover; a JRS extension will help. @RishiSunak should act in his statement tomorrow to protect jobs.

Working families need financial security to get through the times tough ahead. And employers need an end to last-minute decisions. The chancellor must extend the furlough scheme and support for the self-employed into the spring.

Despite repeated calls this week for full details of the prime minister's commitment to a Scotland-only furlough and SEISS [self-employed income support] scheme, we are still no further forward and remain in the dark about what these schemes will look like ... I hope that today's statement will at last give us the clarity we require.

Does this mean we have finally agreed the principle of an 80% furlough for everyone in a business forced to close?

Let's hope so. https://t.co/nI4aakipPe

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