I'd like to update you on our response to Cove it.

19.

I'm joined today by Dr Jenny, Harry's the deputy chief Medical officer.

As of 9 a.m. Today, 127,737 people have now been tested for the virus.

Ah, 108,215 have tested negative.

19,522 have tested positive off those who have contracted the virus.

1228 have sadly died.

The virus is indiscriminate.

It doesn't matter who you are, where you are or how old you are.

We each have a part to play by staying at home, protecting the N.

H s on helping to save lives.

We all have a duty to one another to keep everyone safe.

So today I'd like to give you two updates before answering questions.

The first is on the plans that I have put in place to ensure that every corner of the country can confront the Corona virus epidemic.

The second on what the government is doing to shield the most vulnerable people in society.

Now, on the first question I've put in place in all parts of the country procedures to ensure that everywhere can be ready to move forward Together, all parts of the country are now on on emergency footing.

This is an unprecedented step in peace time.

We haven't done anything like this since the Second World War.

This means that we're establishing strategic coordination centers across the whole country.

Each center is led by gold Commanders were bringing together senior members off the emergency service is the police, the fire service, the ambulance service with local authorities and the N H s to lead communities.

Through this challenging period from Cornwall to Cumbria, we've embedded within each of these groups members of the armed forces, including some of the finest military planners in the world.

These groups are planning the local response to the virus using their expertise, their judgment on dhe, their leadership to ensure a comprehensive a coordinated on a consistent response across the country.

Now, one issue that they have been helping us to coordinate on about which I know there is a lot of concern is the provisions off personal protection equipment.

We simply cannot and should not ask people to be on the front line without the right protective equipment.

We have a clear plan to ensure that those serving this country at this time have the right equipment.

We've established the National Supply Distribution Response Team on their supported now by members of the armed forces on other emergency service's who are working around the clock to deliver the equipment to the people who need it most.

Ah 170 million masks, 42.8 million gloves, 13.7 million aprons, 182,000 gowns, almost 10 million items off cleaning equipment and 2.3 million pairs of eye protectors, all delivered to 58,000 n.

H s Trust on health care settings, including GP surgeries, farm asses and community providers.

Every single GP practice, dental practice and community pharmacy has had a pee pee delivery.

All care homes, hospices on homecare providers have all will shortly receive a delivery to N.

H s and social care workers, all those who rely on this equipment and to their families and loved ones watching this afternoon, we understand, and we will not stop until we have got you the equipment that you need now.

Last weekend at this press conference, the prime minister and I explained why 1.5 million people who are extremely vulnerable, vulnerable to the virus due to their underlying health conditions, needed to stay at home for a period off 12 weeks and avoid face to face contact.

Since then, the N.

H s have written to almost a 1,000,000 off these people on outlined the steps that they need to take to protect themselves.

We've also established a dedicated Web page on gulf dot UK, which those in receipt of the letter should go, too, to let us know whether or not they need further assistance over the course of the next 12 weeks.

There's also a new phone number, which is on the letter they have or will receive shortly.

Now.

If this applies to you, I know that you will find this a very worrying time.

You'll be thinking about how you can continue to access the medicine that you need, how you can get the food and other essential supplies that you rely on.

If you don't have family or friends or neighbors nearby who you can rely on, then the N.

H s will deliver your medicines through the community pharmacy network.

And if you register online or using the phone service that we've set up, letting us know that you need support, then we will deliver food and supplies to your doorstep.

And this weekend I saw for myself firsthand the first deliveries being made.

The packages included cereal, fruit, tinned goods, teabags, biscuits, toiletries and other essentials.

The 1st 50,000 will have been sent out by the end of this week, and we're ramping up production to send out as many as are required for as long as it takes.

If this applies to you, while you will now have to be at home for a prolonged period of time on, that will be difficult.

I want you to know that you are not alone.

We're here to support you for a CZ long as you need us.

We've all been hugely impressed by the commitment and the dedication off those working in social care in local councils.

Delivering essential public service is like ensuring that the bins continue to get collected, none more so than me.

As the secretary of state for local government, we all respect the 12,000 heroic former doctors and nurses and paramedics who have come back toe work on being deployed this weekend.

And I think we've all been moved by the number of people who have signed up to be one of the N.

H s voluntary responders.

Today we can announce an extraordinary 3/4 off.

A 1,000,000 people have signed up to do that.

In every city, in every town, in every village there's going to be work to be done.

And in each of us there is the power to do it.

And so please take part.

Please play your part.

Please consider your friends, your family, your neighbors.

When you're shopping, please call the elderly and support them.

When this is done and it will be done.

We all want to be proud of the part that we've played together.

Thank you very much.

And now I will answer some questions from the media.

And I think our first noon today is from Simon Israel from Channel Four News.

Good afternoon, Simon.

Good afternoon, Minister.

I have two questions.

One for you, one for Dr Paris.

My question to you is 10 days ago.

It's too predicted the tide would be turned in 12 weeks.

What's the current forecast?

And to Dr Paris?

I want to ask a message sent to staff today at King's Hospital, Trust said.

And I quote, the number of deaths being reported at Kings in national figures is below what they are experiencing.

This is not just kings.

There are a number of other trust on the center has been made aware.

At what point are we being given accurate, up to date figures on the numbers who have died?

Well, thank you, Simon.

If I can begin for handing over to Jenny, nobody's pretending that this will be over in a few weeks.

But what the prime minister said in the past and I will reiterate today is that if we all play our part, if we all follow the very clear medical advice, then we can turn the tide of this virus on.

At the heart of that is a very simple message, which is to stay at home by doing so, protect the n it, Jess and then save lives.

If we follow that advice, then we can turn the tide and the more weird here, too.

That advice the more lives will be saved on the faster We'll begin to do that.

Jenny.

Thank you.

S o just picking up the point about the tide and the turning.

I think this is an important message to get across to the public.

A zay said.

Previously on a number of these interviews This is a bit of a moving feast which is dependent on the actions that we take as individuals on dhe, collectively as a population.

If we practice social distancing effectively, we will move the peak across.

And that is a good thing, because as we move it, it will drop.

So we need to keep practicing the data that we have.

The modeling going forward will suggest that in in the time period, which the sorry the prime minister noted, which was 12 weeks we would get on top off the virus.

And that is exactly what I hope we will do.

The proof of that will come in around 2 to 3 weeks, and that is because our most constant figures and we'll come back to this in a moment are the deaths and the deaths follow the numbers of infections on where is usually a two or three weeks time like and we also need a lag for the effectiveness of the intervention measures to come through.

So what I keep saying frequently and I'm sorry if I'm repetitive, is that we need to wait for 2 to 3 weeks to see what we have achieved collectively on.

Then the slope of that curve will start to indicate where a new peak will be.

But we're optimistic that that peak will be lower.

So we need to keep looking at this.

But it will be 2 to 3 weeks before we are clear whether the peak has shifted across or not.

So I think that was the the first question the 2nd 1 that you raised was around deaths.

Clearly, every death that we have is a really sad event.

It involves the family, Andi.

Ah, a lot of sadness.

We have to make sure that when we're reporting, the family is content to nose under all our data is absolutely accurate for any event like this, whether it because it whether it was Ebola, whatever it is, there is always a time like for us to check and evaluate that the data across the system is linked.

We do not want to be miss reporting data and then having to correct it.

The public would not have confidence if we were doing that.

And as we have had suddenly to register more deaths, that time period takes longer.

So I'm not aware of the communication from from kings.

It may be that that's gone back into the N hs, but what I can say is all of our data links up on There is a time like and for the reporting yesterday, it would have been the deaths reported the previous day.

So it is inevitable that there will be a time like this is not an issue of transparency.

It's an issue of ensuring that all those family that need to know on DL the parts of the system can consolidate the information on ensure it's accurate for the public.

Thank you, Jenny.

That's that's very clear.

I'll take the next question from poor brand from ITV.

Paul.

Yeah, Thank you.

First to the depth.

See, Chief Medical officer.

Originally, we were told that the lock down measures would be 1st 3 weeks.

Is it safe to now assume that they will go on for much longer than that on to the secretary of state.

When will the government be making that reassessment so that people can plan their lives?

Think, shall I start with that one?

So I think if you look about what the prime minister said was he would review in three weeks and that actually links back to the point that I've just made, it would be foolish of us to start something one day and assume that it was gonna have an impact the next for all of us.

It's taken quite some time to get used to this new way of living to ensure that we practice social distancing on.

We stick to that, and as a population, we have evidence that we're getting better at that.

As we go through, people are staying at home or as they should.

They're using transport less.

They're only going to work when it's essential.

So those measures have now been in place solidly for a week or two.

We need another couple of weeks to see that through Onda, as I've just mentioned earlier.

The issue of the three weeks is for us to review where we are and see if we've had an impact jointly on the slope of the curve.

But I think to make it clear to the public, if we are successful we will have squashed the top of that curve, which is brilliant.

But we must not then suddenly revert to our normal way of living.

That would be quite dangerous.

If we stop, then all of our efforts will be wasted on.

We could potentially see a second peak, so over time, probably over the next six months, we will have a three week review.

We will see where we're going.

We need to keep that lid on and then gradually we will be able to hopefully adjust some of the social distancing measures and gradually get sizzle back to normal.

So I think three weeks for review, two or three months to see whether we've really squashed it.

But about 3 to 6 months are ideally and lots of uncertainty in that.

But then to see, at which point we can actually get back to normal, and it is plausible that it could go further than that, we just need to wait to see how successful we've been on because the bottom line is, as we always say, keep practicing good social distancing because we will manage it quicker and better between us.

Well, absolutely.

From the outset off this crisis, we drew up the measures that could be implemented and then on expert medical advice.

We have chosen the right time for this country to implement them, and we've taken a number of very significant steps on social distancing over the course of the last 10 days, as Jenny has just said and it is the nature off this virus that it takes a couple of weeks to see how effective each one of those in turn has bean when we've implemented them, we've said that we will review these in three weeks or so and when the prime minister made his announcement on Monday, bringing to a close, non essential shops and encouraging us all to stay at home to restrict what we do in our leisure time, he made clear that we would review these steps at Easter on the basis of the expert medical opinion and that's exactly what we intend to do.

But the evidence that I have seen suggests, as Jenny has said, that the public are generally complying.

I've spoken to a number of chief constables from across the country over the course of the last few days, and business owners are behaving very responsibly.

Course.

They're always small numbers of people who aren't.

But in general, the public is doing the right thing.

The more we comply, the Maur will be able to protect the n it Jess to save people's lives, and the faster will turn the tide on the virus.

If I could take the next question from David Sugarman, who's from the BBC?

David, thank you very much indeed.

It to questions if I may 1st Mr Generous to you, The prime minister in his letter talks about leveling with the public about things getting worse before they get better.