This is bbc news, imjane hill. The headlines. A growing political row as the government comes under increasing pressure to do more coronavirus testing. We want to see more people tested, very rapidly. We do now have enough tests to be testing those people in Critical Conditions in hospitals. We need that national plan, but for the test which tests whether you have got it now and the new test which will be coming on stream soon, which tests whether youve had it. 16,000 staff may be needed when the newly converted Nightingale Hospital in east london reaches capacity. President trump warns the us to expect a rough two weeks and to stick to social distancing saying its a matter of life and death. Italy mourns the thousands of victims of its coronavirus outbreak as some question whether doctors have been given the necessary equipment. The prince of wales, who has himself recovered from coronavirus, sends a message of support particularly to older people. None of us can say when this will end, but end it will. Until it does, let us try and live with hope, and with faith in ourselves and each other, look forward to better times to come. Hospitals in england have been urged to use any spare Laboratory Capacity to test more self isolating nhs staff for the coronavirus amid growing pressure to increase testing. It comes as a 13 year old boy became the youngest person in the uk to die after contracting the virus. His family say they dont believe he had any Underlying Health issues. The government is facing increasing criticism of the lack of Testing Available for frontline staff who could return to work if they are found to be clear of the virus. Nhs Officials Say 16,000 staff could be needed at the new Nightingale Hospital in east london. And President Trump has warned americans to prepare for a very, very painful two weeks ahead. More from the us later in the programme. 0urfirst report is by Richard Galpin on the uks response. A recent estimate by the Royal College of physicians suggested a quarter of all nhs doctors had eitherfallen ill
or had to self isolate because of concerns about a Family Member showing symptoms. And it was the same for many nurses. Testing them for coronavirus would enable many to return to work if found to be in the clear. But the governments been slow to focus on testing in general, and in particular for Health Workers. So what we are calling for is a National Testing strategy, a strategy to ramp up the Community Testing and Contact Tracing, like we are seeing in other countries, that is how other countries have been able to beat this virus or get this virus under control and suppressed. So now nhs england is calling on hospitals to use 15 of their testing capability on staff. The governments going further, saying hospitals should use any spare Laboratory Capacity they have, to test as many nhs staff for the virus as possible. We want to see more people tested, very rapidly. We do now have enough tests to be testing those people in Critical Conditions in hospitals, so much so that we can now move forward and test nhs workers and that is extremely important, because anyone going to work in those situations and doing frankly heroic tasks for us, should be given the equipment they need. But, at the same time, the government and nhs are claiming shortages of vital material are hampering capacity to ramp up testing. A top nhs executive has said laboratories could be providing round 100,000 tests a day. But, because of a shortage of swabs and chemicals, this is being limited to round 13,000 a day. However, the Chemical IndustriesAssociation Says it can help. Such is the concern about the slow pace at which testing is being increased that today a volunteer network of laboratories has been launched across the country, offering to provide hundreds
of labs which could switch to coronavirus testing. These, its claimed, could deliver tens of thousands of tests a week. In this fight, each one of these labs and the people in it are like the fighters and Fighter Pilots of the battle of britain. A awful lot of work we do is just to give the gps confidence theyre not infected and we have had a few that we tested, that had gone immediately into isolation and we were able to either confirm they were infected, or that they were not. Meanwhile today, more problems for the government. At this hospital in southend, medical staff are warning management they may limit services in the Emergency Department if they do not have the correct protective equipment. They claim the equipment is locked away. The hospital says its committed to keeping staff safe. Around the country, Health Workers are worried. Were seeing what its doing to people and it is frightening. I think when youre on shift
you get on with it. You are looking after patients and theyre the priority, you are being sensible about your ppe. But when youre off shift, that is when you start to worry about what might happen. Amongst those who have died so far in this outbreak, another tragic development. A 13 year old boy has died from the virus, here in Kings College hospital in london. Ismail Mohamed Abdulwahab is thought to be the youngest reported victim of the disease in this country. His family say he had no apparent Underlying Health conditions. Richard galpin, bbc news. 0ur Health Editor hugh pym explained more about the confusion over the numbers of nhs staff being tested. Testing is so important in the medium term, as restrictions are lifted, to see how far the virus might still be spreading in communities. Never mind that, the short term is to get more nhs front line staff back to work. They may be self isolating
because a member of their family is ill, they might have symptoms. If they can be tested, theyll know if theyve got the virus or not. And, as richard was saying, there are clear shortages now because people are not able to get into work. Under the government said for weeks that theyre going to ramp up testing, to 10,000, then 25,000, we learned yesterday the 25,000 a day target was now going to be late april. Its still not out 10,000. Its up to 8000. You hear of the numbers, that the capacity of labs in the nhs hospital sector and Public Health laboratories is 12,500. Yet they are only doing 8,000. So you hear that number being talked about. So, theres a disconnect between these numbers and whats actually happening. And the fact that the voluntary sector, as we heard there, are coming in and saying weve got lab capacity available. Robertjenrick, the minister, saying in that interview, look, if the private sector or anyone can
help us, come and talk to us, suggests fairly shambolic situation in whitehall. I think the message has now got through, the government has told hospitals just get out and test as many of your staff as you can, as well as the patients that they need to do. But i think the front line workers wont quite believe its happening until they actually see it happening in practice. New numbers coming through from Public Health wales, saying there have been 274 new confirmed cases in wales. It takes the official total toa wales. It takes the official total to a little over 1800. 1837. But they are making the point that the true number is likely to be higher. But that is the confirmed number. That is just in from Public Health wales. Lets stay with the issue of testing generally. Because that is certainly the dominant political issue here today. Lets get more on all of that from our political
correspondence, jessica parker. The whole issue of testing is something that the government is really under pressure on now . Absolutely. And i think that there is frustration probably both in and outside of government as they talk about ramping up those testing numbers. They seem to be creeping up very slowly. 0bviously they seem to be creeping up very slowly. Obviously the government is aiming for25,000 slowly. Obviously the government is aiming for 25,000 tests a day by mid to late april. Some confusion around that date, actually. Health officials said more like late april, the 25th. But earlier today, robert jenrick, the communities secretary, going back to the mid april target. As he was just talking about, the issue of who is being tested. The tests now are primarily aimed at people who are patients in hospital, but there is concern that nhs staff who are maybe showing symptoms, or members of their family or household might be showing symptoms, they are not able to go into work and help with the effort to tackle
coronavirus. The government is under a lot of pressure to try to ensure that front line staff are getting tested. 0ver that front line staff are getting tested. Over the weekend, we were told that around 900 are being tested. We heard from downing street that the number is up to just over 2000. But that is a pretty small proportion of nhs staff across england. That is an nhs england figure, im told. So i think the pressure will continue. Downing street are saying they have instructed nhs trusts across the country to use any Spare Capacity that they have to test front line staff. So, is the government adamant that it staff. So, is the government adamant thatitis staff. So, is the government adamant that it is about capacity, not availability of tests . I think the audience trying to follow this today will think, well, i dont quite understand what is happening or not happening here . Absolutely. The government say they are trying to increase capacity. But that is a challenge. They have acknowledged thatis challenge. They have acknowledged that is a challenge because, they say, of issues around sourcing chemicals that are in high demand. As audiences may have already heard today, there is some dispute as to
what extent the chemicals are in high demand. People point to countries like germany, for example, managing to do many more tests than the uk, something government ministers have been talking about is that perhaps german manufacturing was ina that perhaps german manufacturing was in a better place to begin with in terms of being able to produce a mass number of the kind of things that i needed to put the tests together. But it is both of those issues. The government trying to increase capacity, but struggling to because, they say, its quite hard to get all the materials together in order to get these tests manufactured and distributed across the country. I do want to talk to you about ventilators as well. But we arejust you about ventilators as well. But we are just hearing some more figures through from the department of health, and id appreciate you may not have seen easier. Worth telling the audience that we have just had fresh figures through from the department of health, updated figures. As of 5pm yesterday evening, a total of 2352 people have died in hospital after testing
positive for coronavirus. That is the latest figure from the department of health. And the issue of ventilators, as i say, as well, jessica, because, much like testing, it has been such a key area under pressure. Tens of thousands are needed, as i understand it, and yet the latest information we have had, talking about one specific group, providing about 30 . Yes, so, the situation of ventilators, as you say, if you look at this more broadly, whether testing or ventilators, the government really trying to re gear what is going on in the private sector to try to produce these things that is needed. 0n ventilators, there are currently 8000 available. They are trying to bring another 80,000 on stream. Governments are saying they are working with the private sector to get more ventilators out across the nhs, across the uk, to help
patients. What we heard yesterday from michael gove was that, as of this weekend, new ventilators will be rolling off the production line to be distributed across the nhs the following week. What we have heard from downing street this afternoon is that this number, in terms of the initial batch, will be, as you mentioned, around 30. Obviously that is not a particularly huge number. Every ventilator is obviously very valuable to any nhs trust that it goes to, but, again, its an indication of the pressure that the government is under to try to come up government is under to try to come up with lots of tests, lots of ventilators, to try to meet this crisis, and how it does prove to be a challenging effort at times. Jessica parker, thank you very much indeed. We are going to stay with testing. Joining me now is professor Matthew Freeman head of Oxford Universitys dunn school. Good afternoon. Thank you so much
for your time. What is your take on testing in this country, testing in particular of Health Workers and why the figure is apparently still so low . Im not an expert on the testing of Health Workers. Really, my position is that ijust want to make sure that the Decision Makers out there realise that there is an army of scientists, at oxford and universities and Research Institutes across the country, who have the general expertise to do what is called the pcr testing that is required to detect the virus. So, there is not really a shortage of infrastructure, machines or expertise. But where the challenges are, andi expertise. But where the challenges are, and i think they are huge challenges, i am are, and i think they are huge challenges, iam not are, and i think they are huge challenges, i am not here to add to a layer of criticism, im just trying to get clarity on this. The challenges are about the logistics of getting the testing done, the quality control, issues around bio safety, if you are dealing with
samples have a live virus in them, training people, it, all of those issues mean it is very difficult to work out how you might be able to mobilise this sort of of volunteers throughout universities. You talk about mobilising. So, youre saying that it about mobilising. So, youre saying thatitis about mobilising. So, youre saying that it is possible to do more testing . Is it more aboutjoined up thinking, coordination . What is your concern . What is your assessment as to why it is not happening to the degree that we would all like . think you are right, the challenges are those ones about coordinating, sorting out logistics. All of those are complex issues. They are not, primarily, about the number of people that are competent to do such tests, nor the instruments on which you need to do the testing. The machines that you need for these tests are just workhorses that are in labs all over the country. Many, many people, from graduate students upwards in seniority, can run the
kind of testing that is needed for coronavirus. So, the challenges are logistical ones. And it may well be that Public Health england, the government is looking at this carefully, and it may well be that they have looked at this and decided it is not efficient to try to turn this into a distributed testing facility around the country. If thats the case, sober yet. Maybe thats the case, sober yet. Maybe thats right, maybe it makes a lot more sense to keep it centralised. But i think it is a mistake to believe that there is no capacity to ta ke believe that there is no capacity to take on this kind of testing, if it could be built into the system. Right. So, your sense of what should happen in the next week to try and improve the situation from where we are today, what are the key things that could be done right now . Well, iam that could be done right now . Well, i am trying to make the point that i think its really complicated. There are no easy answers. Yes, yes. I
have a lot of confidence there are very smart people working on this very smart people working on this very hard. Im not here to criticise. I want to make sure that they are fully aware that there is an army of volunteers out there, eager and willing to help, if we can be helpful. Equally, we dont want to get in the way. It may be that the analogy that was being used earlier of battle of britain, dunkirk spirit, the little boats, maybe that is not the right way of thinking about that. Maybe it is more efficient to keep everything central. People need to know that if needed there is a army of willing volu nteers needed there is a army of willing volunteers out there with the broad level of expertise and equipment to help. I think, level of expertise and equipment to help. Ithink, exactly level of expertise and equipment to help. I think, exactly as you said, it isa help. I think, exactly as you said, it is a question about whether one can coordinate this in turn this. That its a sort of systems problem, rather than a technology or expertise problem. Absolutely. You explained that extremely clearly, and we absolutely take your point. Very good to talk to you. Thank you so much for your time. Professor Matthew Freeman from oxford
university. The headlines on bbc news. A total of 2,352 people have now died in hospital in the uk after testing positive for coronavirus. Thats the biggest rise in the number of deaths so far. A growing political row as the government comes under increasing pressure to do more coronavirus testing. Nightingale hospital in east london reaches capacity. 16,000 staff may be needed when the newly converted Nightingale Hospital in east london reaches capacity. Just to have data on the figures we have been bringing you, we mention some of that any headlines. The latest figures that have come from the department of health in the last 15 minutes or so. A rise, sadly, and
inevitably, on the day before. Just to remind you, 2352 patients have died in hospital. That is a uk wide figure. So, that is uk