Dominic raab as he delivered the daily downing street press conference. He was joined by the deputy chief medical officer for england, Jenny Harries and the uks National Statistician, professor ian diamond. If you missed it, heres another look at what was said. Good afternoon, and welcome to todays downing street press c0 nfe re nce. Very pleased to be joined by sir ian diamond, the National Statistician from the ons, and doctorJenny Harries, deputy chief medical officer. The latest data from our cobra coronavirus data file shows that as of today, there have now been 1,000,530 tests for coronavirus across the uk, including 86,583 tests carried out yesterday. 206,715 people have tested positive, an increase of 5614 cases since yesterday. Those who have tested positive, very sadly, 13,600 people have died and my condolences go to anyone who has lost a loved one throughout this pandemic. Three weeks ago before the Easter Bank Holiday weekend, i set out five tests for the uk to move onto the next phase in this pandemic. Then, just as now, there were calls to ease up on the restrictions. But as the science made clear, we could not responsibly do that. In fact the advice from the group of scientific experts who advise the government, sage, made it clear that there were no changes at all that we could confidently take without risking a second peak in this virus. That is why we asked the public to keep going, we werent done yet. We said, stick to the plan and the British Public kept going. People stuck to the rules. That meant working from home, it meant worries about money, adjusting to home schooling, time apart from family and friends and just not doing many of the things we enjoy in life. At the same time, a lot of people have despite their own personal sacrifices have gone the extra mile. They volunteered to support the elderly and vulnerable in their community, who have been shielded themselves away from the virus. And each thursday we now come together to applaud the nhs staff and carers, the people who just kept going to keep our country going. And because of that monumental effort, we have now passed the peak of the virus. The nhs has not been overwhelmed, we have not seen hospital wards overwhelmed with patients, people left without hospital beds or without the ventilators which can mean the difference between life and death. I know the tragic death toll in this country and around the world has been sobering for all of us, and there have been real challenges in this country with ppe and care homes. But in this first stage of the fight against covid 19, through this National Team effort, we have prevented the number of deaths rising to even higher levels and we have ensured critically that the nhs had the capacity to cope. Today, cabinet was updated on sages advice on the progress we have made today. And as a result of the social distancing measures we put in place, the r level which signifies the rate of infection is between 0. 5 andnot. 9. The overall number of new cases has been falling and the rate of deaths is steadily falling. To be clear what this means in practice, the virus is not beaten yet. It remains deadly and infectious. And we are working very hard right across government and local government to bring it down in areas of concern, like in care homes, and im confident we can do it and we will do it. But because we held firm three weeks ago, we are now in a position to start to think about the next phase in this pandemic. This weekend, the Prime Minister will set out the next steps we can responsibly take over the following weeks, guided by the scientific advice and mindful, as we have said right from the word go, of taking the right decisions at the right time. We can start to set out how we will live and work whilst maintaining necessary social distancing, we can be clear about those measures which are Still Necessary to prevent a second peak. The Prime Minister has been directing ministers and teams of officials right across government to carefully develop a road map for the next phase. It contains appropriate measures to be taken at appropriate milestones, subject to very clear conditions, and there will be detailed guidance to help and in form, reassure and advise public, businesses and other organisations. To get this right we have set milestones. Some changes can confidently be introduced more quickly than others, and some other ones will take longer to introduce. And its important to say, at each point along the way, when we take these decisions, they will be based on the five tests and scientific advice that we receive. And as i set out in the fifth of our five tests, when ice bow care on the 16th of april, when i spoke here at the point when we make the smallest change in the guidance, that will be the point of maximum risk. If people abandon social distancing and we forget the sacrifices that have made us get through this peak and get us to this point the virus will grow at an exponential rate, leading to a second peak which would threaten the nhs, trigger another lockdown which would prolong economic pain. And we are determined to keep it temporary and as short as possible. So we have kept the current measures in place for this loan precisely long so that we can bounce back with vigour and energy as possible, as soon as its possible to look at the second phase. Because of that, our next steps will be sure footed and sustainable. Any changes we make will be carefully monitored, and if people dont follow the rules and if we see the r level go back up, we will tighten restrictions again, we will always retain the option to do so. That way we can safeguard Public Health and also safeguard the economy in a sustainable way. Having prepared carefully, based on the updated advice from sage, this weekend the Prime Minister will set out the road map for the next phase along with the conditions for reaching each milestone. That way we can provide the country with a better understanding of what lies ahead, we can offer reassurance that we will adjust to the restrictions to the minimum necessary to prevent a second spike in the virus, and we can give people the confidence that we are doing it in a way that will protect life and preserve our way of life. Then i will hand over to jenny to prevent the data on the latest slides. Thank you. First slide, please. So this is just a very quick reminder of what we are working to achieve, and the five tests that the first secretary has just mentioned for adjusting the lockdown, the slides will show how we are progressing towards that. The first thing is to reinforce the action that people have taken, sorry, could do you revert to the slide, thank you. Just to show how much people have been following the social distancing rules, and really helping to bring the rate of infection down, but also to be protecting each other, so the number of people avoiding contact with Vulnerable People of adults is that 92 , who have avoided contact with older and Vulnerable People in the last seven days, and 82 have only left their home for the reasons that we know you should. And that has reflected now in a much reduced r rate and the and opportunities we have to go forward carefully and adjust the measures. The other interesting thing looking forward is 44 of adults in employment have said they have worked from home at some point in the last week, significantly changed from 12 last year. That helps social distancing, but i think it also helps people recognise other opportunities of how they can work in the future. The next slide, please. Here we see the daily tests, which have increased, so the tests yesterday, or rather, up to 9am this morning, carried out, where 86,500. There has been a little bit of a technical hitch in the lab at the weekend but that is now starting to rise again, through to detection of disease. And here we have on this slide, the blue pillar there is the nhs swap testing, the rates of case detection are coming down. These are primarily within Health Care Settings in hospital, but the orange pillars on the top represent the increased capacity and numbers of tests that are being carried out. Obviously, we hope overall that our case numbers will come down, but in this intervening period while testing is increasing, we expect those orange pillars is to grow, so we will have increased case detection but we want to watch the blue pillars come down as they are now. And this slide, which we have seen before, but i think with some trepidation at the top of those peaks, we can now see thatjust about all regions have come right back down to relatively low levels compared with the peak. Of course i say relatively, for the number of people in hospital, that is still representing a huge workload for nhs front line staff. But it does show a decrease of 16 over the last week. And again, reflected from that last slide is the use of Critical Care beds. At one time there was concern that with a rising epidemic, and now, less than a third of Critical Care beds are occupied by covid 19 patients. That has been decreasing right across the uk over the last two weeks. Here we have the seven day rolling average. Obviously sitting behind this are recorded deaths, none of which we would wish to be there. But on the Positive Side of that is the fact that we can see the rise in the epidemic peak and the subsequent later deaths, there were 539 deaths in all settings following, in the last period. But the seven day rolling average now is a mid week one, which is the most robust figure. You can see the variation over the weekend periods in that slide and this is the lowest since we have seen since the end of march. Importantly, all the social distancing measures that we have been doing, we need to keep doing it to maintain that gradual doing it to maintain that gradual decline. And then finally a quick comparison, its important that we compare data internationally, and this is global death comparison. As we have mentioned frequently, there are numbers rather than rates. Thank you very much. Thomas from london is first. Considering the track and trace measure is not yet operational, and the comparatively slow greatly means we have little margin for ever. How safe is it to lift lockdown. Thomas, thank you for the question, you have nailed it. We have the latest data from sage, we have come through the peak but it is a very delicate moment so we need to proceed with caution. The Prime Minister needs to set out a road map, which will notjust include the kind of things that we are doing but the criteria to make sure that we make sure footed steps and we can monitor any changes that we incrementally make to make sure we do not see the virus get back its grip on this country and see the r rate go back up. So there is an opportunity to move to the second phase and start looking towards that, but it has to be done very carefully, subject to strict conditions, with strict monitoring to make sure that we do it in a controlled and sustainable way. Thank you for your question. I think we have one from brandon from warrington now. I think the prison system and all of those prison officers have done an incredible job. Of course there is concern around covid 19 in both for staff and also for offenders, we have got a plan in place which has meant that has not become a major issue. But we take nothing for granted, we are not complacent about it for a moment. I spoke to thejustice secretary this week, we are monitoring it very carefully. Actually, we are confident we have the situation under control. I think we will move over to the media, Laura Kuenssberg from the bbc. You are on mute, laura, is that at your end . Can you hear me . Well done, dont worry, that is not your question gone thank you very much. Can you confirm one point of fact, are you renewing the restrictions today, as you have to do under the legislation is to mark and Nicola Sturgeon has said it is potentially catastrophic to move away from the stay at home message. Given that the disease is still prevalent in many parts of the country, are you really sure it is safe to lift any of the restrictions, however gradual rolling back the lockdown might be . Dr harries, you said the r is somewhere between 0. 5 and 0. 9, can you tell people what the r level is in different parts of the country, given it is such a key factor in how the decisions will be made . Thanks, laura, first, whether you are in london, edinburgh, cardiff or belfast, as we enter another Long Bank Holiday weekend, i think the message is very clear, follow the guidance. To answer your question, there is no change today in the guidance of the rules. But as i have also explained, the Prime Minister will set out a road map on sunday. And of course, we are locked into the closest collaboration with the devolved administrations through cobra, but also the Prime Minister spoke to first minister is today. He reiterated our commitment to continuing a uk wide approach. Tackling the pandemic. Even if different parts may move at slightly different speeds, but i think the key thing is those decisions are made based on the science and the circumstances for each nation. Ian can i do want to comment on the other point . The question is, what is the r around the uk . Clearly, there is some variation and we are absolutely working with some fantastic estimates done by our modelling community. I think the consensus is that it is below one everywhere. There was probably in london. But certainly, some variation across the different regions. Lowest probably in london. Would you like a follow up question, laura . Is it possible to give exact numbers and, foreign secretary, you stood at that same like ten time after time and said it would be wrong to talk about lifting any kind of restrictions because you might give people the wrong impression, but is that not exactly what the government risks doing now ahead of what looks like being a very Sunny Bank Holiday weekend when many people are desperate to get out . First, i have said very clearly and i am happy to say again there is no changing the rules today, what the Prime Minister will do is set out on sunday a road map to look to the future and explain what steps will be taken, at what moment in time and critically, the evidence to back it up. We have always said consistently from the outset we have to take the right decisions at the right moment in time, guided by the evidence. That is consistently what we have said from the outset and that approach is continuing. Anything else you say . No, im quite happy to produce them later, but i dont have them in front of me now. Thanks very much, laura. Itv. Hello, foreign secretary, thanks very much. This afternoon, one of your advisers, professorjohn edmonds, told mps that transmission in the community was no longer a problem. He suggested that the epidemic was now centred on hospitals and care homes. Do you accept that the government blundered in not focusing on these particularly vulnerable areas earlier and that is why the lockdown is having to go on for so long for the rest of us . Well, first, it is good news the r has come down overall. That is because of the measures we put in place, because when i stood here before the Easter Bank Holiday we said we will stick to our guns. And frankly, because of the efforts of the public in following that guidance and indeed the brilliant to essential workers in the nhs, care homes and other ways. We have definitely got a challenging care homes. The cqc data that came out i think yesterday showed that overall, in care homes, the number of deaths was down by over 300 on the last week. So that is positive, but there is still a very significant issue in care homes. Jenny and i were in a whitehall meeting yesterday looking at exactly how we ramp up every bit of what we need to do around the social distancing in care homes, the ebb and flow of people into care homes, the ppe and testing to make sure we bear down on this problem. And you are right, there is also an issue in hospitals. It is good news that overall, we have got control across the country. But of course, as we have always said, we have to make sure we see consistent falls in the death rate and infection rate across all settings and that is how we continue with our approach. Professor edmonds would also have said and i would certainly say that in early march, as we started to move towards the policy is that the public have been so wonderful in taking place, we were doubling the size of the epidemic every three days. And if you look at the graph that dr harries showed earlier, you see a very steep upward curve. The fact it is coming down now is because, i believe, of the success the ons has been measuring as many of the of the lockdown measures. Would you like to follow up on any of that . Yes, on anothertopic, essentially, there is a huge amount of data now suggesting that black adults in this country are particularly vulnerable, perhaps the death rate is Something Like four times that for the equivalent people of white ethnicity. The government said it is looking into it, are you going to do something about it to protect for example front line workers from these ethnic groups . Well, first, we are very concerned about it, it is something we take very seriously. We are learning more about this virus all the time because it is new. And we have asked Public Health england to look very carefully at all the implications and how it is affecting different communities, but particularly the bame community, and once we have the advice back from them, we will know what interventions can sensibly be made. And that is the way, again, as we have said throughout, we need the Scientific Evidence to back up any policy decisions we would want to make on that front. Thank you, libby. Betty rigby, from sky news. Thank you, first secretary of state, the Prime Minister said in the commons yesterday there would be changes to the lockdown from monday and millions of people would have read that would include more outdoor exercis