87 more people have died, bringing the total to 422 and our hearts go out to

their families and their friends. Yesterday the Prime Minister announced

the most radical steps yet to slow the spread of this virus and these steps are

not requests. They are rules. You should stay at home except to shop for food for

medical reasons, for exercise or for work, including caring and volunteering in the

Coronavirus national effort. We understand how significant these steps

are. We ask for your forbearance but I think that the public knows that this is

important and they know how vital a task it is, that we get a grip on the spread

of this virus and slow it down. The more we follow the rules,

the sooner we will stop the spread and so, everybody has a responsibility to

follow those rules and where possible, to stay at home. I know how worried people

are and while this is a great time of turbulence, it is a moment that the

country can come together in that national effort. As the next step in that

effort, today we launch NHS volunteers. We're seeking a quarter of a million

volunteers. People in good health to help the NHS, for shopping and for delivery of

medicines and to support those who are shielded to protect their own health. The

NHS volunteer responders is a new scheme set up so that people can come and help

and to make sure that the NHS and the local services that are needed

get all the support that they can. I can also announce that the call we made at

the weekend for people to return to the NHS has been incredibly successful. So

far, so far 11788 people have answered that call. 2660 doctors, over two and a

half thousand other health professionals and pharmacists and 6147 nurses and I

pay tribute to each and every one of those who's returning to the NHS at its

hour of need. In addition from next week, 5500 final year medics and 18,700 final

year student nurses will move to the front line to make sure we have the

people we need in our NHS to respond to this crisis in total. That's over thirty

five thousand more staff coming to the NHS when the country needs the NHS most.

Finally I can announce today that we will next week

open a new hospital, a temporary hospital, the NHS Nightingale hospital at the

Excel Centre in London. The NHS Nightingale hospital will comprise two

wards, each of two thousand people with the help of the military and with NHS

clinicians, we will make sure that we have the capacity that we need so that

everyone can get the support they need but no matter how big we grow the NHS,

unless we slow the spread of this virus then, as we've seen those numbers will

continue to rise and that's why it's so important that everybody follows the

advice and stays at home. The final point I want to make is one of thanks

as Health Secretary and as a citizen and on behalf of the whole country, I want to

thank the staff of the NHS those who work in social care, all of you not just

the doctors and nurses who normally get mentioned but the pharmacists, the

paramedics, the managers and all staff across the board, you are the frontline.

In this war against this virus and we all pay tribute to you. You're going to

give your all over the next few weeks and I want you to know that we salute you

and I will strain every sinew to get you everything you need to keep you safe so

that you can do your job, keeping all of us safe. We're now going to go to

questions. The first question is from Laura Kuenssberg, BBC and

we've heard from many members of the public today, who are being told that

they should go to work by their boss, though they don't think their work is

essential, right now, at this moment and they don't feel they can stay safely two

metres apart from everyone else there. The message to many people has not been

that clear from the Government. Who are they meant to listen to, their boss or

the advice from the government? And can I ask that question to the medics in a

different way. If people feel they're not safe at work, what should they do should

they stay at home?

Well I'll give the first part of the answer and then yeah,

I'll hand over to Jenny as deputy chief medical officer to give the medical view,

the advice is crystal clear which is you should stay at home unless you have one

of the four reasons which is exercise shopping as little as you have to for

medical reasons or to go to work where that work can't be done at home and if

you're a key worker for instance if you work in the NHS and social care then you

should go to work because that work is vital in the effort to tackle

coronavirus Jenny and Thank You Lora I think the important

thing with all of these questions is to take us right back to the first

principles of why we have asked for these interventions it is to prevent

transmission of disease and the rule about the two meters is to ensure that

we are consciously keeping apart from each other so we do not inadvertently

pass on disease if we have it so I think when you're talking about work

environments exactly as the Secretary of State has said there are numerous

occupations where you do not need to be at work it's some of them we have to and

we recognize the support of our key workers as secretary stated in providing

that service but many don't don't need to be and I think we are encouraging our

employers to think really carefully about how they can innovate in the way

they star for working and if they do need to be in the office just to spread

people around I know for example for for a few of us who are having to be in

environment so actually there's an awful lot of space created so you can practice

safe distancing at work I think it's it's a common-sense principle and we all

need to apply it both employers and employees

and it'd be men sensible that people who want to stay at home can't and risk the

sack if they do defy their employers instructions and a question to the

deputy chief medical officer just a practical one imagine you've got a two

year old who is ill and both parents or the only parent sorry a two year old who

is healthy and both parents or an only parent gets ill what is meant to happen

to that child

essentially the questions - on which people want to hear the medical advice

I'll ask Jenny - to answer but we have been incredibly clear about the rules

and one of the reasons that we strengthened the rules yesterday and

essentially flipped the basis of the rules so it's not do whatever you like

so long as you don't do the following it is stay at home unless you've got a good

reason and we will also enforce against those rules but I'll ask Jenny to answer

the point on on people who are asked to go to work

of course if you're in a workplace that we have said will close and then we're

going to enforce against those against those closures as well Jenny so the same

principles apply I think obviously if people don't feel safe in their work

environment they should always raise those concerns and I think by far the

majority of employers are being really sensible and supportive and there's been

huge support for for staff and to the population in general but for some

environment so I'm the obvious one is our health care environment we are

ensuring that staff understand what the the risks of working are and and how

we're supporting them to do to do their work safely I think you raised an issue

particularly about specific advice we cannot individually cover every single

scenario whether it be in the workplace or whether it be in the family so again

it's back to applying the principles if individuals can work safety they can

keep a distance apart and they also think the other things

important to remember the fundamentals of our early campaign which is around

hand-washing maintaining that frequently so if there are facilities there to do

that they should be using them if they don't feel that safety then I think it's

reasonable to highlight that very firmly with their employer

you raised a particular issue about a young child and clearly all the way

through this we have been very careful to ensure that as individuals steps in

increasing steps are put in place to try and manage this outbreak that we manage

both the the impact on the disease itself but also recognizing that there

are other risks either in putting in interventions too quickly or not

thinking through some of the parameters about how we handle some of these issues

the obvious ones yesterday were around the elderly particular vulnerabilities

and a small child clearly is a vulnerable individual so in this case

although we are encouraging everybody to stay in their own households that's the

unit with the the same risk exposure clearly if you have adults who are

unable to look after a small child that is an exceptional circumstance and if

the individuals do not have access to care support formal care support or to

family they will be able to work through their local authority hubs okay next

question got Tom Newton done at the Sun thank you very much

sector so question to you and then once the deputy CMO if I can why are you so

adamant that non key workers must go to work as much as possible if they can't

work at home in the fields of manufacturing construction is it because

you share Donald Trump's concerns that the cure can be more dangerous than the

problem the sentiment expressed this morning and deputy CMO could you

possibly clear a lot of questions up coming from boyfriends and girlfriends

who aren't cohabiting are they allowed to meet in public places because you

haven't banned meetings of two people and when they do meet are they allowed

to be affectionate I allowed to meet each other's houses well I'll take the

first now definitely the second two to Jenny and the the

absence of the first is that the judgment that we have made is that in

work in many many instances the 2-meter rule can be applied in my workplace in

the House of Commons you can see it every day and where possible people

should work from home and employers have a duty to ensure that people are more

than two metres apart because as Jenny says it's about going back to the

principles of what we're trying to achieve which is to keep people apart so

that we slow the spread and the more people follow the rules

the faster we will all get through this thank you so I'm clearly going to start

a new career here in relationship counseling so I will tread very

carefully as I work through this answer and the principle is that we want people

to stay in their household units primarily the reason for that is because

if you have an infection you are very close with your family members so your

risk of exposure to the virus is pretty similar usually across a family we

almost expect another member of the family to get that unless they are

applying very very stringent precautions so if your two individuals two halves of

the couple are currently in separate households ideally they should stay in

those households the alternative might be that for quite a significant period

going forward that they should just test the strengths of their relationship and

decide whether one wishes to be permanently resident in another

household in which case all of the decisions about exercising if you are in

you should be on your own or with in your household unit would apply so again

the issue here is what we do not want is people switching in and out of

households it defeats the at the purpose of the reduction in social interactions

and will allow transmission of disease so perhaps tests test really carefully

your strengths of feeling stay with the household either together or apart but

keep it that way we go forward because otherwise we will

not all be working towards achieving our outcome there you go make your choice

and stick with it very good is anything you want to do out on that single

journey gave a perfect answer now if I go to pull war from the HuffPost

poor Secretary of State can you explain to NHS staff who had to travel on

crammed and overcrowded tube trains this morning just why private house building

and office building is deemed essential work

are you considering restricting construction work to just those projects

where health and safety is needed and not to be too cynical about it does the

fact that housing developers contributed more than a million pounds to the Tory

party general election campaign have anything to do with a different view

taken in England as opposed to Scotland were the first minister has said that

building site work should be restricted and stopped immediately and can I ask

the to the medics can ask professor Powis in the United States President

Trump has talked about using over-the-counter anti-malarial drugs to

beat coronavirus the UK has imposed an export ban on chloroquine last month was

that because we're looking at similar treatments here and what and what advice

have you got in terms of those trials being done here all the decisions that

we're taking Paul are taken in the national interest this is a largely

cross-party effort we're making judgments difficult and big judgments

every day about how best to tackle this virus and that is the only thing that

matters and how we minimize the overall number of deaths from the virus and get

the spread down so that we can so that we can get through this as fast as we

can and that's the only thing that we consider based on the science and the