UK coronavirus live: doctors had prepared to announce Boris Johnson’s death | World news

First Minister Mark Drakeford has said schools in Wales could reopen at the beginning of next month.

Asked for an indication about when pupils could return, he told the BBC’s Andew Marr Show: “Our advice from the trade unions and from the local education authorities is that you will need three weeks as a minimum from the point that we decide to do that, to when schools can reopen, so we are talking about the beginning of June.”

Drakeford said some groups could return earlier than others, citing the examples of year-six children who are due to move up to secondary school and Welsh medium pupils who may not have had opportunities to use the language at home during lockdown.

A former government chief scientific adviser has assembled a group of experts to look at how the UK could work its way out of coronavirus lockdown.

Sir David King, who worked under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, created the board “in response to concerns over the lack of transparency coming from the UK Government’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage).

The new 12-strong committee of academics is keen to investigate seven key points, including how can successful test and trace be achieved, and what social distancing measures will be needed in the future.

The new committee’s first press conference will be held today at 4pm, the same usual time as the Downing Street briefings over the weekend.

Sir David said transparency within scientific discussion was essential.

He told the Sunday Times: “I am not at all critical of the scientists who are putting advice before the government … but because there is no transparency the government can say they are following scientific advice but we don’t know that they are.”

The future of Britain’s world-renowned science sector – and its ability to lead global research into Covid-19 – risks being fatally undermined if the UK crashes out of the EU without a trade deal by the end of this year, Toby Helm and Robin McKie report in the Observer.

The warning has been issued by leading scientists – including UK-based Nobel prize winners – as fears grow that British science could lose access to the EU’s €100bn (£85bn) research funding scheme, Horizon Europe, which will run from 2021 to 2027.

The government says it is “considering” applying to be an “associate member” (a relationship available for non-member states at the discretion of the 27 member nations) of Horizon Europe and the European Research Council (ERC), which is a component of the funding scheme.

The ERC says one of its UK-based “grantees”, Prof Cecilia Mascolo, is already working in this country on rolling out a mobile app to quickly diagnose Covid-19.

The government has formally complained to the BBC over a recent Panorama programme reporting on problems with the supply of personal protective equipment (PPE) to frontline NHS staff.

Oliver Dowden, the culture secretary, wrote to the corporation’s director-general, Tony Hall, warning the corporation it risks losing the public’s confidence as a result of accusation of bias.

Key items of personal protective equipment (PPE) were not included in the government’s pandemic stockpile when coronavirus reached the UK, the investigation by BBC Panorama reported

It found that gowns, visors, swabs and body bags were left out of the stockpile when it was set up in 2009. Some of the items are now in short supply.

However, there was controversy around some of the interviewees, who critics of the BBC and some news outlets described as “left-wing activists.”

In a letter, excerpts from which were published in the Mail on Sunday, Dowden says that he was sure Lord Hall “will agree that at a time of heightened risk of misinformation and disinformation, it is more important than ever that the BBC upholds the values and standards we all expect.”

‘The public should be able to turn to the BBC for transparent, unimpeachable, reliable news’.

Among those criticising Dowden’s actions today were Alan Rusbridger, formerly of this parish:

The prime minister has been tweeting details of “five key tests” that must be satisfied before the government can adjust the current lockdown measures.

The last one is: “We must make sure that any adjustments to the current measures do not risk a second spike that would overwhelm the NHS.”

Labour’s shadow home secretary Nick Thomas-Symonds meanwhile kept up pressure on testing, telling Sky News: “of course I’m pleased that testing has been ramped up. But that in itself is not a strategy.”

“Firstly, the testing has to be increased further, I mean the original target we were talking about a quarter of a million tests a day some time ago, but it has to be linked to tracing as well and it’s that testing and tracing that is going to be so important now in terms of easing the measures of the lockdown in the weeks and months ahead.”

Many older people would rebel and risk going to prison if they were forced to remain locked down for a considerable period of time as younger people were treated differently, according to Baroness Ros Altmann.

The pensions expert and political campaigner on age-related issues, told Sky News: “If they are fit and healthy and need to get out for their own physical health then the idea that the government will tell them you are under house arrest while everybody else is out, and force them into solitary confinement… then I think they wouldn’t accept it.”

Speaking on the BBC’s Andrew Marr show, the broadcaster Michael Palin also said it would be “very unfair” to treat large numbers of older people differently from others and policy makers had to be “very careful.”

For more on fears among older people about an extended lockdown, here is a recent Guardian piece by my colleague Mattha Busby.

It’s too early to say how many people in Britain have had Covid-19, according to Ian Diamond, head of the Government Statistical Service, which is receiving initial results from some major surveys over the past number of weeks.

Very large numbers of people, more than 80pc, are concerned still and worried about the future not being able to make plans, he said.

He told the BBC’s Andrew Marr show that the survey backed up suggestions that adherence to the lockdown was very good.

Using characteristic language, Boris Johnson has described a strategy that evolved for a period of time around plans to announce his potential death from Covid-19 as a “death of Stalin-type scenario.”

It’s not entirely clear if he was taking his cue from Armando Iannucci’s (excellent) 2017 satire.

Nevertheless, speaking about his hospitalisation recently, he told the Sun on Sunday: “I was not in particularly brilliant shape and I was aware there were contingency plans in place.

“The doctors had all sorts of arrangements for what to do if things went badly wrong.

“They gave me a face mask so I got litres and litres of oxygen and for a long time I had that and the little nose jobbie.”

Johnson, 55, said it was “hard to believe” his health had deteriorated in just a few days, saying he “couldn’t understand why I wasn’t getting better”.

“They had a strategy to deal with a ‘death of Stalin’-type scenario,” he recounted.

He told the newspaper that the “indicators kept going in the wrong direction” and that he kept asking himself: “How am I going to get out of this?”

“The bad moment came when it was 50-50 whether they were going to have to put a tube down my windpipe.

“That was when it got a bit … they were starting to think about how to handle it presentationally.”

Johnson and his partner, Carrie Symonds, have meanwhile named their son Wilfred Lawrie Nicholas Johnson, in a tribute to their grandfathers and the doctors who treated the prime minister for coronavirus.

Symonds, 32, posted a picture of her holding the newborn on Instagram on Saturday, saying she “couldn’t be happier” and that her “heart is full”.

A few developments in relation to misinformation include a call by a leading news organisation for a digital “kitemarking” system online to distinguish between quality journalism and fake content – with internet companies facing penalties if they publish inaccurate information.

ITN, the maker of news for ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5, says the coronavirus pandemic has revealed both the importance of “trustworthy and reliable information” and the dangers to democracy of fast-spreading misinformation.

Meanwhile, YouTube has deleted conspiracy theorist David Icke’s account.

The video-sharing site said the 68-year-old violated its policies on sharing information about coronavirus.

The former footballer has made controversial unproven claims about the virus on several internet platforms, including one that it is linked to the 5G mobile network.

Britain could be asking all visitors to the UK to have the NHS tracking app which is likely to be a major part of the government’s strategy.

The system is going into testing on the Isle of Wight later this week and will be rolled out to the population at large provided the tests were responsible, added Grant Shapps.

The Transport Secretary said the government needed 60 to 70 percent of people to use the app for it to be successful.

He compares it to the clapping which people do on Thursday night. It’s another way to support the NHS, according to Shapps.

There’s more on the App here:

Active transport and getting people to work “on their own steam” will be a major part of attempts to prevent overcrowding on the public transport network, added Grant Shapps.

The Transport Secretary said he would be saying more, “shortly,” in relation to measures such as the scheme which helped people to buy their own bike at a cheaper price.

Preventing overcrowding on the transport network will involve a massive logistical operation and will require the same sort of determination as the public have shown in recent weeks.

Grant Shapps was non-committal on the question of whether there could be temperature checks on public transport.

People should not be leaving home if they feel unwell, adding: “In a sense you should not be there in the first place.”

This, of course, leaves doubts about the role of people who are asymptomatic.

Pressed, he added: “Yes, it’s possible.”

It’s not going to be ‘business as usual’ for the UK when the prime minister details plans for changing or lifting lockdown measures later this week, according to Transport Secretary Grant Shapps, but people do want to see a “road map”.

Shapps told Sophy Ridge on Sky News that testing, tracking and tracing would be “vital” in terms of next steps.

He added that it was no secret that the government wants children to go back to school but he was reluctant to give a date.

The Sunday Telegraph has a front page story today on a government ‘blue print’ for schools to return in June.

Among other things, we’ll be keeping an eye on the Sunday morning news shows. Transport Minister Grant Shapps and Shadow Home Secretary Nick Thomas-Symonds are on Sophy Ridge on Sky from 830am.

Following that World Health Organisation (WHO) Covid-19 technical lead Dr Maria Van Kerkhove and Wales’ First Minister Mark Drakeford are on the Andrew Marr show on BBC One from 9am.

Later today, a Scottish Government briefing expected is expected at 2.30pm, while a Downing Street briefing is scheduled for 4pm.

Good morning. It’s Ben Quinn here at the helm of the live blog to steer you through the start of the day’s coronavirus developments in the UK.

They include a revelation by the prime minister that doctors prepared to announce his death as he battled coronavirus in hospital last month.

Boris Johnson spent three nights in intensive care at St Thomas’ in London with the disease, where he said medics gave him “litres and litres of oxygen”.

In an interview with the Sun on Sunday, he described it as a “tough old moment”, adding: “They had a strategy to deal with a ‘death of Stalin’-type scenario.

“I was not in particularly brilliant shape and I was aware there were contingency plans in place.

Some suggest the experience has had a dramatic impact on what his views, otherwise, may have been when it comes to lifting Britain’s lockdown.

That’s not going to be an easy task, if new indications of public mood today are anything to go by.

Fewer than one in five of the British public believe the time is right to consider reopening schools, restaurants, pubs and stadiums. The findings, in a new poll for the Observer, suggest Boris Johnson will struggle to convince people to return their lives to normal if he tries to ease the lockdown soon.

The poll by Opinium, taken between Wednesday and Friday last week, found 17% of people think the conditions have been met to consider reopening schools, against 67% who say they have not been, and that they should stay closed.