Evening summary The UK experienced the largest daily increase in deaths from coronavirus. The total now stands at 578, up by 115 on the previous figure. The Department for Health and Social Care also confirmed that 11,658 people across the UK have tested positive for the virus. A new self-employed income support scheme will allow those with average profits of £50,000 or less to benefit from up to £2,500 in support a month. The chancellor, Rishi Sunak, said the government would pay self-employed people a taxable grant based on their average monthly profits over the last three years, worth up to 80% of earnings. The scheme will come into effect in June, and cover a minimum of three months. Downing Street announced a U-turn over the EU-wide ventilator procurement scheme. A spokesman for No 10 said the UK did not receive an invitation in time to join in the first effort to procure ventilators and other equipment “owing to an initial communication problem”. UK aid spending on the fight against coronavirus has reached £544m, according to No 10. Much of the new funding, from its international aid budget, was announced today. It includes: £210m to the key international fund to find a coronavirus vaccine, £40m on developing affordable treatments including immunotherapies against the virus and £23m on developing easily manufactured test kits. The Crown Prosecution Service said people “coronavirus coughing” at emergency workers could be imprisoned for up to two years. The statement followed reports that police officers, shop workers and others had been coughed at by people claiming to have the disease. More sites across the country could be converted into makeshift coronavirus hospitals similar to the ExCel exhibition centre. During a Downing Street lobby briefing a government spokesperson did not rule out the report by Sky News that 10 sites had been identified. New police powers to enforce the coronavirus lockdown will allow officers to use force to make people go back home if they are in breach of the emergency laws. According to the Home Office, police can “instruct” people to go home, leave an area or disperse, and may use “reasonable force” to return a person home in some circumstances. Boris Johnson is hoping to get 750,000 people to sign up for the NHS volunteer responders scheme, the prime minister’s spokesman has said. About 560,000 members of the public have already expressed their interest. Rishi Sunak"s press conference – summary Yesterday in the House of Commons Boris Johnson said he shared Ian Blackford’s desire to get “parity of support” for the self-employed with the employed in the coronavirus rescue package. The reference to parity was taken as implying that they could get 80% of earnings up to £2,500 a month, but because Johnson only talked of his “desire” to achieve this, no one could be sure. Today this is what Rishi Sunak, the chancellor, did announce. That was more generous than some people expected, although of course there is a catch. Sunak said that the 95% of the self-employed would be able to get 80% of their average monthly profits over the last three years up to £2,500 a month under his scheme to help those who have lost work because of coronavirus. The people who are not covered are the self-employed who make more than £50,000 a year. Sunak said people in this group had average incomes of £200,000. He claimed his scheme was very generous by international standards. He ended his opening statement saying: By any international standards, the package we’ve outlined today represents one of the most generous and comprehensive ways to support those in self-employment anywhere in the world. I would conclude by saying this: to all those who are self-employed, who are rightly anxious and worried about the next few months, you haven’t been forgotten, we will not leave you behind and we are all in this together. But the self-employed will have to wait until June until they get their money. And there is no help available for those who have only just become self-employed. Labour reaction to the scheme has been mixed. This is from Andy Burnham, the mayor of Greater Manchester The Labour MP David Lammy is much more critical. Sunak hinted that he could ask the self-employed to pay more in national insurance once the crisis is over. In his opening statement he said: I must be honest and point out that in devising this scheme in response to many calls for support, it is now much harder to justify the inconsistent contributions between people of different employment statuses. If we all want to benefit equally from state support, we must all pay in equally in future. Asked to clarify what he meant in the Q&A, he said: Rather than be too specific right now about future tax policy, it’s just an observation that there’s currently an inconsistency in contributions between self-employed and employed. And the actions taken today, which is very significant tens of billions of pounds of support for those who are self-employed treating them the same way as those who are employed, it does throw into light the question of consistency and whether that is fair to everybody going forward. In these extraordinary times, the Guardian’s editorial independence has never been more important. Because no one sets our agenda, or edits our editor, we can keep delivering quality, trustworthy, fact-checked journalism each and every day. Free from commercial or political bias, we can report fearlessly on world events and challenge those in power. Your support protects the Guardian’s independence. We believe every one of us deserves equal access to accurate news and calm explanation. No matter how unpredictable the future feels, we will remain with you, delivering high quality news so we can all make critical decisions about our lives, health and security – based on fact, not fiction. Support the Guardian from as little as $1 – and it only takes a minute. Thank you. Make a contribution - The Guardian The government’s text alert on Tuesday announcing the imposition of a lockdown was sent to more than 84m mobile devices, the Guardian has learned. At BT alone, which serves 43m devices through the mobile networks it owns and operates, the network was sending out 1,000 alerts a second from 8am – but it wasn’t until 8.30pm that every single customer had received the alert. UK death toll from coronavirus rises to 578, up 115 from previous total The Department of Health says the coronavirus death toll has risen to 578, up by 115 on the previous figure. But the department is changing the way it releases the figures so the death toll figure is a change from the figure at 9am yesterday to the figure at 5pm yesterday, not a change over 24 hours. UPDATE: The department is changing the way it presents the figures. It explains how here. The number of people who have died from coronavirus in UK hospitals has risen by 115 in a single day to 578, as of 5pm on Thursday. It is the biggest daily rise in deaths across the country since the outbreak began. As of 9am this morning, 11,658 out of 104,866 people who have been tested for the virus were confirmed as positive cases. Here is the Treasury press release with full details of Rishi Sunak’s package of help for the self-employed. No 10 in U-turn over EU-wide ventilator procurement scheme Just as the press conference was about to start, Downing Street announced what amounts to a U-turn over participating in the EU-wide effort to procure ventilators and other medical equipment. A Downing Street spokesman said: Owing to an initial communication problem, the UK did not receive an invitation in time to join in four joint procurements in response to the coronavirus pandemic. As the commission has confirmed, we are eligible to participate in joint procurements during the transition period, following our departure from the EU earlier this year. As those four initial procurement schemes had already gone out to tender we were unable to take part in these, but we will consider participating in future procurement schemes on the basis of public health requirements at the time. We are working round the clock with industry, the NHS, social care providers and the army to ensure the supply of PPE over the coming weeks and months and will give our NHS and the social care sector everything they need to tackle this outbreak. According to one government source, the UK did not participate in the first procurement schemes launched by the EU because the emails sent to the UK inviting it to take part were somehow missed. The source claims this was nothing to do with the government making some point about Brexit. Sunak ends saying he thinks this is a very generous package by international standards. And he ends with a message to the self-employed: You have not been forgotten, you will not be left behind, we are all in this together. I will post a summary of the press conference shortly. Harries says the government may want to test a sample of the population, once an antibody test becomes available, to get a sense of how coronavirus has spread. Harries says there may be “measures of lockdown” in the coming months. But she says “flexing” the measures may be an option. She says the whole country will want to get back to normal as soon as possible. She says success means lessening the spike of the curve and putting it forward. Q: Is this open to fraud? And do you accept people might try to cheat? Sunak says he has taken the view that the perfect should not be the enemy of the good. He says checks will be carried out. Q: Smaller companies are saying they cannot get access to your Bank of England loans because they do not have investment-grade rating. Will you help? Sunak says he is aware of this issue. He says they are looking at means to construct a credit rating from information about firms’ relationships with their banks. He says 80% of UK employment and 80% of UK turnover will be covered by the government’s loan schemes. Q: Can you explain why the UK, unlike some other countries, gave up testing all people with symptoms? Harries says the World Health Organization said “test, test, test”. But they are the World Health Organization. They have to advise countries with very different health systems. The UK has a very developed health system, she says. She says initially the UK had some success with containment. But there comes a point in a pandemic where that is no longer appropriate, although she says “contact and trace” strategies still work in some contexts, such as in prisons and care homes. “Contact and trace” is still used there, she says. Q: What are the self-employed meant to live on until June? Sunak says he has looked hard at the quickest way to deliver this. The employment scheme covers 90% of the population. That will be up and running by April. This scheme uses the same system, so some of the work will have to be done later. He has also given some people another four weeks to file a tax return. In June people will get three months’ worth of money in one go. In the meantime, other support is available. Q: Are you saying the self-employed will have to pay more tax? Sunak says he is just making the point that, given that the self-employed are now being treated the same, it is hard to justify the tax system treating them differently. Q: Are you worried about the health impact of people staying at home? Harries says she is worried about that. Those told to shield at home have been given advice about their health. But she says people now don’t have to travel to work. They may have more time for exercise, she says. Q: What about people who do not have three years’ worth of accounts? They might just have entered the workforce recently. Sunak says, for those without three years’ worth of accounts, the Treasury will look at what they do have. For those who do not have accounts, there is nothing they can do. He says they will have to go with the information they have. For those how are very recently self-employed, it is not possible to operate a scheme like this, he says. He says there is too much fraud risk. But this will cover the vast, vast majority of people, he says. Q: What is the estimated cost of the scheme? And how long will it run? Sunak says this is equivalent to the scheme for the employed. Q: After this is over, are you saying you will equalise the tax treatment of the employed and the self-employed? Sunak says he is just making a point today that this intervention does make the case for consistency. Q: Chris Whitty said yesterday the problem with testing was a global shortage of material. Why didn’t we order this months ago? Harries says the UK “has ordered and we have planned ahead”. But every single country has ordered at the same time, she says. She says this is not an issue of lack of forethought. It is about this being a brand new event, she says. Q: People won’t get this money until June. You say they can get universal credit, but they do not get money for the first five weeks. Can you guarantee that if people apply for UC, they will get an advance payment? Sunak says the government has made UC more generous. And he says the DWP does pay advance payments, almost immediately, certainly within days. Councils also have money to help families with council tax bills, he says. At the press conference Jenny Harries, the chief medical officer for England, says it is too early to predict when the epidemic will peak. She says “we must not take our foot off the pedal”. Sunak says he is treating the self-employed like the employed. But in return, everyone must pay in, he says. He is implying that he will reform the tax system so that the self-employed lose some of their tax advantages. Sunak says self-employed could benefit from help worth up to £2,500 per month Sunak says he knows many self-employed people are deeply anxious. They are not covered by the employment support packaged announced on Friday last week. He says he is announcing a new self-employed income support scheme. The government will pay self-employed people a taxable grant based on their previous earnings over the last three years, worth up to 80% of earnings, and capped at £2,500 a month. It will run for a minimum of three months, he says. He says that is equivalent to the support available to the employed. He says this will be open to anyone with average profits of £50,000 or less. It will be open to people who make the majority of their income from self-employment. And, to avoid fraud, it will only be open to people who are already self-employed and have a tax return from 2019. He says 95% of the self-employed will be covered. It will be available by June. And anyone who missed the deadline for their tax return will get an extra four weeks, he says.