Evening summary The government has announced a £75m initiative to fly Britons who are stranded abroad home. The foreign secretary, Dominic Raab, said charter flights would help repatriate Britons from “priority countries”, and travellers in countries where commercial flights were running would be given subsidies for tickets. The UK’s death toll from Covid-19 has risen to 1,408. The figures published by the Department of Health and Social Care relate to those that had died in hospitals as of 5pm on Sunday. From tomorrow, the ONS will begin producing weekly statistics which take in deaths in the community. The number of coronavirus-related admissions to hospitals is expected to continue to rise in coming weeks. Currently the NHS is seeing around 1,000 new patients a day, but the government’s chief scientific adviser, Patrick Vallance, insisted this was “not an acceleration”. He added that though the number “may go up a little bit”, it could begin to stabilise and fall in two or three weeks time. London may be “two or four weeks away” from its peak of coronavirus cases, according to the city’s mayor. Sadiq Khan said his estimate was “not an exact science” but referred to when the largest number of people would have the virus, and when the highest number of deaths would be recorded. BrightHouse and Carluccio’s have entered administration. The two UK companies said they had suffered a slump in customers since non-essential shops were shut as part of the lockdown. More than 4,000 jobs are at risk. The Prince of Wales has come out of self-isolation. Clarence House confirmed that Charles, 71, had consulted with his doctor after testing positive for coronavirus last week. Dominic Cummings, the prime minister’s chief adviser, is self-isolating with symptoms in line with those of the virus. 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Make a contribution - The Guardian Sadiq Khan has said London may be “two to four week away from the peak” of coronavirus cases. The peak refers to when the largest number of people will have the virus and when the highest number of deaths will be recorded, according to Khan. LBC’s Ian Payne asked the London mayor when experts think the peak of the pandemic will be for the capital, which is said to be two weeks ahead of the rest of the country. Khan said: “It’s not an exact science I’m afraid so when I ask the clinicians, the scientists, the medics, they explain to me, normal modelling you do doesn’t work cause each country is different and the pace of this virus is faster than we would expect.” “Also what complicates matters is the behavioural change we’re now got in place for the last week or so, we don’t see the benefits for about two weeks.” Doctors who among the UK nationals stranded abroad have said they are desperate to return to help their NHS colleagues battle the coronavirus pandemic, but have received little help from the Foreign Office. Global travel restrictions have left an estimated 1 million British people marooned, with many complaining that their host countries had organised rescue flights for their citizens while the UK had not. The outcry came ahead of the government’s daily coronavirus update in which foreign secretary Dominic Raab announced a £75m initiative to rescue tens of thousands of British nationals stranded abroad. A 56-year-old Dorset police officer has died after displaying the symptoms of Covid-19. The force’s chief constable, James Vaughan, said: “I can confirm one of our serving officers sadly died at his home in Bournemouth just before 10am today, Monday 30 March 2020. “He was 56years old and had been unwell since Christmas with a chest infection. He had been off sick since Thursday 19 March and went into self-isolation following Covid-19 guidance from the NHS after displaying symptoms. “It is not yet confirmed if the death is Covid-19-related and I would strongly emphasise that it is too early to speculate on the circumstances surrounding his death. “We are all deeply saddened by the death. This is a huge loss to the police family and my thoughts and prayers are with the officer’s family, friends and close friends, many of whom are Dorset police colleagues. I have relayed to them my deepest condolences. “I would ask you to please respect their privacy at this very sad time.” The number of confirmed cases of Covid-19 among inmates at prisons more than doubled in three days, according to a daily update from the Ministry of Justice. As of 5.40pm on Sunday, there were 55 prisoners who have tested positive for COVID-19 across 21 prisons, compared to 27 confirmed cases in 14 prisons as at 1pm on Thursday. There are around 83,000 prisoners in England and Wales across 117 prisons. The number of prison staff who have tested positive rose from five to 13 in the same period, while the number of infected prisoner escort and custody services (Pecs) staff remained at four. The first death of a prisoner from Covid-19 was confirmed on Thursday; an 84-year-old sex offender died in hospital and had underlying health conditions. However, the daily update released by the MoJ did not include confirmation of the number of serving prisoners who have died.Prisons are continuing to run under an “exceptional delivery model”, which includes no visits to any jails in England and Wales. The justice secretary, Robert Buckland, is understood to be considering the release of pregnant prisoners as a potential option to alleviate the impact of the crisis in the prisons. However, the government is not thought to be considering a larger scale release of low risk prisoners. Here’s a summary of the government’s coronavirus daily update: Dominic Raab announced a £75m airlift initiative to rescue tens of thousands of British nationals stranded abroad because of the global Covid-19 pandemic. Charter flights will help to repatriate Britons from “priority countries”, while UK travellers in countries where commercial flights were still running will be provided with subsidies for tickets. The intervention from the Foreign Office comes after it faced weeks of criticism that it was not doing enough to get citizens back home. The government will be partnering with British Airways, Easyjet, Jet2 and Titan airlines to mount the charter operation. Patrick Vallance, the government’s chief scientific adviser gave an update on the state of infections and deaths from the virus in the UK. He said there had been a “dramatic reduction” in social contact since lockdown measures were put in place, which he predicted would have “a significant effect” on the number of cases of Covid-19 in the country. He added that the number of people admitted to hospital with the virus was expected to continue to increase over the next few weeks, before the UK begins to experience a period of stagnation, and then a possible reduction of cases. However, he added that it was “premature” to predict a date when the government could begin to ease measures to tackle the virus. Professor Yvonne Doyle, medical director at Public Health England, said an evaluation of the validity of home testing kits to determine whether a person had or had previously contracted coronavirus was under way. Addressing criticisms that some UK police forces have been heavy-handed in their approach to enforce new lockdown rules, Dominic Raab said he supported what they were “trying to achieve”. “Obviously we need some common sense in the way that is approached,” he added. “The number one message which the police are rightly trying to convey in my view is that people need to follow the guidance ,not just to the letter but also to the spirit.” The foreign secretary also said that he was “feeling terrific” after three of his fellow Cabinet members were forced to self-isolate, including the prime minister. He added that Boris Johnson had been “full of vigour” at the daily coronavirus government meeting on Monday. The main points made by Patrick Vallance, the government’s chief scientific adviser, are: There has been a dramatic reduction in social contact and “that is predicted to have a significant effect” on the number of infections”. The absolute priority is getting the number of severe cases needing hospital treatment below the level of intensive care capacity, so it is “premature” to be talking about how long the lockdown continues. The rate of hospitaladmissions is going up but the increase is not a rapid acceleration and therefore it might be an early sign that social distancing is working. The UK is tracking along the same lines as France at the moment. The government has announced a £75m airlift initiative to rescue tens of thousands of British nationals stranded abroad because of the coronavirus. The foreign secretary, Dominic Raab, announced a mixture of charter flights to special “priority countries” and subsidies for tickets on commercial flights where they are still running. In an extraordinary intervention that comes after weeks of criticism that the Foreign Office was not doing enough to get British citizens back home, Raab announced the government was working with “BA, Virgin, Easyjet, Jet2 and Titan” airlines to mount the charter operation. “Under the arrangements we are putting in place, we will target flights from a range of priority countries starting this week,” said Raab. He told Britons who were in countries where commercial flights were still operating not to wait to book flights. He also said airlines will be responsible for alternative bookings “at little or no extra cost”. He added: “Where commercial routes remain an option, airlines will be responsible for getting passengers home. That means offering alternative flights at little to no cost where routes have been cancelled. “That means allowing passengers to change tickets including between carriers. So for those still in those countries where commercial flights are still available, don’t wait, don’t run the risk of getting stranded. The airlines are standing by to help you. Please book your tickets as soon as possible. “Where commercial flights are no longer running the government will provide financial support for special charter flights to bring UK nationals back at home.” Vallance adds that at the moment, the UK is seeing around 1,000 new cases of Covid-19 a day. “That’s not an acceleration,” he insists. He expects the pattern to continue over the next two to three weeks, with the number likely to being to decrease after. The UK’s chief scientific adviser, Patrick Vallance, has reiterated that the coronavirus pandemic will deepen over the next two to three weeks. After that point, he expects cases to begin to stagnate before the UK experiences a decrease. At the moment, data does not suggest that the UK is experiencing an acceleration of cases. He added that “we’re tracking roughly along the same path as France” in terms of deaths of patients who have contracted the virus. However, Vallance said that it was “premature to put an absolute time on how long this goes on for”. Dominic Raab, the foreign secretary, has announced a partnership between the government and airlines to repatriate Britons stranded abroad. Tens of thousands of people will be flown home by airlines including British Airways, Virgin Atlantic and Titan Airways on chartered planes. In countries where people were still able to board commercial flights, Raab urged them not to wait as they would be able to switch carriers at no extra cost. Dominic Raab gives daily coronavirus briefing The foreign secretary, Dominic Raab, has begun the government’s daily coronavirus press conference. The government has conceded it will not be able to repatriate thousands of Britons stranded in New Zealand for some time after a telephone call between Dominic Raab and the country’s foreign minister, Winston Peters. The British high commissioner, Laura Clarke, told Britons trying to get out of the country that there would be no immediate fixes because the country’s lockdown and the closure of international flights made it nearly impossible. In a video statement, she said there were up to 9,000 people now registered with the embassy for repatriation purposes and they were working wtih airlines including Singapore, Emirates, Qatar, Malaysian Airlines and Cathay Pacific to get people out when it would be possible. She added: The New Zealand government level-four Covid guidance is now absolutely clear in limiting domestic flights and transport to essential works only. That means if you are not close to your departure airport you are going to struggle to get on an international flight home. “The New Zealand government has also put a pause on all repatriation or charter flights until at least 31 March. We know this makes things really difficult and we are working hard to find a way through. We are working closely with the New Zealand authorities to find out how people are going to be able to get to airports in a way that is compliant with New Zealand’s Covid guidance. That is one of the things that our foreign secretary. Dominic Raab. discussed with New Zealand’s foreign minister Winston Peters this morning. I should be clear though that there aren’t going to be immediate fixes to that. It will take at least until the end of March and possibly longer. I know that is not the news that you want to hear but I think it’s really important to be frank. Two of the most controversial planks of the so-called hostile environment policy have been amended to ensure they can still be carried out during the coronavirus outbreak, the Home Office has said. The changes relate to right-to-rent and right-to-work checks - legal obligations placed on landlords and employers respectively to carry out immigration checks on prospective tenants and employees. The right to rent and right to work checks were among some of the policy tools wrongly applied to members of the Windrush generation, ultimately leading to homelessness and unemployment in many cases. Effective immediately, temporary changes will mean the Home Office will not require landlords and employers to see original documents and will allow checks to be undertaken over video calls. These temporary changes will mean that during the coronavirus outbreak prospective renters and workers will now be able to submit scanned documents, rather than originals, to show they have a right to rent or right to work. Migrants rights campaigners have long called for the checks to be scrapped and in the case of right to rent checks, the government is challenging a high court ruling that they are unlawful and incompatible with human rights legislation. But the Home Office said the checks continued to be necessary and it was an offence to knowingly employ or let property to anyone who does not have legal immigration status in the UK. The home secretary, Priti Patel, said: “I have introduced these temporary changes to help employers and landlords conduct checks more easily as people follow advice to stay at home to protect the NHS and save lives, during the coronavirus outbreak.” The Home Office is reducing EU settled status support because of the coronavirus pandemic, Channel 4 reporter Georg von Harrach has pointed out. The telephone helpline for applicants is suspended and ID documents can no longer be sent by post, while some offices to help people with applications have closed, he reports. If you’ve managed to get on one of the UK government’s repatriation flights we’d like to hear about your experience. You can get in touch by contributing to our form or via WhatsApp by clicking here or adding the contact +44(0)7867825056.