Lucy Campbell UK ministers were warned last year that the UK needed a robust plan to deal with a pandemic and its economic and social consequences, the Guardian revealed. The 600-page Cabinet Office document warned that even a mild pandemic could cost tens of thousands of lives and included recommendations such as the need to stockpile PPE and organised advanced purchase agreements for other essential supplies. It comes as the government continues to face accusations that it has reacted too slowly to to the coronavirus outbreak. Dominic Cummings, the prime minister’s chief adviser, and data scientist Ben Warner, who worked on the Vote Leave campaign, are on the secret scientific group advising the government on its response to the coronavirus pandemic, the Guardian revealed. With multiple attendees of Sage disclosing to the Guardian that both Cummings and Warner had been taking part in meetings of the group as far back as February, the inclusion of Downing Street advisers on Sage will raise questions about the independence of its scientific advice. Despite growing pressure on the government to make public more details about the group, both its membership and its advice to ministers on Covid-19 is being kept secret. The government’s expansion of testing for key workers and their families suffered a setback after all 5,000 home test kits for key workers ran out within two minutes this morning. And the Department for Health and Social Care apologised after the website for booking tests online stopped accepting applications due to high demand. The Welsh government became the latest devolved administration to publish a plan for easing lockdown restrictions and learning to live alongside Covid-19, amid mounting pressure on the UK government to do the same. The UK’s hospital death toll rose by 684 to 19,506. Transport for London announced it would furlough 7,000 workers – around a quarter of its workforce – from Monday for an initial period of three weeks. The move followed TfL recording a 90% revenue loss during the lockdown and is expected to save the network £15.8m every four weeks. The lockdown will be lifted when it’s “safe to do so” and this depends on the number of new infections falling, the health secretary Matt Hancock said. He said he would not allow for changes to be made that are unsafe and that keeping the number of cases down is also the best thing for the economy. There is no prospect of easing the lockdown yet, he added. And that’s it for today. From the UK side, thank you so much to everybody who got in touch throughout the day, keeping me going with tips and stories, comments and suggestions, jokes and music videos. I couldn’t do this without you! 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Dominic Cummings is on secret scientific group advising government on coronavirus The prime minister’s chief political adviser, Dominic Cummings, and a data scientist he worked with on the Vote Leave campaign for Brexit are on the secret scientific group advising the government on the coronavirus pandemic, according to a list leaked to the Guardian. It reveals both Cummings and Ben Warner were among 23 attendees present at a crucial convening of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) on 23 March, the day Boris Johnson announced a nationwide lockdown in a televised address. Multiple attendees of Sage told the Guardian that both Cummings and Warner had been taking part in meetings of the group as far back as February. The inclusion of Downing Street advisers on Sage will raise questions about the independence of its scientific advice. There has been growing pressure on Downing Street in recent days to disclose more details about the group, which provides scientific advice to the upper echelons of government during emergencies. Both the membership of Sage and its advice to ministers on the Covid-19 outbreak is being kept secret. The increase in confirmed cases of Covid-19 among prisoners continues to slow, a daily update from the Ministry of Justice shows. The number of infected prisoners rose by just 1% in 24 hours to 304 inmates across 69 prisons as at 5pm on Thursday, the lowest increase by percentage since lockdown conditions were imposed. There are 81,100 prisoners in England and Wales across 117 prisons. The number of confirmed cases among prison staff rose by 8% to 257 workers across 59 prisons in the same period. The figures reflect the total number of recorded positive cases – not the number of live cases - of Covid-19, and include individuals who have recovered. The Department for Education said it plans to pump more than £12m into 14 projects across England to tackle the increased risks faced by some children and young people as they stay at home to reduce the spread of coronavirus. The additional funding comes after the DfE’s figures revealed that only around 5% of pupils identified as vulnerable were attending school during the lockdown despite being eligible to do so, including around 500,000 children with assigned social workers and children in care. The DfE said the funding would pay for individual support for families at risk of domestic abuse, community volunteers to work with families, and continued support for teenagers at risk of exploitation. Vicky Ford, the children and families minister, said: We are working hand in hand with all the professionals supporting these children to prioritise their wellbeing during these unprecedented times. These new projects will prevent children suffering from isolation or exploitation as the country continues to respond to Covid-19. Q. When will we reach the prime minister’s previous target of 250,000 tests per day, and how and when will testing capacity open up beyond key workers and their families? Shapps says capacity has been rising “pretty fast”. The problem, he says, is that there hasn’t been sufficient numbers of people coming forward to get tested. The 250,000 “mentioned by the PM” was “an ambition without a particular timetable”, he adds. Q. Re contact tracing, are we expecting to follow a similar model to South Korea, ie following movements using GPS signal? Shapps says his understanding is that the NHS app users anonymously check who has been in range of the bluetooth that may have symptoms. Harries adds that the ambition is to digitalise some of the process to help bring us out of some of the lockdown measures. And that’s the end of the press conference. Q. How much funding can tram systems in the regions expect to receive? Shapps doesn’t have an actual figure as discussions are ongoing with the different light rail services. More details soon, he adds. Q. Do we know why people from BAME backgrounds are dying in disproportionately high numbers amid the pandemic, what work is taking place to try to find out? Harries says this is a hugely important and complex subject. With disease prevalence and severity, there are several elements. Data has to be robust, recording of ethnicity both by country of origin or ethnic group is hugely complex. The death certificate might give country of origin, for example, but this does not tell us anything about cultural background, community and lifestyle, she says. She says it is still “potentially” an issue as we need clearer data. Public Health England will do a review into this. It’s also about increased risks associated with certain ethnic groups, for instance high blood pressure and hypertension is linked to poor outcomes in Covid-19 and is more prevalent in some ethnic groups. The disease is more likely to transmit more in close communities and will have a different impact across different socio-economic statuses. She adds that there is very high representation in the NHS and frontline care services of minority ethnic groups. All these things must be considered, she says. Q. Should the transition period for Brexit be extended given the current crisis? Shapps says it remains the case that [the government] “will not entertain an extension to the transition period”. It will end at the end of the year, he adds, to provide certainty to businesses. Q. Are you confident that tests will be reliable and what is the failure rate for self-administered tests? Harries says tests can fail for several reasons including specificity, storage and sensitivity. This makes it hard to put a number on failure, she says. In piloting the tests, she says, tests have been run in parallel using trained and non-trained persons to trial tests. Q. Do you have a message to Donald Trump about the dangers of spreading misinformation? Harries says that clearly from a medical, professional perspective, people must use evidence-based and properly trialled treatments. Nobody should be injecting anything, she adds. Q. Did you over-promise on testing for over 10 million key workers and their families when there were only 5,000 home testing kits and 15,000 drive-through appointments? And will you bring in checks to determine eligibility? Shapps says there is no point taking a test unless you have symptoms or if you suspect you already had it. He says capacity has been rising fast and a clearer idea of demand will become clear in the coming days. Harries adds this is a ‘have you got it now’ test. She encourages those who have symptoms, or those who have a member of the household displaying symptoms, to take a test. That will allow those people to get back to work. Q. How will you make it easier for critical workers who do shift work to book these appointments? Shapps says the goal is to have 48 testing centres and home tests are being trialled to hopefully be expanded. Harries adds that if you’re symptomatic and needing a test, you should not still be going to work. Q. P&O Ferries has said it needs £150m to stay afloat, will they also received government funding? Shapps says this is included in the package he announced earlier. Q. The chief executive of Heathrow Airport has called on the government for passengers to be screened for Covid-19 as they come into the country, why is this not currently being done? Shapps says air travel is “down massively” and many of those returning have been British nationals. He says the requirements for incoming passengers are to stay in one place and not leave for any reason. He says countries who have taken such measures have not necessarily weathered the pandemic better. Harries adds that “screening” can be reassuring and helpful to the public. Early in the pandemic, we quarantined people coming back from high-risk areas, she says. Once the disease is more prevalent, this becomes a less effective mechanism, she adds. Once our rates are very tightly controlled, even then it isn’t so simple, she says, due to variations in reliability in recording temperature and the likelihood in catching somebody during the incubation period. Q. Is it possible to manage people’s expectations about how much longer the lockdown might go on? Shapps says that going into another warm, sunny weekend, people need to understand that the peak is “by no means” over and a downward trend has not yet been established. The more people adhere to physical distancing, the faster decisions about easing restrictions can be made, but they will ultimately be determined by the science. Harries adds that people flouting the rules is not the answer. She encourages everybody to comply lest we lose all the progress that has been made. Q. How soon will funds for trams come through and how long will it take? Shapps says the amount will be “substantial” but doesn’t give a figure. He says he will be discussing the issue with regional mayors over the weekend. They are taking questions from the media now. Q. What assurances can you give about future demand for testing kits for key workers being met and how much will capacity go up over the next few days? Shapps says the website didn’t crash; the slots for today were just taken up. He says 16,000 online tests were booked and the site has been brought back up online now and more tests will become available tomorrow and the days after. He says “it looks like the demand is there” and the capacity for the target of 100,000 tests per day is there. Shapps says we don’t know how many people want to be tested. He emphasises this test will only tell you if you currently have Covid-19, not if you have had it. Dr Jenny Harries is speaking now. Transport use has risen 2-3% in the last week, she says. She reinforces that we need to keep reducing travel as this has contributed significantly to reducing transmission of the disease. The total number of new cases has risen, but there is fluctuation related to reporting. The curve is flattening, she says, which indicates a reduction in transmissions, but a caveat is that increased numbers of tests means we expect to see an increase in cases due to an increase in detection. Hospitalisation rates have fallen “remarkably” in London, she says. The number of inpatients diagnosed with Covid-19 has fallen below 1,000 “for the first time in many, many weeks”. This is a “real success”, she adds. Critical care bed use has significantly fallen and capacity continues to increase, she says. Confirmed hospital deaths are expected to gradually decline. Shapps says there are no more British holidaymakers stranded on cruise ships anywhere in the world. Shapps adds the government has made funding available to keep England’s trams running. This will help light rail networks in Greater Manchester, Sheffield, Nottingham, the West Midlands, and Tyne and Wear to keep operating. He doesn’t specify how much funding has been made available for this. Shapps says he has also given the green light to fast-track trial the use of drones to deliver medical supplies, beginning next week on the Isle of Wight. National transport package announced for rail, freight and ferry links Rail and freight transport is critical to our resilience as a country, Shapps says. He says the government has secured a trilateral agreement with the French and Irish governments which commits to keeping freight routes open throughout the crisis, bringing in medicines and other essential goods. He adds ferry routes are being protected between Great Britain and Northern Ireland with funding of up to £17m. £10.5m will also go towards links to the Isle of Wight and the Isles of Scilly so critical freight can continue to reach those places, he says. And air links to Belfast, Derry and Londonderry continue, as they are key for critical workers. Shapps says there are “tentative” signs we are making progress. By respecting physical distancing, the whole country is slowing the spread of the virus, he says. Grant Shapps"s press conference The transport secretary Grant Shapps is delivering the government’s daily press briefing. He is joined by Dr Jenny Harries, the deputy chief medical officer for England.