Today, Boris Johnson made a statement on what has been done to support people and businesses during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The government have built the largest testing capacity in Europe, with 32 million tests conducted so far and over half a million tests now available every day across the UK.
The UK has ensured that, as we head into winter, the NHS has at its disposal over 30,000 ventilators and billions of items of Personal Protective Equipment, most of it now manufactured here in the UK.
The UK Government and the devolved administrations are working together on a joint approach to the Christmas period, because all of us want to ensure families can come together wherever they live.
Challenges across the UK
The average number of new cases each day is now 22,398, that’s up from 9,716 a month earlier.
There are now 12,320 patients in hospital, up from 2,602 a month earlier.
1,142 patients are now in mechanical ventilation beds, up from 369 a month earlier.
Sadly 492 deaths were reported yesterday. The weekly average number of deaths each day is now 295, up from 53 a month earlier.
Because of this, new restrictions have been put in place in each part of the UK.
From today, the government are once again asking people to stay at home.
You can only leave home for specific reasons: for work (if you can’t work from home), for education, and for essential activities and emergencies.
The full rules, all of the details, are available at gov.uk/coronavirus and on the NHS Covid-19 app – please log on to see what you can and can’t do.
There is light at the end of the tunnel:
We have better treatments and techniques to take care of those in hospital, thanks largely to the ingenuity of British scientists.
Rapid testing is being rolled out on a massive scale – with city-wide testing starting tomorrow in Liverpool.
There is also the very real chance of safe and effective vaccines.
So taking those things together, these scientific advances can show us the way ahead.
The government will continue to support people affected by these new restrictions.
Almost 10 million jobs have been protected, through the furlough scheme, and this is now being extended through to March.
A further £2 billion of funding is guaranteed for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
