Here’s a selection of responses to Boris Johnson’s speech this evening…

Government must ‘swiftly’ issue guidelines for policing, police chief says

The government must “swiftly” issue fair and clear guidelines for policing in the next phase of the UK’s lockdown after restrictions were eased slightly on Sunday, a senior police official has said.

“As lockdown restrictions are eased, this is a critical time for my colleagues as they must now get used to a new set of guidelines while continuing to do their very best to keep the public, and themselves, safe,” John Apter, the national chair of the Police Federation of England and Wales, said.

“My plea to the government is that guidelines for policing this new phase must be issued swiftly, and that within these guidelines there are no surprises.

“They must be fair, and there must be absolute clarity, not only for the public but for my colleagues.”

PM’s statement ‘raises more question than answers’, Labour says

Labour leader Keir Starmer had said Boris Johnson’s statement did not provide the “clarity and consensus” the UK needs at this point in the coronavirus pandemic.

“This statement raises more questions than it answers, and we see the prospect of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland pulling in different directions,” Mr Starmer said.

“The prime minister appears to be effectively telling millions of people to go back to work without a clear plan for safety or clear guidance as to how to get there without using public transport.

“What the country wanted tonight was clarity and consensus, but we haven’t got either of those.”

PM says government will halt easing of restrictions if necessary

Mr Johnson closed his address to the nation by warning that if coronavirus infections rise too quickly, the government will be forced to halt the easing of restrictions.

“I know that we can use this plan to get us through the next [phase of the pandemic],” the prime minister said.

“And if we can’t do it by those dates, and if the alert level won’t allow it, we will simply wait and go on until we have got it right.”

He added: “We will come back from this devilish illness. We will come back to health, and robust health.

“And though the UK will be changed by this experience, I believe we can be stronger and better than ever before.

“More resilient, more innovative, more economically dynamic, but also more generous and more sharing, but for now we must stay alert, control the virus and save lives.”

People in England will be allowed to exercise outdoors as much as they want and sit in the sun from Wednesday, Mr Johnson has said.
 

In one of the key changes to the lockdown, the prime minister gave permission for people to leave their home multiple times a day for exercise so long as social distancing is maintained.

“You can sit in the sun in your local park, you can drive to other destinations, you can even play sports but only with members of your own household,” he said.

“You must obey the rules on social distancing, and to enforce those rules we will increase the fines for the small minority who break them.”

Johnson: ‘This is not the time simply to end the lockdown’

The prime minister has said it is “not the time” to end the lockdown this week and added the UK will only take “careful steps” as it begins to ease social distancing restrictions.

“No, this is not the time simply to end the lockdown this week,” Mr Johnson said.

“Instead, we are taking the first careful steps to modify our measures.”

PM announces ‘Covid Alert Level’ system for tracking outbreak

The prime minister has said there will be a “Covid Alert System” which will determine the threat level to the UK and the need for social distancing measures.

“Level One means the disease is no longer present in the UK and Level Five is the most critical – the kind of situation we could have had if the NHS had been overwhelmed,” Mr Johnson said.

“Over the period of the lockdown we have been in Level Four, and it is thanks to your sacrifice we are now in a position to begin to move in steps to Level Three.”

PM warns plan is ‘conditional’ and could change if UK does not meet five tests

Mr Johnson has warned the plans he is setting out today are “conditional” and said the UK can only move out of lockdown if it satisfies the government’s five tests.

The PM said:

“We must protect our NHS.

“We must see sustained falls in the death rate.

“We must see sustained and considerable falls in the rate of infection.

“We must sort out our challenges in getting enough PPE to the people who need it, and yes, it is a global problem but we must fix it.

“And last, we must make sure that any measures we take do not force the reproduction rate of the disease – the R – back up over one, so that we have the kind of exponential growth we were facing a few weeks ago.”

Johnson acknowledges ‘colossal cost’ to UK’s way of life from virus

“And there are millions of people who are both fearful of this terrible disease, and at the same time also fearful of what this long period of enforced inactivity will do to their livelihoods and their mental and physical wellbeing, to their futures and the futures of their children.”

PM warns without lockdown UK could have seen 500,000 deaths

The PM continued: 

“Though the death toll has been tragic, and the suffering immense, and though we grieve for all those we have lost, it is a fact that by adopting those measures we prevented this country from being engulfed by what could have been a catastrophe in which the reasonable worst case scenario was half a million fatalities.

“And it is thanks to your effort and sacrifice in stopping the spread of this disease that the death rate is coming down and hospital admissions are coming down.

“And thanks to you we have protected our NHS and saved many thousands of lives.”

Mr Johnson added it would be “madness” to now “throw away that achievement” by allowing a second peak of infections.

Boris Johnson says Covid-19 is ‘the most vicious threat’ to UK in his lifetime

Boris Johnson has opened his address to the nation by saying coronavirus is “the most vicious threat the UK has faced” in his lifetime.

Mr Johnson has also praised the public for “overwhelmingly” supporting social distancing restrictions and the lockdown.

The prime minister said:

“It is now almost two months since the people of this country began to put up with restrictions on their freedom – your freedom – of a kind that we have never seen before in peace or war.

“And you have shown the good sense to support those rules overwhelmingly.

“You have put up with all the hardships of that programme of social distancing.

“Because you understand that as things stand, and as the experience of every other country has shown, it’s the only way to defeat the coronavirus – the most vicious threat this country has faced in my lifetime.”

Major Latin American airline files for bankruptcy over Covid-19 crisis

Avianca Holdings SA, Latin America’s second-largest airline, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy after unsuccessfully pursuing emergency aid from Colombia’s government to survive the coronavirus crisis.

The airline estimated liabilities between $1 billion to $10 billion in a filing with the US Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York.

“Avianca is facing the most challenging crisis in our 100-year history,” CEO Anko van der Werff said in a press release.

If it fails to come out of bankruptcy, Avianca would be one of the first major carriers worldwide to fail as a result of the coronavirus crisis, which has led to in a 90 per cent decline in global air travel.

The airline has not flown a regularly scheduled passenger flight since late March due to the pandemic.

It is one of the oldest airlines in the world, as well as a source of pride for Colombia.

WHO dismisses ‘false allegations’ claiming it withheld information on Covid-19

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has dismissed what it called “false allegations” from a media report which claimed it withheld information about the new coronavirus following pressure from China.

The UN agency said in a statement late on Saturday that a German magazine’s report about a telephone conversation between WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus and Chinese President Xi Jinping on 21 January was “unfounded and untrue.”

Der Spiegel reported Mr Xi asked Dr Tedros during the call to hold back information about human-to-human transmission of the virus and delay declaring a pandemic. 

WHO said Dr Tedros and Mr Xi “have never spoken by phone” and added that “such inaccurate reports distract and detract from WHO’s and the world’s efforts to end the Covid-19 pandemic.”

It said that China confirmed human-to-human transmission of the new coronavirus on 20 January.

WHO officials issued a statement two days later saying there was evidence of human-to-human transmission in Wuhan, but more investigation was necessary. 

The global body declared the coronavirus a pandemic on 11 February.

Nursing home staff to be tested twice a week in New York state

All nursing homes in New York state will be required to test staff twice a week for Covid-19 in an attempt to curb the spread of the virus, Governor Andrew Cuomo has said.

At his daily briefing, Mr Cuomo announced new rules to protect nursing home patients, including a requirement that hospitals cannot discharge coronavirus patients to nursing homes until they have tested negative for the disease.

“That is a rule, not an ‘I appreciate it if you did’,” the governor said, adding that facilities will lose their licence if they do not adhere to the rules.