Dominic Raab: ‘Think about NHS workers before being tempted to ignore rules’

He thanked the public for following the rules as well as NHS workers and key workers at the daily press conference.

But he said ‘we’re not done yet’ and urged people to continue following the rules.

He added that it’s too early to say if lockdown measures are having the desired impact and that he won’t be able to say more on this until the end of next week.

Raab said the measures will stay in place until it’s clear that we’ve moved beyond the peak.

But Sir Patrick Vallance said we’re beginning to see the first signs of the virus ‘levelling off’.

He said that hospital admissions aren’t accelerating.

The number of daily deaths won’t change for a few weeks, according to the chief scientific adviser.

Professor Chris Whitty said the doubling time of patients in ICU has been slowing over the last two weeks thanks to social distancing.

Doubling time is now six days and is extending as the pandemic goes on, he added.

Sir Patrick, responding to a question about death projections, said: “In general I’d expect the deaths to continue to keep going up for about two weeks after the intensive care picture improves and so we’re not there yet in terms of knowing exactly when that will be, but that’s the sort of time frame I’d expect.”

A message from the Editor, Gary Shipton:

In order for us to continue to provide high quality and trusted local news, I am asking you to please purchase a copy of our newspapers.

With the coronavirus lockdown having a major impact on many of our local valued advertisers - and consequently the advertising that we receive - we are more reliant than ever on you helping us to provide you with news and information by buying a copy of our newspapers.

Our journalists are highly trained and our content is independently regulated by IPSO to some of the most rigorous standards in the world. But being your eyes and ears comes at a price. So we need your support more than ever to buy our newspapers during this crisis.

Stay safe, and best wishes.