Coronavirus UK live: Social distancing will have to continue for 'a long time'

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• April 23: The UK will have social distancing "for really quite a long time," the chief medical officer says.
• Sir Chris Whitty warned that the chances of finding a vaccine in 2020 were "incredibly small."
• Keir Starmer on Wednesday criticised the UK government's "very slow" coronavirus response.
• The new Labour leader quizzed acting UK leader Dominic Raab on the government's handling of testing and PPE in his first Prime Minister's Questions.
• The UK's coronavirus death toll continues to rise as the country approaches the peak of the pandemic.
• A further 763 people died in the last 24 hours, taking the UK total to 18,100.
• Clinical trials of a coronavirus vaccine will begin in the UK today.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

April 23: The UK will have to follow social distancing rules "for really quite a long time," Chief Medical Officer Sir Chris Whitty has warned.

Speaking at the UK government's daily press conference on Wednesday, April 22, Whitty said the chances of a vaccine being widely available in 2020 were "incredibly small," and that some social distancing measures would be in place until then.

"We are going to have to do a lot of things for really quite a long period of time, the question is what is the best package and this is what we're trying to work out," he said.

New Labour leader Keir Starmer on Wednesday accused the UK government of being "very slow" in its response to the coronavirus.

In his first Prime Minister's Questions as Labour leader, Starmer quizzed Dominic Raab, who is deputising for Prime Minister Boris Johnson, on the government's struggle to meet its testing target, as well as PPE shortages.

"There is a pattern emerging here," Starmer said on Wednesday afternoon. "We were slow into lockdown, slow on testing, slow on protective equipment and now slow to take up these offers [of PPE] from British firms."

Meanwhile, the UK's death toll has passed 18,000, with 763 people dying in the last 24 hours after catching the COVID-19 virus, the Department of Health & Social Care said. The death toll currently stands at 18,100.

Read on for the latest updates on how the virus is spreading across Britain.

For the latest global case total, death toll, and travel information, see Business Insider's live updates here.

Kieran Corcoran, Alison Millington, Rachel Hosie, Lindsay Dodgson, Rob Price, and Julian Kosoff contributed reporting to this post.

Removing social distancing measures will take 'a long time'

April 22: The UK will have to adhere to some sort of social distancing "for really quite a long time," the country's chief medical officer Sir Chris Whitty warned on Wednesday.

Speaking at the UK government's press conference, Whitty warned that until a vaccine was widely available, everyday life would not return to normal, adding that the chances of finding a vaccine in 2020 were "incredibly small."

"We are going to have to do a lot of things for really quite a long period of time, the question is what is the best package and this is what we're trying to work out," Witty said.

"Until we have those [a vaccine], and the probability of having those any time in the next calendar year are incredibly small and I think we should be realistic about that," he said.

"We're going to have to rely on other social measures, which of course are very socially disruptive as everyone is finding at the moment."

Speaking about the prospect of easing the current lockdown measures, Whitty said: "If you release more on one area, you have to keep on board more of another area so there's a proper trade-off and this is what ministers are having to consider."

April 21: The UK death toll passes 18,000

April 22: A further 763 people have died in UK hospitals testing positive for the coronavirus, bringing the national total to 18,100, the Department of Health & Social Care has announced.

 

36 companies tell Labour their offers to provide PPE have not had a response

April 22: 36 companies have told Keir Starmer's Labour Party that their offers to provide PPE to the UK government have not had a response.

Labour on Wednesday published a list of companies which had agreed to be named, as well as the PPE they had offered to provide to Boris Johnson's government. 

They include Issa Exchange Ltd in Birmingham, which said it offered a quarter of a million aprons and masks, and Network Medical Products in Ripon, which says it can provide 100,000 face visors a week.

The UK government's system for procuring PPE like masks from manufactures has been heavily criticised.

Business Insider reported on Tuesday that a supplier based in Liverpool last month offered the Department of Health & Social Care 10 million face masks to provide to NHS staff. However, the department was too slow to respond to offer, meaning the masks were sold to other countries like Germany.

Starmer today accused the government of being "very slow" in its response to the coronavirus crisis in his first Prime Minister's Questions as leader of the opposition Labour Party.

In a one-on-one exchange with Dominic Raab, who is deputising for Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Starmer said: "There is a pattern emerging here. We were slow into lockdown, slow on testing, slow on protective equipment and now slow to take up these offers from British firms."

See the rest of the story at Business Insider

See Also:

• 6 European countries are starting to lift restrictions, but they've had hugely different results in tackling their coronavirus outbreaks
• NYC's public hospitals have been battered by the coronavirus. As the epidemic peaks, the CEO warns of tough days ahead.
• Sobering photos reveal how countries are dealing with the dead left by the coronavirus pandemic

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