Covid-19 update: Is Boris still in charge?

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News and analysis

Boris Johnson was admitted to hospital for further coronavirus tests last night. Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab will take over day-to-day operations while the PM is in hospital. James Forsyth has the details.
Scotland’s chief medical officer has resigned after personally breaking the lockdown guidance by visiting her second home (twice). Podcast here.
It could be a month before the UK finds a Covid-19 antibody test that works, according to Oxford University’s Professor Sir John Bell.
Matt Hancock has backtracked from his warning that public parks could be shut and daily exercise limited. Isabel Hardman weighs up the concerns.
The Queen made a rare address to the nation last night. Peter Hunt explains its significance.

Is Boris still in charge?

How sick is Boris Johnson? No. 10 says the Prime Minister was taken to hospital for tests last night after being unable to shake the symptoms of Covid-19. There have been reports that his condition has been worse than has been let on – not helped by his refusal to take it easy during his illness (his red box is being delivered to his hospital bed, where No. 10 says he continues to work). The Times says he was given oxygen when he arrived at St Thomas’ Hospital. It’s unclear how long the PM will need to stay admitted for tests and care – but it seems unlikely he will leave today. The timeline matters: No. 10 feels various parts of government are not delivering as they should. The PM is reluctant to hand over the reins, thinking that departments need to be pushed hard to get things done. The Treasury is worried about the cost of the lockdown: £2.4 billion a day, according to a new CEBR study. There is, at present, no exit route and debate continues, within government, about what it should look like. And, for the moment, there is no one in No. 10 to resolve the dispute.

Munch’s ‘The Cough’

In words

The Swedish government has not shut down society, as so many other EU countries have done… Sweden now offers the clearest alternative to dictatorial behaviour: we remain committed to the open society.

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PM Nilsson in today’s Dagens industri.

We should take comfort that while we may have more still to endure, better days will return: we will be with our friends again; we will be with our families again; we will meet again.

HM The Queen, in a public address to the nation on Covid-19.

Britain’s lockdown dilemma

Health Secretary Matt Hancock whistled two very different tunes yesterday about further heavy-handed approaches to the lockdown. Starting on the Andrew Marr Show, he warned that the next step could be a ban on exercise if ‘too many people are not following the rules’ (there was an outbreak of sunbathing on Saturday, even picnics). At yesterday’s evening press conference, Hancock U-turned, saying a further clampdown was ‘not imminent’. Analysis: The ‘haves and have nots’ divide has taken on a new definition during this lockdown: access to private outdoor space. While some were quick to use social media to condemn park-goers this weekend, even more were quick to point out the rather Orwellian act of ratting on one’s neighbours: many city-dwellers won’t have access to garden space, or even a balcony, and for them parks are the only bit of green outdoor space they can access. Communities Secretary Robert Jenrick told Radio 4 this morning he has warned councils to be ‘very judicious’ when it comes to closing down parks.

In pictures

ei_(1).jpeg — The Vila Formosa cemetery in Sao Paulo prepares for the surge in burials. (Photo: Shutterstock.)

Global news

After being seen to have avoided the worst of coronavirus, Japan is set to declare a state of emergency for up to six months. Polling suggests 80 per cent of the Japanese public support the measure.
The number of Covid-19 infections and deaths in New York City has dropped for the first time – but officials say the worst is yet to come as the virus spreads across America.
Prada has turned over its production facilities in Italy from high fashion to medical masks.
A tiger at a New York zoo has tested positive for coronavirus.

Covid-19 in data

The airline industry has come to a halt. According to Vasu Raja, senior vice-president of network strategy for American Airlines: ‘Nobody’s travelling in the next 30 or 60 days… But nobody is really making any plans to go travel in the next 90 to 150 days, either.’

Research

Testing in China shows 78 per cent with Covid-19 don’t show symptoms.

Chinese authorities now publish daily figures on the number of new coronavirus cases that are asymptomatic. On day one, it was 78 per cent. This figure is reported in the BMJ, suggesting Covid-19 could be far more widespread (and less lethal) than assumed. The BMJ quotes Tom Jefferson, an epidemiologist at Oxford’s Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine: ‘The sample is small, and more data will become available. Also, it’s not clear exactly how these cases were identified. But let’s just say they are generalisable. And even if they are 10 per cent out, then this suggests the virus is everywhere. If—and I stress, if—the results are representative, then we have to ask, “What the hell are we locking down for?”’

The Spectator’s Cindy Yu has followed up on this. Six days of data is now published, and the cumulative figure shows of the 624 new cases, 434 (70 per cent) are asymptomatic.

Coronomics

The lockdown is costing the UK £2.4 billion a day, according to the CEBR.
A new study from Moody’s Analytics and the Wall Street Journal suggests that at least a quarter of America’s economy has gone ‘offline’ amid state-wide shutdowns of normal activity.
Consumer confidence in the UK has fallen at its fastest rate in more than 40 years.
An Irish drone company has delivered medicine to remote island communities, a world first. Meanwhile, outgoing Taoiseach Leo Varadkar is to start working as a doctor after rejoining the medical register.
EasyJet founder Stelios Haji-Ioannou has said that the budget airline will ‘run out of money by around August’ after the company grounded all flights last week. He took a £60 million dividend from the company last month.
New car registrations have fallen by 44 per cent on last year.