UK coronavirus live: Scotland to stick with ‘stay home’ advice as Johnson due to announce alert system

Health professionals have issued a new legal challenge demanding an urgent inquiry into the government’s failure to provide PPE for frontline workers.

A pre-action letter sent by the Doctor’s Association UK (DA) and the Good Law Project (GLP), who responsible for bringing the challenge, provides a list of “recurrent and systemic” failures in PPE supplies.

The groups are demanding legal action be taken immediately so that “lessons can be learnt” in case of a resurgence in the virus.

“It is a tragedy that nearly 200 healthcare workers in the UK have died due to Covid-19,” said a spokesperson for the DA. “There has been recurrent and systemic failure of the PPE supply chain, leaving staff in some instances with makeshift or no PPE.”

“Every healthcare worker death from Covid-19 must be investigated, the issue of PPE has to be considered as part of that. Until we establish all the factors involved we feel that inquests must be opened,” they added.

“With the Good Law Project, we are seeking a legal remedy by compelling the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care to discharge his statutory duty to promptly and properly order an investigation of healthcare worker deaths.”

Downing Street are also weighing in to try to explain the meaning of the new “stay alert” slogan.

A No 10 spokesman said the public can stay alert by “staying at home as much as possible”, “limiting contact with other people” and keeping two metres apart where possible.

“We can control the virus by keeping the rate of infection (R) and the number of infections down,” the spokesman said. “This is how we can continue to save lives and livelihoods as we start to recover from coronavirus.”

“Everyone has a role to play in keeping the rate of infection (R) down by staying alert and following the rules,” they added.

If you’re just joining us, here’s a quick overview of what’s happened with Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland’s response to the government’s new coronavirus slogan.

This morning, the UK government introduced a new slogan, “stay alert, save lives”, to replace the “stay home, save lives” slogan used so far. It appears to be part of today’s change in lockdown conditions, with some relaxation of measures expected to be announced at the government’s briefing tonight.

The slogan gained attention in the media this morning, with Sunday newspapers reporting on the new slogan and the communities secretary, Robert Jenrick, discussing it on Sky News and the Andrew Marr show.

However, since the reveal, Scotland’s first minister Nicola Sturgeon, and Northern Ireland’s first minister Arlene Foster, have both said that they will not be adopting the new slogan. Sturgeon said it was too early for Scotland to drop the “stay home” message.

The health ministers in Scotland and Wales, along with Sturgeon, have said that they were not consulted on the change of message.

That brings you up to speed with this morning’s events – I’ll let you know as and when this develops further.

Prime minister Boris Johnson has just released some insight into what the new government coronavirus slogan means.

“Everyone has a role to play in helping to control the virus by staying alert and following the rules. This is how we can continue to save lives as we start to recover from coronavirus,” he said in a tweet.

The message was accompanied by a image which shows how to “stay alert”:

• Stay at home as much as possible
• Work from home if you can
• Limit contact with other people
• Keep your distance if you go out (2m apart where possible)
• Wash your hands regularly.

It is still somewhat unclear how this differs from the previous guidance – as these measures were largely already in place – but that is likely to be clarified at tonight’s briefing, when a slight relaxation of coronavirus lockdown measures are expected to be announced.

I wanted to share this brilliant picture with you all, which shows Boris Johnson in a socially distanced discussion with a member of public.

The photograph was taken as the prime minister took his morning walk through St James’ Park in London yesterday.

Northern Ireland’s First Minister Arlene Foster has said the region will not adopt the new government slogan, instead sticking with the “stay home, save lives” message.

Speaking to BBC Northern Ireland radio on Sunday, she said: “On the whole, the message is to stay at home. We will say we are not deviating from the message at this time.”

Scottish first minister Nicola Sturgeon has said Scotland will not be adopting the new slogan either, with Welsh and Scottish health ministers saying they were not consulted on the change of message.

Thanks to all those getting in touch with tips, pointers and questions – I’ll try to address them here in the blog.

If you see something you think we should be reporting in this blog, you can drop me a message on Twitter, @mollyblackall. I won’t be able to respond to everything, but I’ll try to read it all.

A leading statistician has criticised the government’s use of daily figures, describing it as “number theatre”.

Professor Sir David Spiegelhalter, chairman of the Winton Centre for Risk and Evidence Communication at the University of Cambridge, criticised the government’s daily briefings, saying that the public are being fed “number theatre”.

Speaking on the Andrew Marr show this morning, Spiegelhalter said he wished data was being shared by people who understood its “strengths and limitations” and could “treat the audience with respect”.

Asked about the Government’s communication to the public through the briefings, Spiegelhalter said he had watched Saturday’s briefing and “frankly, I found it completely embarrassing”.

He said it was “extraordinary” that it is not known how many people have had Covid-19.

“We get told lots of big numbers, precise numbers of tests being done – 96,878. Well, that’s not how many were done yesterday; it includes tests that were posted out,” he said.

“We’re told 31,587 people have died; no, they haven’t, it’s far more than that. I think this is actually not the trustworthy communication of statistics,” he continued.

“It’s such a missed opportunity. The public out there who are broadly very supportive of the measures, they’re hungry for details, for facts, for genuine information, and yet they get fed this what I call ‘number theatre’, which seems to be co-ordinated really much more by a Number 10 communications team rather than genuinely trying to inform people about what’s going on.”

Scottish first minister Nicola Sturgeon has just tweeted the original “stay at home” message and pinned it – meaning it will come up as the first tweet on her profile.

This is likely to be read as her doubling down on her earlier statement that the Scottish government would not be adopting the UK government’s new “stay alert” slogan. She argues it is too soon to lift the “stay home” message in Scotland.

Sturgeon, alongside the Scottish and Welsh health ministers, have alleged that they were not consulted on the change of slogan.

Vaughan Gething, health minister for Wales, has said that the UK government has not discussed the new “stay alert” slogan with the other nations.

“I’ve seen the media briefings and changed message for England. There has not been a 4 nations agreement or discussion on this,” Mr Gething tweeted.
“The WelshGovernment message has not changed. Stay at home and if you do go out observe the social distancing rules. StayHomeSaveLives”.

It comes after the Scottish health minister and first minister both said Scotland had not been consulted.

Liberal Democrats acting leader Sir Ed Davey has called for the Government to publish the evidence it used to move to its new “stay alert” slogan.

He warned that the change could cause alarm amongst the public, and make police enforcement “near impossible”.

“Changing the slogan now, while in practice keeping the lockdown in place, makes the police’s job near impossible and may cause considerable alarm. Ministers risk sowing confusion and losing public trust with this muddled communications strategy and lack of transparency,” he said.

“It’s not clear why the Prime Minister has made this decision,” he added. “For it to make any sense, we need total transparency on the science and advice that has led to this change. Ministers must publish the evidence they are relying on to make these decisions to allow for real scrutiny.”