Our objective is to delay on flat on the peak of the epidemic by bringing forward the right measures at the right time, said that we minimize suffering and save life, and everything we do is based scrupulously on the best scientific advice.

Last week we asked everyone to stay at home if you had one of two key symptoms.

High temperature, a new and continuous cough.

Today we need to go further because, according to Sage, uh, the Scientific Advisory Committee on Emergencies, it looks as though we're now approaching the fast growth part of the upward curve on DDE.

Without drastic action, Casey's could double every five or six days.

So first we need to ask you to ensure that if you anyone in your household has one of those two symptoms, then you should stay at home for 14 days.

That means that if possible, you should not go out even to buy food or essentials other than for exercise and in that case, at a safe distance from others.

If necessary, you should ask for help from others for your daily necessities, and if that is not possible, then you should do what you can to limit your social contact when you leave the house to get supplies and even if you don't have symptoms and if no one in your household has symptoms, there is more that we need you to do now.

So second, now is the time for everyone to stop non essential contact with others and to stop all unnecessary travel.

We need people to start working from home where they possibly can and you should avoid pubs, clubs, theaters on dhe, other such social venues.

Goes that saying Repeat the message.

We should all only use the N hs when we really need to.

Aunt, please go online rather than ringing in hs 111 Now this advice about avoiding all are necessary.

Social contact is particularly important for people over 70 for pregnant women and for those with health conditions with some health conditions on DDE.

If you ask why we doing this now, why now one earlier rule or later?

Why bring in this very draconian measure?

The answer is that we are asking people to do something that is difficult and disruptive of their lives and the right moment as we've always said is to do it when it is most effective, when we think it could make the biggest difference to slowing the spread of the disease, reducing the number of victims, reducing the number of fatalities.

Ondas.

We take these steps, we should be focusing on the most vulnerable to third in a few days time.

By this coming weekend, it will be necessary to go further and to ensure that those with the most serious health conditions are largely shielded from contact from social contact for around 12 weeks.

Andi again, the reason for doing this in the next few days, rather earlier or later, is that this is going to be very disruptive for people who have such conditions difficult for them.

But I believe it's now necessary and we want to ensure that this period of shielding this period of maximum protection coincides with the peak of the disease.

And it's not clear that the peak of the epidemic is coming faster in some parts of the country than in others, and it looks as though London is now a few weeks ahead.

So to relieve the pressure on the London health system and to slow the spread in London.

It's important that Londoners now pay special attention to what we're saying about avoiding non essential contact and to take particularly seriously the advice about working from home Onda voiding confined spaces such as pubs on Dhe restaurants.

No.

Lastly, it remains true, as we said in the last few weeks, that risks of transmission of the disease at mass gatherings.

Such a sporting events are relatively low.

But obviously logically, we advise against unnecessary social contact of all kinds.

It's right that we should extend that advice to mass gatherings as well.

And so we've also got to ensure that we have the critical workers we need that might otherwise be deployed of those gatherings to deal with this emergency.

So so from tomorrow, we will no longer be a supporting mass gatherings with emergency workers in the way that we normally do So.

Mass gatherings were now moving emphatically away from, and I know that many people, including mil millions off fit on active people over 70 may feel listening to what I've just said that there is something excessive about these measures, but I have to say I believe they are overwhelmingly worth it.

Two slow the spread of the disease to reduce the peak.

To save life, minimize suffering and to give our n hs the chance to cope.

Over the last few days, I've bean comparing notes and talking to leaders around the world.

And I can tell you that the U.

K.

Is now leading a growing global campaign amongst all our friends and allies with her in the G seven, g 20 u.

N the IMF.

All those bodies in which we play a significant role were leading a campaign to fight back against this disease to keep the economy growing, to make sure that humanity has access to the drugs on the treatments that we will need.

And the U.

K is also at the front of the effort toe back business to back our economy to make sure that we get through it.

I know that we are today asking a lot of everybody's is far more now than just washing your hands, though they're clearly washing your hands remains important.

But I can tell you that across this country, people on businesses, in my experience, are responding with amazing energy on creativity to the challenge that we face on.

I want to thank everybody for the part that you are playing on that you're gonna play.

Our chief scientific adviser will now update us on where we are ever to you.

Patrick.

So we've looked along its age, measures to conceive lives and protect people the objectives.

As I laid out last time, auto really suppressed the curve in order to keep it below N hs capacity so that the N H s can cope and to shield the vulnerable and those most likely to get severe disease so that we protect them across this period.

Most people it's worth reminding us have a mild disease, but some do not.

This is a very fast moving situation.

The latest numbers that we reviewed it sage suggests that we're entering a fast growth period or on the cusp of doing so on London is ahead of other parts of the country with the outset laid out a plan on advised that we would implement it, the measures at the right stage and in the right combination, the right combination to ensure that we get the biggest impact.

Unfortunately, that time is now for many of these measures what we're doing is implementing them, actually at a stage off the epidemic, which is a little bit earlier than has been done in some other countries.

Given where we are in terms of the epidemic now, the measures have to objectives.

One is to delay the transmission of this virus across the community.

On the second is to keep people safe.

The measures, as the prime minister's outlined, include whole household isolation.

So if one person gets the symptoms off new, persistent cough or fever, the whole household stays isolated for 14 days.

The reason it's 14 days is the seven days for the person who's got the infection, the incubation period that others may catch it on the seven days after that.

We're also recommending increased social distancing.

That's the phrase that you hear, which means trying to reduce contact between people again to try to delay this transmission.

That means where businesses conduce Oh, it and where individuals could do it.

Home working is recommended.

Unnecessary travel should be reduced and stop avoiding gatherings and crowded places is important on those gatherings.

Big or small, are important so that you get the whole thing together.

It's not just the size of a gathering is actually a ll gatherings which become important on reducing social contacts.

There are specific measures for the vulnerable groups, the people who are most likely to get serious illness with this infection.

And Chris was he will say more about that.

Those measures would need to go on for 12 weeks or so across this period, maybe a little longer.

These measures, like case isolation.

But we talked about last week staying at home.

If you've got the symptoms, these new measures have a big effect.

This is not a series of small interventions.

You would anticipate that this could have a dramatic effect to reduce the peak and to reduce death rate.

They are not easy, but they are important and they will have the effect if we all do it.

This is a matter for us to take accountability, to make sure we help each other, protect ourselves and protect the N H.

S.

It is also possible, as laid out in the plan, that other measures may be necessary, including at some point.

As we've said, it may be necessary to think about things like school closures, but those things again need to be done at the right time.

In the right way.

At the right stage of the outbreak, I'll hand over to Chris.

Thank you.

I'm just gonna have a few comments additionally from a medical point of view.

But I'm not gonna repeat points that already be made on.

The first thing is to make an obvious point that this is now a very global disease.

And the way you deal with global pandemics is different in public terms, health terms than the way you would deal with a localized outbreak where you were the first country or a very significant region that is, has got it.

And the second point is the obvious point again that in this country this disease is now accelerating up the curve.

But it is still at a low level.

But he will accelerate up now, really, quite rapidly now.

We obviously need to do things that are both effective.

And all the measures that are here have bean gone over by several large numbers of scientists in different ways.

Looking at mathematical models, behavioral sciences, many other forms of science to find the things which are the most effective.

But They also have to be sustainable because this is going to go on for some time.

And I think we should not be under any illusions that if we just do this for a couple of weeks, that is sufficient.

This is going to have to be a prolonged period now for any individual person.

This let me start off with the most cheery point about this.

For any individual person, the chances of dying from Corona virus are actually very lucky.

Some people will not get the infection, and many of the measures were doing at the moment will help with that.

Some people will get it and we'll have no symptoms at all.

They won't even realize they've had it off.

Those who do have symptoms, the majority will have either a miles disease or a moderate disease, meaning they can easily manage it at home without having to go to the N HS directly or indirectly in any other way.

But obviously a small minority but a significant one get significant disease requiring hospital care.

A small proportion of those will go on to need intensive care on.

Sadly, some people will go on to die as we've discussed before.

The overall mortality rate looks as if it's a bit less than 1% on current data, but that's without knowing how many people get the disease a symptomatically, but we know some people get it now.

We also know that older people are at greater risk, and that is widely known.

But it is important, I think, distress, that being old's does not necessarily mean you'll get it worse.

And actually, there was a rather nice article by my minister, Nadine Doris, who actually explained when she had Corona virus.

Her mother, who caught it from her, had it more mildly s.

Oh, it's not a necessary fact that older people will necessarily have it worse.

So you might say why, with a disease where we have such small numbers of the moment on which the great majority people are going to recover from and most of them will have a mild or non non notice your disease would we want to do anything at all, and the reason is this acceleration on our overall aim and our single aim is to reduce death rates on the numbers of people who might die as a result, of this, but I think it's important to recognize, and this is the reason I'm explaining.

This is so people understand the logic of what we're doing, that there are broadly three groups of death deaths and other impacts on health we need to consider.

They're the direct deaths which have caused by the Corona virus disease itself with good medical care.

Tragically, a few people, the great majority of them in less good health but not necessarily all will pass away.

There are, however, on this is really important a significant number of other deaths which, if the n hs became overwhelmed in any of the four nations.

If the intensive cares got care, unit's got to the point when they were overwhelmed, then people were dying from indirect deaths because they did not have the ability to get medical cat.

And a lot of what we're trying to do is trying to reduce the chance that those indirect deaths might occur.

And then the third possibility and it is an important one for us to consider is that some of the measures were doing one undoubtedly or could have negative impacts on people's health it themselves.

So there are negative effects of what we do to try and combat corona virus.

One of the reasons we're very keen not to go in advance off need was because of those negative facts.

And I've come on to one of the nature of I just to explain where the different things fall into this.

The very profound changes in terms of social distancing that the prime Minister laid out, which are going to be very difficult for people to maintain over a long period of time on will have very significant social effects.

Do you have the capacity significantly to pull down the peak off this infection wave on, therefore, make it easier for the N hs on particularly the ventilation support to be able to cope with the wave that is heading its way.

So that is really critical.

People who do this, who restricts their social gathering are doing things to protect the N hs to allow people allow the N hs to treat both people with Corona virus on people who have other things as well.

It is overall effect on the N.

H s.

This is the second group of things which the prime minister is laid out are those things that we want the quite large group of people who either are over 70 possibly quite healthy or very healthy, over 70 but over 70 or who are younger than 70 but have a significant health condition and this is mainly in adults.

We want them to take even greater care because this is in addition to making sure that they don't end up helping fuel the epidemic themselves.

It means they do not have to go to hospital, which is good for the N hs.

But most importantly, it reduces the risk that they will catch the virus particular to time when the notices under strain.

This is absolutely critical on the regained the group of people who were wanted to take this advice particularly seriously.

Older people above 70 people who are in adult life would normally be advised toe have the flu vaccination.

So these are people with chronic diseases such as chronic heart disease or chronic kidney disease, on also as a precautionary measure.

Because we're early in our understanding of this virus on, we want to be sure women who are pregnant and those three groups are the groups we want to take particular care to minimize their social contact, which will, of course, will have very significant risks for them.

And later on, we will be giving a very shortly a much more specific list of an even smaller group of people who have very profound health problems.