Welcome to Downing Street for today's growing barbarous press briefing.

I'm joined by Chief Scientific Adviser Sir Patrick boats on Dr Doyle, medical director at Public Health.

Before Sir Patrick provides an update on the latest data from our Cobra Kurt Corona virus stash, I just want to give you an update on the steps that we as a government being taken to defeat I'll step by step.

Action plan is aimed to slow the spread of the virus.

So fewer people in hospital treatment at any one time, thereby protecting the chases capacity.

At each point, we'll be following the scientific and medical advice, maybe very deliberate actions taking the right steps at the right time, rules say, taking unprecedented action to increase n hs capacity.

Why dramatically expanding the numbers of beds, key stuff, lifesaving equipment on front line so that we get people they can they need when they need it.

That's why we're instructing people to stay so we could protect our and just save lives.

I've reported through the government's ongoing monitoring testing programme.

As of today, under 34,946 people have now been tested for the virus 112,805 tested negative, 22,141 tested positive.

Those who contracted of ours 1408 have very sadly died.

We express our deepest condolences to the families and friends of those things have passed away.

I think those figures right the importance of foreign governments guidelines.

We must stay to protect any chest and say, like all of those involved in front in particular, Vase in the chest.

Well, that battle against ours Amazing doctors, Amazing nurses away Support staff Working day with thousands of other key focus from all teachers to suit walking look fantastic diplomatic network who are all as a team working around the clock to get us through this unprecedented creative challenge.

This is the United National on the screen of selfishness.

Shaped by saying Maybe is an inspiration announcement tend to what we'd be doing to support British people traveling around the world.

Great of ours isn't just changes.

He's the greatest global challenge in a generation.

As the country's work to secure that borders and stop spread of this decade bars.

We appreciate the unprecedented number, but UK travelers trying to get home.

We're not talking a few 100 feet.

A few thousands.

We're talking about hundreds of thousands of people traveling around the world.

So with that in mind on the 70 that march, we advise people against all non essential travel around the world.

And since the 20 large, we've advised that okay, UK residents who are currently traveling gold should return.

Hundreds of thousands have already done that.

Many troubles haven't yet managed to get from young backpack.

It's to return couples on cruises.

We appreciate the difficult predicament that they find themselves in.

We also recognize exactly anxiety or families.

Here in UK, we're concerned to get their loved ones.

It's a warning time for all of those who've been affected.

You're sure that that this guy they go, he's working around the clock to support advice helpless travelers get.

I've spoken to more than 20 foreign ministers around the world in the last week or say to support this effort to keep airports and ports and to facilitate access to them by British travels of the weekend suspect performances from Australia, New Zealand, India, Brazil, Pakistan, I'll suspect the Seeker could promise that in all of those cases and urged them to live with this to keep commercial rigs fly.

Given the scale and complexity of this challenge, he inevitably requires a team effort.

So the Foreign Office is working with other governments.

There's a particular focus on Transit House, I will say, working with the airlines to keep his many flights running.

This whole school.

We got a lot to do, but we've already helped hundreds of thousands of Britain's get.

The first priority is to keep as many commercial flights running as we can, and that's based all just purely with scale and the number of people who want to come.

As a result of those events on the corporation received from the Spanish, we've enabled an estimated 150,000 UK nationals to get back from Spain.

Well, now the commercial routes that come under pressure.

We worked with partly governments and airlines to get back 8500 UK Travis from Morocco, around 5000 UK nationals from Cyprus.

That gives you a sense of the scale of the challenge and the numbers of British travels abroad.

Now in symptoms stops is where commercial flights counsel, right, We've already chartered flights, which prove necessary to return 1400 UK nationals flights, for example, from from China at the outset of this crisis recently from Peru.

We've not faced challenges like this and getting people home from abroad on this scale.

In recently, efforts are closing down, preventing airlines operating with commercial basis little authorities and placed restrictions on movement that prevent people from getting to the airport at a critical transit.

Hubs that we rely on long haul flights are also shutting down or in some cases, limiting their flights.

Some of these restrictions have been done very collected, something like practice.

It'll which makes it very difficult to respond.

The international cooperation is absolutely going.

As I said, it's a team that involves government working with other governments, groups working with yeah, so with that seems more like an today.

Announced a new arrangement between the government and airlines to fly home tens of thousands of stranded British travellers where commercial flights on no longer possible.

Paul headlines in Crete, British Airways Virgin easyJet jet too excited and this this could be extended, the arrangements that we are putting in place.

We will target flights from a range off priority countries.

Starting this week.

Let me explain how this would work in practice.

Wet commercial, res remaining option and lines will be responsible for getting passengers.

That means offering alternative flights that little to no cost where weeks of being canceled.

That means a lot of passengers to change tickets, including between campus.

So for those still in those countries where commercial options are still available, don't wait.

They run the risk of getting stranded.

The airlines is standing by to help you.

Please look guilty gets as soon as possible when commercial flights and the longer begun provide the necessary financial support for special charter flights to bring UK nationals back home.

One special charter flights have been arranged.

We will promote them through the government's travel advice by the British Embassy.

Will High Commission in the red culture British drivers who wants a seat?

All these lights will book and directly through a dedicated travel management company.

We designated £75 million to support those flights in the airline's in order to keep the cost down affordable for those seeking to return to the UK In arranging these lights are priority will be the most vulnerable, including the elderly will there is with particularly pressing medical needs.

I'm also looking in particular countries where we got large numbers of U K Terri struggling together UK travelers.

If they haven't already, don't say that you checked the Foreign Office travel advice.

That advice is under constant review that could help us find out more details about how to access the flights out of this arrangement.

This, you'll say, full of a social leader of UK Embassy or High commission in the country where they find themselves so they can be directed to accurate real time information from the local authorities.

Any questions that can't be answered in that travel advice or by the UK and this easel High Commission?

We also have a consent working 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

I know it's been difficult to get through for some travelers just to give you a sense of the shit, will you?

On average, we know he received 1000 calls a day to that cool sector.

Well, Tuesday we have 15,000 the highest on record.

So we boosted our resources.

We read aboard people to assist in a cool center.

We tripled our capacity.

Yes, they call Central 1997 pools helped thousands of British Travis Get else is that way.

So those stranded off the family's nervously waiting news and I wanted to see their loved ones return.

We do everything we can.

We've improved our advice and boosted the Cole center so travelers get better and swift information.

We put in place this arrangement with the airlines so that we can reach more British citizens invulnerable circumstances abroad, where commercial flights are running on.

We working intensively around the club with all of our partner countries and governments around the world to give over the airports the pores on flights to bring people.

We've not faced an international change quite like this before, but together we're going to Rice, too, cools your home.

We could also for our n hs by continuing to follow the guidance to stay home, protect our chest and save lawyers.

I think I'll now David Patrick Balance, who gave a presentation on the latest data that will take some questions after how much I wanted to share with you some of the information about where we are in this outbreak on some of the measures have been taken on.

The idea, as we've said repeatedly, is to try and break and slow transmission of the virus, and that's through staying at home keeping distance.

So the first slide shows that actually this is being successful in terms of the behavior changes.

I want to thank everybody for the way in which everyone is adhering to the measures to be put in place.

This shows the use of transport over time from the end of February.

Fruit, too now, and you can see a dramatic fall off the use of the London tube down to just a few percent off what it was back in the end of February.

The decrease in bus used a decrease in national rail on a decrease also the use of all motor vehicles.

So the measures in place they are making a difference.

They are decreasing the contact which is so important to spread the disease.

We're doing a good job, but cutting that down now, The reason that's important is because, of course, it then prevents number of cases.

You reduce the number of cases next life, so this shows the number of new UK cases and I'll repeat what I said before.

This is cases that are detected with a positive test.

There's an under estimate of the total number of cases and it's those cases which have been tested because they come to hospital.

What you can see is being increase in the number of cases since the middle of March through today.

We expect that measures were in place.

The cause.

That social distancing state home message will be reducing the number of cases of transmission in the community on decreasing number of cases.

Overall, as the cases flatten often, we shouldn't take too much attention to individual day to day variation.

We need to look over time and see what's happening.

We would expect this in turn to decrease the number of people needing a mission hospital next line.

This graph shows the total number of people admitted to hospital since the middle of March, which is now 8000 people with Karenna bars.

That's going up pretty much the same amount each day for the last few days.

That shows it's going up not in an increasing amount of getting up in a constant which may suggest that were already beginning to see some effects through about half of those cases under Hall for in London.

But what you can see in the level lines in this graph is that we're also seeing cases throughout the UK, So the message stay home, protect the Anna Jess and save Lives is true everywhere in the UK, we all need to do this in order to break and slow transmission of this virus, decrease the number of cases and it turns decrease.

The number of people coming into well, I've said recently, is that we expect this to get worse over the next couple of weeks because there's a lag phase between getting the disease and people turning up in hospital.

So you would expect to see a continuation of this at least over two or three weeks, that a stabilization on the gradual decrease Thereafter, the number of hospital admissions to repeat has gone up roughly the same amount each day, suggesting that we're not on a fast acceleration of next line.

All of this is about preventing deaths on preventing the N hs becoming overwhelmed in the intensive care units ventilators and on this graph, it tracks the deaths that have occurred globally across some of the country's not with countries, obviously, and it shows that there is a pattern of increasing deaths which you expected plastic reach a plateau to come down eventually and you can see in the UK here which is in the purple Line.

We're tracking roughly along the same path as Francois said.

Before we're behind Italy in terms of the curve, you can see that Spain has a higher number than Italy at the moment in terms of its trajectory under the total number.

But the director in which it's going the UK is tracking alongside France in this.

The measures we're taking well, stop the transmission, delay the transmission, reduce the number of cases that would reduce the number of people becoming infected in the community, reduce the number of people therefore that need to go into ventilators.

Therefore, reduce the number of people also that might die or will die from this infection.

So I want to thank all the people in the N.

H s.

What unbelievably hard at the front line to look after this.

What we can do a lust can do is make sure that we hear the advice to stay at home to reduce those contacts so that we ultimately decrease the number of people were going to be seriously ill will die from this infection.

Thank you very much.

Patrick and, er, people tend to questions now, little kids, and thank you for a sexually repressed up, Sir Patrick, based on what you know now, are the restrictions working on dhe Could be avoid the n hs being overwhelmed.

The trajectory continues like this in Foreign Secretary, You're asking a huge amount of the public.

Is that the government's view that people need to be willing to follow these restrictions for as long as six months, if that's what it takes the trajectory?

What?

What we know is that the measures to be taken are having a very big effect on contacts on I showed you the data on transporting dramatic reductions in the amount of transport being used.

You see dramatic reductions in footfall.

We know, of course, the theme restaurants in parts which replaced people aggregated being being closed.

So we're all seeing them a big change in coal times that is predicted.

I have a very significant effect on the so called all the R value is the number of people on average infected by one infected person.

And the idea is to get that number below one, at which point the epidemic stops and starts to go down on the basis off the contacts.

You would expect that are you now in terms of the early phases of transmission in the community, to be coming down or below one, so that we think that that has had the effect that that desire that takes two or three weeks to feed through into the number of people who might be appearing in hospital a little longer in terms of those who are seriously ill?

All those?

Of course that might die.

So we expect to see a lag phase before you really see these curves changing.

Also, make a comment about the duration.

It's important that we do this now to get the numbers below N hs I seeyou capacity.

That is the absolute priority once that is achieved.

Once we know that we've got this curb below the icy capacity and stable, then it pulls its time.