Shoppers across Britain formed huge queues outside butchers, bakers and grocers as they stocked up for Easter Sunday despite Britain’s daily coronavirus death toll reaching a record high.
The bug claimed 980 lives yesterday bringing the UK’s spiralling victim count to 8,958.
The stark figure marks the worst day on record for hospitals in any country in Europe, including in Italy.
Shoppers obeyed coronavirus social distancing rules by standing six feet apart as they waited to go into a butcher in Clapham Common.
Long lines were also seen outside a shop in Holmes Chapel, Chesire, and a supermarket in Dorking, Surrey, as Britons stock up ahead of the weekend.
It comes as Britons continue to ignore Government pleas to stay at home this bank holiday as the country basks in glorious summer weather.
Dozens of shoppers queued across a London park as they waited to enter a butcher despite Britain’s daily coronavirus death toll reaching a record high
Shoppers obeyed social-distancing rules as they waited to enter the butcher. Coronavirus claimed claimed 980 lives yesterday bringing the UK’s spiralling victim count to 8,958
Yesterday’s death toll marks the worst day on record for hospitals in any country in Europe, including in Italy – the epicentre for the coronavirus outbreak in Europe. Pictures: Shoppers queue in Clapham Common
It comes as the UK recorded another 980 coronavirus-related deaths on Friday, bringing the national death toll to 8,958
Shoppers obeyed coronavirus social distancing rules by standing six feet apart in Clapham Common, London, as they waited to shop
Health Secretary Matt Hancock said in yesterday’s coronavirus briefing that people must do their part to help NHS staff who are ‘battling day and night’ to save desperately ill people.
‘They need you to stay at home,’ he told the daily briefing in Downing Street.
The Met Office said the next few days will bring highs of 78.8F in London, while much of England and Wales is expected to record temperatures of 64.4F to 75.2F.
Police and military boats will patrol the south coast beaches, with officers using megaphones to shout at those flouting social distancing rules.
The Government is pleading with British people to stay at home this bank holiday as the country looks set for summer weather. Pictured: Shoppers queue for the butcher in Clapham Common
Shoppers queued up behind barriers in a Tesco in Dorking, Surrey, as they stocked up ahead of Easter Sunday
A group of revellers with a dog sat on the grass in Brockwell Park, London, despite pleas from the government to stay indoors
Queues were also seen outside a shop in Holmes Chapel, Cheshire, as Britons stock up ahead of the Easter weekend
Park wardens use a megaphone in Victoria Park, east London, after it was reopened with new control measures during the coronavirus outbreak
Eager shoppers waited outside a store in Holmes Chapel. The shoppers all stood six feet apart to obey social distancing rules
Barricades and tape were used to show shoppers where to queue as they waited to go into a Tesco in Dorking, Surrey
Two men gazed out of an apartment window in Kennington as the coronavirus lockdown continues. The Easter weekend will bring glorious sunshine up and down the country
In other developments:
- Boris Johnson can now have ‘short walks’ as he continues to recover while playing Sudoku and watching films including Withnail And I;
- Police apologised after an officer scolded a family for allowing their children to play on their own lawn;
- Polling showed most Britons are heeding the call to stay at home;
- Heads called for pupils to return to school before the summer break amid fears they may be off until September;
- Government experts said social distancing measures that have been placed upon the UK could be ‘indefinite’;
- The total global death toll from coronavirus reached 100,000.
Met Office forecaster Greg Dewhurst said coastal areas such as Brighton and Margate could see highs of 64.4F.
Northern England, Scotland and Northern Ireland are likely to record temperatures of 59F to 64.4F, he said.
Paul Netherton, deputy chief constable of Devon and Cornwall said that the force was in conversation with the Ministry of Defence and that it would be deploying boats off the coast.
A further 5,706 people were diagnosed with the disease in the past 24 hours, meaning a total of 70,783 have now tested positive.
A runner jogs along in Brockwell Park, London as part of his one exercise a day as the coronavirus lockdown continues nation-wide
Revellers flocked to sunny parks to enjoy the beautiful sunshine. Pictured: People were seen walking and cycling in Brockwell Park, London. Some chose to sit on the grass
The Government pleaded with British people to stay at home this bank holiday as the country looks set for glorious summer weather. Pictured: A bench in Brockwell Park, London, is taped off today
Strict social distancing guidelines were advertised at Victoria Park, east London, to make sure visitors stayed safe amid the coronavirus pandemic today
Officials managed a record 19,116 tests, a marked increase in its daily effort from 10,713 yesterday.
A total of 980 deaths is the highest daily hospital death toll for any country in Europe, with the previous high 950 in Spain on April 3.
France, however, is recording higher death tolls – up to 2,000 in a day – because it is routinely recording deaths that happen in care homes as well as hospitals, something most nations aren’t doing.
England recorded 866 new fatalities among infected patients in hospital, while another 114 were confirmed in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
A police car patrolled Victoria Park in east London to make sure visitors were obeying strict social distancing rules put in place
Victoria Park in east London was a popular spot for locals to take their daily walk or run. The park was recently reopened with reduced hours and strict guidelines
Cyclists, dog walkers and joggers were seen in New Brighton near Liverpool as the UK continues to remain under strict lockdown
Victoria Park was teeming with joggers and walkers taking their one daily exercise after the park was reopened with social distancing measures in place
With spiralling death tolls forcing police to take action, many forces have come under fire for being too harsh.
Home Secretary Priti Patel called on officers not to be ‘heavy-handed’ during the coronavirus lockdown which could last for about a year.
Normal life will stay on hold until a virus vaccine becomes available in about 18 months, officials said last night.
Advice to work from home and stay in for seven days if you have symptoms will probably still be in place next year.
Ministers want to lift the most restrictive parts of the lockdown, including school and shop closures, within weeks.
But senior Government sources say the only true ‘exit strategy’ is a vaccine or a cure. Until then, the UK will have to adjust to a ‘new normal’.
An official last night told The Telegraph that social distancing measures that have been placed upon Britons could be ‘indefinite’.
Coronavirus vaccine could be ready by September with an 80% likelihood it will work, says Oxford University expert leading research team
ByKumail Jaffer For The Daily Mail
Sarah Gilbert said she was ’80 per cent confident’ her team’s development would work by autumn
A coronavirus vaccine could be ready by September, it was reported last night.
Sarah Gilbert, an Oxford University professor currently leading Britain’s most advanced search for a vaccine, said she was ’80 per cent confident’ her team’s development would work by autumn.
Last month she was hopeful it could be developed by the end of 2020, but has now confirmed the most optimistic scenario after human trials look set to begin in the next fortnight.
The government has previously indicated it would fund the manufacture of millions of vaccine doses that looked promising in advance, allowing immediate availability to the public once developed.
Despite previous warnings a vaccine could take 18 months to produce, Professor Gilbert said the most bullish scenario for a working product was September ‘if everything goes perfectly’.
She told the Times: ‘I think there’s a high chance that it will work based on other things that we have done with this type of vaccine.
‘It’s not just a hunch and as every week goes by we have more data to look at. I would go for 80 percent, that’s my personal view.’
Her team, one of dozens around the world working to find a vaccine, will look to trial it in a country with a high virus transmission rate in order to obtain results quickly.
Britain’s lockdown makes it harder to test a vaccine due to the virus being unable to spread, she explained.
The vaccinologist said: ‘Nobody can promise it’s going to work.’
Her team were already in talks with the government over production to avoid any delays, however, and avoid a second infection spike in autumn.
She said: ‘We don’t want to get to later this year and discover we have a highly effective vaccine and we haven’t got any vaccine to use.
‘We don’t think we need facilities built, there are facilities that can be switched over.’
Ministers have hinted that it may be worth spending tens of millions on a working vaccine to offset the economic cost of lockdown.
Official plans to encourage social distancing on a long term, voluntary basis, have also been discussed, as the government continues to hold talks on how long Britons can cope with the current measures. Some measures, such as remote working, could be left in place for longer.
Dominic Raab, standing in for the Prime Minister while he is sick, has said it is ‘too early’ to lift the full lockdown, which will be formally extended next Thursday for several weeks.
Scientists expect the restrictions to be phased out gradually. They say some will stay in place until there is a vaccine – which they expect to take 18 months – to prevent infection levels soaring again.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock last night admitted the economic impact of the lockdown will cause deaths.
Ministers want to strike a balance between controlling the epidemic and mitigating damage caused by the lockdown.
Rules which inflict the most harm, such as the closure of schools and small firms, will be relaxed first. But a source leading the Government’s response said other effective measures not as damaging to the economy will have to become ’embedded’.
This includes working from home and avoiding public transport if possible.
Mr Hancock said: ‘We take into account the entire impact on the health and wellbeing of everyone in the country. Not just on the highly visible impact on the deaths from coronavirus, but right across the board, including indirectly through the economic impact.’
Mr Hancock has previously suggested Britons who have had the virus could be given immunity certificates but there is still no antibody test to identify them.
This is while senior officials also told The Telegraph that the economic downturn caused by the virus could create more premature deaths than the virus itself.
One source said: ‘We fully understand that – if there is a significant downturn in terms of people’s incomes – that can have a read across to their health.’
As Britons look to return to a more normal way of living, restaurants and pubs are expected to be among the first non-essential services to open but could be made to restrict the number of patrons they let in at once.
And football clubs could be forced to maintain low attendances at matches.
It comes as the vast majority of British people are heeding the Government’s call to stay at home to beat coronavirus.
Nine in ten people have left their house no more than once a day, according to a major attitudes-monitoring project led by Imperial College London.
The global study suggested the UK was better than almost every other country at adhering to the tough measures.
Almost two-thirds – 62 per cent – of Britons said they had not been within six feet of anyone outside their household in the last week in an incredible feat of social distancing.
Across all 13 nations included in the study, only 46 per cent of people could say the same.
Only Spain and Italy – both of which are under very strict lockdown – performed better, with 65 per cent and 67 per cent of people seeing nobody in the last seven days.
Government adviser Professor Neil Ferguson, of Imperial College London, said the lifting of social distancing could be done by age – with the young let back to work first.
A police van was seen patrolling Hyde Park in London on Friday afternoon. This weekend a heavy police presence will be felt as police make sure people are not breaking social distancing rules
The widespread action in public places, pictured, comes as Downing Street has been forced to warn police officers against ‘heavy-handed’ lockdown tactics
Sunbathing Brits on Hove beach on the south coast were threatened with arrest by police on Friday, pictured, after not moving on when told to
Hundreds of people, including these two pictured on Friday afternoon in London’s Hyde Park, continued to ignore the lockdown rules to take advantage of the sunny weather
Officials have warned that a vaccine programme will not be available until summer next year at the earliest. It took five years to develop a vaccine for ebola.
Deputy Chief Medical Officer Jonathan Van-Tam yesterday said there were some signs of improvement but the UK was still in ‘a dangerous phase’.
Professor Paul Cosford of Public Health England suggested one of the first ways to ease the lockdown could be letting schools open.
‘Children are at very low risk of getting complications,’ he said.
A Cabinet source said factions are likely to form among ministers.
He added: ‘It will not take long to work out who the hawks and the doves are.’
The Institute for Fiscal studies says hundreds of thousands of Britons could develop physical and mental health conditions due to the lockdown.