Hope.. At Last

Rate of new cases falls as distancing measures pay off No10 pressed to roll tests out to NHS staff on front line

- Ben Glaze And Tom Parry

The tide finally appeared to be turning in our battle against coronavirus yesterday as it emerged the disease’s spread was slowing.

Government adviser Professor Neil Ferguson said strict social distancing measures appear to have paid off.

But the ray of hope came as the UK death toll hit 1,408, up 180 in 24 hours.

And Prof Ferguson, of Imperial College London, warned that case numbers are still increasing as the pandemic has not “plateaued”.

He said: “In the UK, we can see some early signs of slowing in some indicators – less so deaths, because deaths are lagged by a long time from when measures come into force.

“But if we look at the numbers of new hospital admissions, that does appear to be slowing down a bit now.

“It has not plateaued, so still the numbers can be increasing each day but the rate of increase has slowed.”

Downing Street praised the nation for sticking to social distancing rules and largely observing the lockdown.

The Prime Minister’s spokesman said: “The PM is very clear of his gratitude to the public for the way they are responding to this health emergency.”

The total number of UK cases hit 22,141 yesterday, up 2,619.

On Friday, NHS England chief executive Sir Simon Stevens said there were more than 6,200 victims in hospitals.

Yesterday, he said there were more than 9,000.

Thousands of airline cabin crew, many trained in first aid, were being offered work at the new NHS Nightingale Hospital in the ExCeL centre in East London.

Virgin Atlantic and easyJet staff have also been invited to volunteer at emergency sites planned at Birmingham’s NEC and the Manchester Central Convention Complex.

Preparations went on amid warnings that changes to the way deaths from the disease are reported will further swell the toll.