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Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister, returned to work at Downing Street after recovering from his Covid-19 sickness. Speaking outside No. 10, he said that there were ‘real signs now that we are passing through the peak’. By the beginning of Sunday 26 April, there had been 20,319 deaths, mostly in hospital, of people who had the disease; a week earlier the cumulative total had been 15,464. There were additionally 2,000 coronavirus deaths in care homes in the week ending 17 April, according to the Office for National Statistics, twice the number of the week before. In the week ending 10 April, of the 7,996 excess deaths above the average, 1,783 were not attributed to coronavirus. Matt Hancock, the Health Secretary, said that from 28 April the government would ‘begin the restoration of other NHS services starting with the most urgent, like cancer care’. He had said that there would be 100,000 tests a day by 30 April to see if people were suffering from Covid-19. He also announced a £60,000 payment to families of front line NHS and social care staff who died of Covid-19.
Plans were afoot to impose a fortnight’s quarantine on anyone entering Britain. Rishi Sunak, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, told the House of Commons that the government would offer 100 per cent loans of up to £50,000 to small companies. Michael Gove, the Cabinet Office minister, told the Commons that police had ‘issued 3,203 fines between 27 March and 13 April to those who have flouted social distancing rules’. The Commons sat with a maximum of 50 MPs in the chamber and speeches made mostly by video link. Carrie Symonds, the Prime Minister’s fiancée, gave birth to a son.
British Airways planned to cut 12,000 of its 42,000 workforce.
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