Politics

'Concerning' rise in car journeys as public urged to stay home during outbreak


A leading health expert says it is a “concern” that the number of car journeys has risen despite coronavirus travel restrictions remaining in place.

Latest Department for Transport figures show that vehicle use increased on Monday.

By Sunday, use of motor vehicles had fallen by 73% compared with February 27.

But a spike in traffic led to Monday’s figure showing just a 63% decline compared with the same date.

This was the first daily rise in two weeks.


Yvonne Doyle, director of health protection for Public Health England, said: “This shows a slightly concerning trend, because we have seen an uptick in motor vehicle traffic.

“The message here is really people do need to stay at home.

“Most are doing the right thing, as you can see from the rapid decline in public transport use.

“Everyone needs to do that.

“The message here is we need to save lives and protect the NHS, so please stay at home.”

At the daily press conference Business Secretary Alok Sharma warned financial institutions that they must pass on government backed loans to small companies.

“It would be completely unacceptable if any banks were unfairly refusing funds to good businesses in financial difficulty,” he said.

Business Secretary Alok Sharma
Business Secretary Alok Sharma came under fire for the UK’s low testing rates

“Just as the taxpayer stepped in to help the banks back in 2008, we will work with the banks to do everything they can to repay that favour and support businesses and people of the UK in their time of need.” 

When asked what the Government’s exit strategy was when it came to the lockdown, Mr Sharma urged caution. 

He warned that there could be a “dangerous second peak” in terms of cases and deaths if people stopped following the restrictions.

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Mr Sharma also came under fire for the number of coronavirus tests that have been carried out on front-line medical staff.

He said increasing testing capacity is the Government’s “top priority” and that 10,000 tests per day was being done.

Public Health England director for health protection and medical director, Professor Yvonne Doyle, added that that plan was to go to 25,000 a day “and we’re confident we can achieve that”.





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