No 10 says it was not a mistake to open Nightingale hospitals despite them being largely unused; England reports 204 new deaths, Northern Ireland six more, Wales 14 more and Scotland five more
- London NHS Nightingale hospital placed on standby
- Cost of public transport should be raised as lockdown ends – IFS
- Plan for returning to work puts employees at risk, says TUC
- Global Covid-19 updates – live
- See all our coronavirus coverage
4.31pm BST
Here are the latest figures on take-up of the government’s coronavirus job retention scheme, the initiative that allows employees to be “furloughed” on 80% of wages, up to £2,500 per month. They mean that an extra 6.3m workers have, on a temporary basis, effectively been added to the government’s payroll.
The Job Retention Scheme launched on 20 April.
By midnight 3 May a total of:
➡️ 6.3m jobs furloughed *
➡️ 800K employers furloughing **
➡️ Total value of claims £8bn
Apply for a grant to cover the wages of your furloughed staff now: https://t.co/bx1Nszshsr pic.twitter.com/29n9h0RB2k
4.23pm BST
In an article for the Guardian, Paul Hunter, a professor of medicine, says that increasing the amount of coronavirus testing to more than 100,000 tests per day (on one measure, for some of the time) is not by itself enough. He explains:
The real concern is our capacity to act on the results of the tests. Simply doing tests in response to demand will be inadequate. Instead we must use each result to find cases, trace those who have been in contact with a person who has tested positive and ensure that those infected, or potentially infected, self-isolate. Only these four steps used in conjunction will prevent a second wave of the virus and protect vulnerable people.
Related: The 100,000 tests plan misses the point. It’s how the results are used that matters | Paul Hunter
