UK coronavirus live: test and trace gets under way in England and Scotland

The number of passengers arriving in the UK by air fell from around 7.1 million in January to 3.8 million in March, according to a Home Office report.

Numbers fell “sharply” since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, dropping to some 112,300 arrivals in April.

This is 99% lower than the number of air passengers coming to the country in April 2019, provisional advance passenger information (API) data showed.

The report published on Thursday said the majority (58%) of arrivals since the lockdown was announced on March 23 were British nationals coming back to the UK.

The remaining 42% “will include foreign nationals who are UK residents returning to the UK, dependants of UK residents and other non-British nationals.”

While the reduction in air travel was “most marked”, over this period the number of passengers arriving by sea was 97% fewer and by rail was 98% fewer than the same time previous year, according to the report.

The public are still largely staying at home and even getting used to lockdown life, according to a major study.

Research by King’s College London in partnership with Ipsos Mori revealed that the public claim to be sticking to the “stay at home” advice to an extraordinary degree, even after the government relaxed the rules.

It found there have also been significant shifts in behaviour and opinion since the second week of lockdown six weeks ago, when a previous survey was conducted between 1 and 3 April.

41% of adults say they did not leave their home on five or more of the previous seven days leading up to this latest survey, and 46% of parents say the same applies to their children.

One in seven adults (14%) did not leave their home once in the previous week, and 23% of parents say their children did not leave home once either.

People are more likely to think they can cope with the measures compared with the beginning of April: 38% say the current measures will not become extremely difficult to cope with, up from 26% in the second week of lockdown. However, there has also been a small rise in those who say they are already finding it extremely difficult, up from 15% to 20%.

The test and trace system will fail to work effectively if statutory sick pay is not increased, the government has been warned.

Those self-isolating will be eligible for statutory sick pay but there are fears that many workers will not be able to afford to isolate and will be forced to keep working.

NHS test and trace – seen as key to easing the coronavirus lockdown restrictions – will be rolled out across England on Thursday and there are concerns that people could be asked to self-isolate for a period of 14 days more than once in the coming weeks.

The TUC general secretary, Frances O’Grady, said:

We need a testing and tracing programme up and running as soon as possible.

But it will not be effective if workers are pushed into hardship when they are required to self-isolate.

Statutory sick pay is just £95 per week – and two million workers aren’t even eligible for that.

If workers can’t afford to self-isolate, then they will be forced to keep working.

That will put them, their workmates and their local community at risk, and undermine the entire test and trace programme.

Matt Hancock had an exchange with Kay Burley this morning in which she accused him of rushing through the test and trace system. He laughed at this suggestion and said he committed to getting the system in mid-May. She responded by saying he spoke about the app in mid-May and that still had not arrived.

“Many of my viewers will think it’s not a laughing matter,” Burley said.

The 10th weekly Clap for Carers event may be the last, after the woman behind the idea said she will no longer take part.

Millions of people across the UK have lined their thresholds, gathered – while socially distancing – on pavements, and stood in their gardens at 8pm every Thursday to demonstrate their support for care staff and frontline workers.

But the ritual has been criticised by some for becoming “politicised”, while others, including NHS staff, have said some people who take part in the clap then wilfully ignore the plea to stay at home and avoid gatherings in an effort to ease the strain on the healthcare system.

The Metropolitan police commissioner, Dame Cressida Dick, was filmed leading dozens of officers in the weekly applause for key workers on a crowded Westminster Bridge.

Annemarie Plas, 36, last week told the PA news agency she had no problem with people continuing to gather at 8pm each week to clap, but said she will not be among those taking part in future.

She said: “To have the most impact I think it is good to stop it at its peak.

“Without getting too political, I share some of the opinions that some people have about it becoming politicised.

“I think the narrative is starting to change and I don’t want the clap to be negative.”

Plas, from Streatham in south London, told ITV’s Good Morning Britain she will clap on Thursday evening, and will return outside at the same time next week to “check in” with her community, without applauding.

Matt Hancock said “outside is safer than indoors”.

Talking about the possibility of pubs opening, the health secretary told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “The good thing that we’ve learned from the science of this virus in the last few weeks is that the risk of transmission outdoors is much lower – it’s not zero, but it is much lower than indoors.

“So, during the summer in particular, a lot of the changes that you can expect to see will be based on the principle that outdoors is safer than indoors.”

Contact tracing could be undermined by continued government support for Dominic Cummings, the shadow health secretary has said.

Jonathan Ashworth voiced support for NHS test and trace launched in England on Thursday morning as “the only way we can safely ease out of this lockdown”.

But he added that the health secretary Matt Hancock’s support for Boris Johnson’s chief adviser could “undermine” public cooperation with the scheme.

Under the new system, people who come into close contact with a coronavirus sufferer will be told to self-isolate for 14 days, while an accompanying app is still delayed by several weeks.

Speaking on BBC Breakfast, Ashworth said: “We need everybody to cooperate with this because it’s in all of our interests that this works, and I’m sorry, I’ve got to say it, it’s why I think Matt Hancock’s support of Dominic Cummings is really irresponsible.

“My worry is some people will think ‘Why should I stay at home for two weeks on my own when I feel fine, while this guy who’s Boris Johnson’s big pal in Downing Street can get away with travelling across the country to Durham?”’

Health secretary Matt Hancock said people will not receive penalties for not abiding by the NHS test and trace self-isolation period “in the first instance”.

Pushed on people’s concerns about fraudulent NHS calls, Hancock told LBC:

If anybody calls they will be calling from the number 0300 0135 000, if you get a text it will come from NHS and they will never ask you for any form of payment or purchase or details of your bank account, and also you will then be given, if you’re online, a QR code to be able to confirm those details online.

Asked whether he himself, having had coronavirus, would have to self-isolate again if told to do so, Hancock said:

Unfortunately, yes. It is very frustrating but the reason for that is we don’t yet know whether people like me who have had it still transmit it if they come into contact with it a second time.

On employers covering the wages of employees told to self-isolate, Hancock said “it is very important work constructively with their staff”.

He added: “It is better to have this sort of targeted isolation than the blanketed measures we’ve got in place at the moment.”

Brian Strutton, general secretary of the pilots’ union Balpa said:

EasyJet staff will be shocked at the scale of this announcement. Only two days ago staff got a ‘good news’ message from their boss with no mention of job losses so this is a real kick in the teeth.

Those staff have taken pay cuts to keep the airline afloat and this is the treatment they get in return.

EasyJet has not discussed its plans with Balpa so we will wait and see what impact there will be in the UK.

But given EasyJet is a British company, the UK is it’s strongest market and it has had hundreds of millions in support from the UK taxpayer I can safely say that we will need a lot of convincing that EasyJet needs to make such dramatic cuts.

Indeed, EasyJet’sown projections, though on the pessimistic side, point to recovery by 2023 so this is a temporary problem that doesn’t need this ill-considered knee-jerk reaction.