said: I want to begin by
thanking everyone, by thanking you, in the media, and also
thanking everyone for the huge efforts that the country is making
to comply with the advice that we’ve been given
And we’re asking such a huge amount,
asking students to put their education on hold,
we’re asking people not to socialise in the normal
way
And already we can see the impact that this is having on the UK
economy and on business, on great, great companies
And so it’s vital that we in Government stand behind them when
what we are asking everyone to do is so crucial for saving
literally thousands of lives by defeating this virus
And I am conscious as the days have gone by that people will want
to know how long we are expecting them to keep it up
And I wanted to try to say something today about how I see the
timescale of this campaign and where we’re going and what we need
to do
I do think, looking at it all, that we can turn the tide within
the next 12 weeks
And I am absolutely confident that we can send coronavirus
packing in this country but only if we take the steps, we all
take the steps we have outlined,
And that is vital because that is how we are going to reduce the
peak
and once we’ve achieved that, and I think that we will, if take
the steps that I have said,
then the scientific progress that we’re making will really start
to come into play and I wanted to discuss a little bit of that
this afternoon with you
because we are rapidly becoming so much better at understanding
the genomics at the heart of this virus, a lot of that is going
on in this country,
we’re getting better at understanding the medicines that may
treat and cure it
And today we have put the first British corona patient into a
randomised trial for drugs that may treat the disease
UK experts and scientists expect to start trials for the first
vaccine within a month
And above all we are getting better at testing
This crisis is so difficult because the enemy is
invisible
And the answer is to remove the cloak of invisibility
And to identify the virus, and to be able to know which of us, is
carrying it or who has actually had it and now got over
it
And to give you an idea of what is coming down the track
We are in negotiations today to buy a so called antibody test
As simple as a pregnancy test
That could tell whether you have had the disease
And it’s early days, but if it works as its proponents claim then
we will buy literally hundreds of thousands of these kits as soon
as practicable because obviously it has the potential to be a
total gamechanger
Because once you know that you have had it, you know that you are
likely to be less vulnerable, you’re less likely to pass it on,
and you can go back to work
And of course by the same token we are massively increasing the
testing to see whether you have it now
And ramping up daily testing from 5000 a day to 10,000 to 25,000
and then up to 250,000
And that knowledge of where the virus is, will make a huge
difference to our management of the disease and our ability to
reduce disruption and economic difficulties
And I wanted to set that out because this is rapidly coming down
the track as I say, but it will take time to come on
stream
And that is why in the meantime, to get back to a theme that you
know I’m going to repeat, it is absolutely vital that we follow
the advice that we’ve been hearing over the last few
days,
The announcements we’ve already made about staying at home if you
have the symptoms, if your family has the
symptoms,
about avoiding unnecessary contact
Avoiding gatherings where you may pick up the disease
pubs, bars, restaurants
Please, please follow all that advice scrupulously
Work from home if you possibly can
Wash your hands, wash your hands
And it’s by this combination of ruthless, determined, collective
action and scientific progress that we’re already seeing that we
will succeed
And I know how difficult it may be, or it may seem right now, but
if we do this together we will save, as I say, many many
thousands of lives
and to everybody in the UK, business world, everybody who is
worried about their jobs, and everybody who faces difficulties
because of the advice that we are giving,
I say to business, stand by your employees, stand by your workers
because we will stand by you
And you’ll be hearing more about that in the course of the next
day or so
And that is how, by a mixture of determined, collective action
and scientific progress, I have absolutely no doubt that we will
turn the tide of this disease and beat it together.
