Business Secretary Alok Sharma lead today’s briefing on the COVID-19 pandemic. 

The official death toll has risen by 627 to 32,692.

Mr Sharma began by going through the new alert system that will determine the social distancing measures in England. He thanked the British people for their “hard work and sacrifices” and said it was down their contributions that we are now able to take steps towards level three.

Businesses will need to operate in new ways to stay safe and the government has published new guidance to help them do this. Sharma went on to say the guidance would help businesses implement social distance in the workplace. 

Sharma suggested that workplaces could use barriers, fixed teams and frequent cleaning of work areas and equipment to help control the spread. Up to £14million has been made available to the Health and Safety Executive for extra call centre employers, inspectors and equipment if needed. 

The secretary then went on to highlight the development to the governments furlough scheme, which has been extended by four months today. 

Paul Rodgerson employs bar staff at the local working men’s club. He expressed concern about the government not meeting their targets for the ease of lockdown.

“If the government don’t meet their targets, we won’t be able to re-open. I’m concerned that we’re taking radical steps now and we’ll see a massive spike again”

“If we can’t re-open, we won’t be able to support our workers if the government keep this scheme in place”

“I think that the priority right now needs to be getting us a stage where the virus is controlled before we start to re-open. If we try to do too much too soon, we’ll just be back to where we were in March.”