Coronavirus morning headlines as UK spikes and plan to ease blockade revealed (Friday May 1)

Confirmed deaths: 234,112

Recoveries / confirmed downloads: 1,042,953.

The number of deaths of patients diagnosed with Covid-19 in Wales has reached 908 then 22 More deaths were announced Thursday.

Public Health Wales also confirmed that 183 more people have tested positive for the virus to bring the grand total to 9,812.

The latest figures from the Department of Health and Social Assistance show that 26,771 people have now died in all settings with coronavirus, an increase in 674 on the number announced Wednesday and the third highest death toll in the world behind the United States and Italy.

Boris ‘comprehensive plan’ next week

Boris Johnson has promised to deliver a “comprehensive plan” next week on how the blockade can be alleviated after declaring that the UK is “beyond the peak” of the coronavirus outbreak.

The prime minister said Thursday that he would produce a “road map, a menu of options” explaining how to get the economy moving and children going back to school while continuing to suppress the spread of the disease. In Wales, Prime Minister Mark Drakeford has said there will be a traffic light system to facilitate the blockade. Read his plan here.

On Friday Drakeford said he does not believe that certain parts of the UK should come out of the shutdown sooner than others.

He added: “I agree with the Prime Minister, I am in favor of a four-nation approach.

“We entered the running together on the same terms, the same day. I would like to see us leave the running on the same basis.”

Johnson made a commitment when he held his first press conference on Downing Street since leaving the hospital on Covid-19, and praised the NHS saying he had been “very, very lucky” but “thousands of people have been less fortunate than me.” .

With the death toll exceeding 26,700 and under pressure to detail a plan to ease the blockade, the prime minister said: “We have passed the peak and on the downward slope.

“Next week I will establish a comprehensive plan to explain how we can get our economy moving, our children going back to school and going to daycare, and third, how we can travel to work and make life in the workplace be safer.

“In short, how can we continue to suppress the disease and at the same time restart the economy.”

However, the prime minister warned that the time to relax individual restrictions would depend on “where we are in the epidemic” and what the data suggests.

Blue painted mailboxes for the NHS

Cardiff has a specially decorated mailbox that has been created by Royal Mail as a way to thank NHS workers for their efforts during the current crisis.

There are five mailboxes across the UK in total painted blue and with the message: Thank you NHS.

They are located near St Thomas’ Hospital in London, where the Prime Minister was treated for coronavirus: Trafford General Hospital in Manchester, Royal Edinburgh Hospital, University Hospital of Wales in Cardiff and Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast.

Royal Mail said the mailbox locations were chosen to ensure representation of the UK’s four nations and to commemorate Trafford General Hospital, the birthplace of the NHS, founded by Welsh MP Aneurin “Nye” Bevan in Manchester in July 1948.

Shane O’Riordain of Royal Mail said: “We are showing our support and thanks to the many NHS workers across the UK who work tirelessly to help those affected by the coronavirus crisis.”

“The special blue mailboxes are a small token of our appreciation for the exceptional service that NHS workers are providing in the four nations of the UK.”

Strong warning from the Welsh police force

Police have described the continued violation of the blocking rules as “simply unacceptable” five weeks after they were first introduced.

South Wales Assistant Police Chief Andy Valentine said the force had been called on to incidents of people violating the blocking restrictions for “downright ridiculous” reasons and warned that doing so could cause a delay in lifting the themselves.

Officers have been called to groups that flock to open spaces for sunbathing, soccer, and picnics; home parties, barbecues and large family gatherings; and alleged “blockades” of pubs in the five weeks since the restrictions went into effect.

Other incidents included a woman who drove from Dorset to Cardiff to buy a car before stopping on Newport Road, and a couple who traveled to South Wales from Leicester to pick up a carpet.

The Welsh star works night shifts to make PPE

Wales rugby star Rhys Webb has revealed that he has been helping to make PPE in aid of the NHS.

The scrum half has been using his free time in confinement to help one of his friends in the effort to produce more equipment for health workers in their battle against the coronavirus.

“One of my colleagues is involved with a company that makes PPE [personal protective equipment] masks for the NHS, “Webb told the BBC Scrum V podcast.

“They needed someone to work a couple of night shifts because they had to reach a certain goal. I enjoy doing it, so I sleep an hour a day, go to work at 8 p.m. and return at 8 a.m.”

Call for salary increases for key workers

The Government is urged to provide wage increases and better conditions for the millions of people who are working during the Covid-19 crisis.

The TUC said that, in addition to thanking key workers like the NHS and the care sector, they should also be given decent wages and conditions.

Trade unionists across the country celebrate May Day with an online action of £ ThankAWorker, expressing their gratitude to the employees who made a difference to them during the shutdown.

A new study published by the TUC to commemorate May Day suggested that nearly two in five key workers, an estimated 3.7 million people, receive less than £ 10 an hour, compared to three in 10 other workers.

Women are more likely than men to be key workers and have low wages, the TUC said.

According to the report, many key workers are also trapped in insecure jobs, without guaranteed hours and often losing basic rights like sick pay.

The TUC said its analysis showed that public sector workers who are on the front lines of the fight against Covid-19 still receive lower wages today than they did a decade ago.

Food bank demand skyrockets

The coronavirus crisis has caused a huge increase in people using food banks for essential supplies, according to charities.

The Trussell Trust said its network had seen its busiest period, with 81% more emergency food packages distributed in the last two weeks of March.

People struggling with the amount of income they receive from working or from benefits was the main reason for the increase, the trust said.

The Independent Food Aid Network (IFAN) also reported a record level of need, with an average increase of 59% from February to March, 17 times more than at this time last year.

A coalition of charities, including the Trussell Trust, IFAN, Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG), Children’s Society, Joseph Rowntree Foundation, StepChange, and Turn2us, urges the Government to do more to help protect people from being “dragged into indigence “amid a large increase in universal credit applications in recent weeks.

Participate in our great closing survey

WalesOnline launches a unique survey aimed at capturing life in the UK under blockade.

We want to know your experiences of this period, so that we can paint a detailed image of the extraordinary times that we are living.

Wales has never before faced a crisis of this nature, a global health emergency that has sent shock waves through our way of life, our outlook and our economy.

Therefore, the Big Big Lockdown survey raises a series of questions about your hopes and fears during the pandemic, your sense of how you are managing, how your life has changed since the outbreak, and how you think it might change on the other side. .

That includes the impact on your finances, mental health, and general well-being, but also how your habits and priorities may have possibly changed in some ways forever. Participate here.

Trump claims to be accused of being ‘purely manufactured out of thin air’

Donald Trump has claimed to have seen evidence that the coronavirus outbreak originated from an infectious disease laboratory in Wuhan.

The President of the United States speculated that China could have unleashed Covid-19 in the world due to some kind of horrible “mistake”, and even proposed the idea that the launch was intentional.

It comes as his intelligence agencies said they are still examining a notion put forth by the president and his aides that the pandemic may have been the result of an accident in a Chinese laboratory.

US intelligence agencies have debunked a conspiracy theory, saying they have concluded that the coronavirus “was neither man-made nor genetically modified.”

Speaking at the White House, Trump said: “What happened is a terrible thing.

“If they made a mistake or if it started as a mistake and then they made another, or someone did something on purpose.”

The Chinese government said any claim that the coronavirus was released from a laboratory is “unfounded and purely manufactured out of thin air.”