Yesterday, the Health Secretary announced a significant boost to PPE supplies, with the Government signing deals with more than 100 suppliers around the world, as well as ramping up domestic production here in the UK.
- Worldwide demand for PPE has never been higher and it is vital that PPE continues to be delivered to where it is needed.
- We have signed over 100 new deals with suppliers across the world to boost our PPE supply, as well as signing contracts to produce 2 billion items of PPE right here in the UK; including facemasks, visors, gowns and aprons.
- Healthcare and social care workers are on the frontline of our battle with Coronavirus. We are playing our part to ensure they can do so as safely as possible.
We are making available a new therapeutic drug to ease the symptoms of the disease, as part of the world’s largest trial of potential Coronavirus treatments.
- Although yesterday, the UK recorded the lowest number of Coronavirus deaths for six weeks, people across the country are still to suffering the effects of the disease and lives are tragically still being lost.
- We are continuing to fund RECOVERY, the world’s largest trial of potential Coronavirus treatments. This initiative has borne fruit and trials are beginning on a new anti-viral drug called remdesivir, which will be made available to patients meeting certain clinical criteria to support their recovery. Early data suggests it can cut recovery time by around four days.
- We are working in a joined up effort with the devolved administrations, the pharmaceutical company Gilead Sciences, the NHS, and the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), to develop new drugs to lessen the impact of this terrible disease.
On Monday, the Prime Minister outlined the next steps of the Government’s plan to safely reopen our schools and our economy.
