The Health Secretary has launched a new scheme to support the families of frontline health and care workers who die from coronavirus.
- Health and care workers are on the frontline in the battle against coronavirus, putting the lives of patients ahead of their own.
- While nothing can make up for the tragic loss of a loved one, we will do everything we can to support families of those health and care workers who lose their lives to this disease. A new Life Assurance Scheme will provide £60,000 to the families of NHS frontline staff and social care workers who die from coronavirus.
- We owe a huge debt to those who die in service to our nation and are doing everything we can to protect them.
The Chancellor has announced a new Bounce Back Loans Scheme to ensure that businesses get the financial support they need quickly, to help them survive this crisis.
- The Government’s emergency measures, including business grants, tax deferrals, and the job retention scheme, are already helping hundreds of thousands of small businesses weather the impact of coronavirus – but many need cash injections to keep operating.
- Our new Bounce Back Loan Scheme enables small businesses to borrow up to £50,000 and access the cash within days. They are easy to apply for and the Government provides a 100 per cent guarantee for the loan to lenders.
- This will offer additional protection to small firms, helping them get the finance they need so they can keep operating, protect jobs and incomes, and get through this crisis.
Today the landmark Domestic Abuse Bill will be debated by MPs, and the Home Secretary has committed a £3 million funding boost to support children affected by domestic abuse.
- While staying at home is helping keep the majority of us safe, it can leave some people more vulnerable to domestic abuse, and some children witness appalling abuse carried out in their home.
- That’s why the Home Secretary is today directing £3.1 million to specialist services for children who have been affected by domestic abuse, including one-to-one and group counselling sessions, and early intervention schemes. At the same time, the Government’s Domestic Abuse Bill will be debated by MPs today.
- These measures will protect victims, support the mental health needs of children, heal their emotional scars and ensure they can move forwards towards a positive future.
The Prime Minister is back in Downing Street and leading the national fight against coronavirus.
- Coronavirus is the biggest single challenge this country has faced since the war, but we are making progress – with fewer hospital admissions, fewer Covid patients in ICU, and real signs we are passing through the peak.
- Though it has been hard and stressful for many of us to give up our freedoms, we must keep going, because if we ease restrictions too soon then we run the risk of a second spike – which would mean not only a new wave of death and disease but also an economic disaster.
- When we are sure that the first phase is over and that we are meeting our five tests, then that will be the time to move onto the second phase, in which we continue to suppress the disease, but gradually refine the economic and social restrictions, and one by one fire up the engines of this vast UK economy.
- We simply cannot spell out now how fast or slow, or even when those changes will be made, though clearly the government will be saying much more about this in the coming days - we will be relying, as ever, on the science to inform us.
- If we keep following the advice, to stay home, we can help protect the NHS and save lives. If we can do this we will beat the virus together, we will come through this all the faster, and the United Kingdom will emerge stronger than ever before.
