Coronavirus: Chancellor warns of more ‘tough times’ amid COVID-19 outbreak
Written by News on 14/04/2020
The chancellor has repeated his warning that the government will not be able to protect every business and household during the coronavirus outbreak, admitting: “These are tough times and there will be more to come.”
Rishi Sunak told the government’s daily coronavirus news conference: “We came into this crisis with a fundamentally sound economy, powered by the hard work and ingenuity of the British people and British businesses.
“So while those economic impacts are significant, the OBR also expects them to be temporary, with a bounceback in growth.”
It comes after the Office for Budget Responsibility, the fiscal watchdog, said Britain’s economy could shrink by 35% in the second quarter and see unemployment jump by two million because of COVID-19.
The OBR has set out an estimate of the potential impact of the pandemic based on a three-month lockdown followed by a three-month period when restrictions are only partially lifted.
Meanwhile, another 778 patients with the coronavirus have died in hospitals across the UK, the Department of Health has announced.
It takes the nationwide total to 12,107 – but the actual figure will be higher as it does not include deaths in the community.
According to the Office for National Statistics, nearly one in 10 coronavirus-related deaths in England and Wales happened outside hospitals in the week ending 3 April.
The 406 deaths – including 217 in care homes – were not part of the daily NHS and Department of Health figures, which only count hospital deaths.
There are growing calls for care home deaths to be published daily after England’s chief medical officer said 13.5% of them had recorded coronavirus cases – equating to thousands of homes.
The NHS Confederation, which represents organisations across the healthcare sector, has warned that the spread of COVID-19 in care homes “has largely gone under the radar” due to the way data on deaths has been collected.
More follows…
(c) Sky News 2020: Coronavirus: Chancellor warns of more ‘tough times’ amid COVID-19 outbreak
