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MG: It is the first priority of government… to ensure that we protect those on the frontline… There is a consignment of PPE arriving from Turkey, which contains tens of thousands of gowns. It is also the case that we have a deal with China in order to bring in… some 25 million gowns.
‘We are on course’ to meet 100,000 tests target
Another bone of contention has been the government’s capacity to test the population for the coronavirus. Comparisons have been drawn with the situation in Germany, which has enjoyed much greater success on this front, and a correspondingly lower death toll. At the beginning of April, the Health Secretary, Matt Hancock, set an ambition for 100,000 Covid-19 tests to be conducted daily by the end of April. Gove insisted that this goal was still achievable:
MG: We are on course to meet that 100,000 target… We have the capacity to do 38,000 tests… We want to make sure that every test… is being taken [and] testing capacity is now being extended beyond frontline NHS and social care workers to other… key workers.
Idea that Boris skipped meetings ‘is grotesque’
Gove also mounted a spirited defence of the Prime Minister, who has been accused by the Sunday Times of not taking his responsibilities seriously, having not been in attendance for important COBR meetings on defeating the virus back in January:
MG: The idea that the Prime Minister ‘skipped’ meetings that were vital to our response to the coronavirus I think is grotesque. The truth is there are meetings across government, some of which are chaired by the Health Secretary… The Prime Minister took all the major decisions… His leadership has been clear.
Professor Sarah Gilbert – Prospects for vaccine ‘are very good’
Andrew Marr spoke to Sarah Gilbert, a professor at the Nuffield Department of Medicine at Oxford University, about her efforts to develop a vaccine for the coronavirus. Gilbert was upbeat about the chances that a vaccine was both possible and in sight:
SG: Nobody can be absolutely sure it’s possible. We have to do trials, we have to find out. I think the prospects are very good… We are about to start clinical trials next week [and] we are waiting for the… final approvals to be given.
People can ‘probably’ be re-infected by Covid-19
Gilbert also warned that it was highly probable that the public could see themselves suffering from the virus on more than one occasion. This worry comes after recovered patients in South Korea were found to be testing positive once again for symptoms of the virus:
SG: We can’t say for certain with this particular coronavirus, but what we know about other coronaviruses… we know that immunity isn’t very long lived, so I think it probably is likely that if somebody’s been infected, they will be able to be re-infected in the future.
Angel Gurría – Coronavirus recession ‘won’t be Great Depression’
And finally, Marr spoke to Angel Gurría, the Secretary General of the OECD about the economics of the Covid-19 outbreak:
AG: It’s very bad, and it’s going to be very bad, but it’s not the Great Depression… 2020 is going to be a year in which there is going to be negative growth throughout, and there are going to be a lot of wounds. Hopefully [these will be] scars by 2021 and 2022.
Because you read about coronavirus
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