Boris thanks everyone for the huge efforts that the country is making to comply with the advice that we’ve been given

Boris Johnson said  I would like to  thank everyone for the huge efforts that the country is making to comply with the advice that we’ve been given And we’re asking such a huge amount, asking students to put their education on hold, we’re asking people not to socialise in the normal way And already we can see the impact that this is having on the UK economy and on business, on great, great companies And so it’s vital that we in Government stand behind them when what we are asking everyone to do is so crucial for saving literally thousands of lives by defeating this virus And I am conscious as the days have gone by that people will want to know how long we are expecting them to keep it up And I wanted to try to say something today about how I see the timescale of this campaign and where we’re going and what we need to do I do think, looking at it all, that we can turn the tide within the next 12 weeks And I am absolutely confident that we can send coronavirus packing in this country but only if we take the steps, we all take the steps we have outlined, And that is vital because that is how we are going to reduce the peak and once we’ve achieved that, and I think that we will, if take the steps that I have said, then the scientific progress that we’re making will really start to come into play and I wanted to discuss a little bit of that this afternoon with you because we are rapidly becoming so much better at understanding the genomics at the heart of this virus, a lot of that is going on in this country, we’re getting better at understanding the medicines that may treat and cure it And today we have put the first British corona patient into a randomised trial for drugs that may treat the disease UK experts and scientists expect to start trials for the first vaccine within a month And above all we are getting better at testing This crisis is so difficult because the enemy is invisible And the answer is to remove the cloak of invisibility And to identify the virus, and to be able to know which of us, is carrying it or who has actually had it and now got over it And to give you an idea of what is coming down the track We are in negotiations today to buy a so called antibody test As simple as a pregnancy test That could tell whether you have had the disease And it’s early days, but if it works as its proponents claim then we will buy literally hundreds of thousands of these kits as soon as practicable because obviously it has the potential to be a total gamechanger Because once you know that you have had it, you know that you are likely to be less vulnerable, you’re less likely to pass it on, and you can go back to work And of course by the same token we are massively increasing the testing to see whether you have it now And ramping up daily testing from 5000 a day to 10,000 to 25,000 and then up to 250,000 And that knowledge of where the virus is, will make a huge difference to our management of the disease and our ability to reduce disruption and economic difficulties And I wanted to set that out because this is rapidly coming down the track as I say, but it will take time to come on stream And that is why in the meantime, to get back to a theme that you know I’m going to repeat, it is absolutely vital that we follow the advice that we’ve been hearing over the last few days, The announcements we’ve already made about staying at home if you have the symptoms, if your family has the symptoms, about avoiding unnecessary contact Avoiding gatherings where you may pick up the disease pubs, bars, restaurants Please, please follow all that advice scrupulously Work from home if you possibly can Wash your hands, wash your hands And it’s by this combination of ruthless, determined, collective action and scientific progress that we’re already seeing that we will succeed And I know how difficult it may be, or it may seem right now, but if we do this together we will save, as I say, many many thousands of lives and to everybody in the UK, business world, everybody who is worried about their jobs, and everybody who faces difficulties because of the advice that we are giving, I say to business, stand by your employees, stand by your workers because we will stand by you And you’ll be hearing more about that in the course of the next day or so And that is how, by a mixture of determined, collective action and scientific progress, I have absolutely no doubt that we will turn the tide of this disease and beat it together.