​

Today's daily government coronavirus conference was led by Health Secretary Matt Hancock, who was joined by Ruth May, the chief nursing officer for England. This will be the last briefing of the week after the governments decision to 'scrap' briefings over the weekend due to lower viewing figures.

​

Key points to take away from today's speech are:​

• Matt Hancock: The nationwide R rate is 0.7 - 0.9
  
  

• "For the North West, the median R number is marginally above 1, showing the epidemic could potentially still be growing. This really underlines the importance of people maintaining social distancing and continuing to follow government guidance as lockdown restrictions begin to ease."
  
  

  

  ​

  

  ​

  

  ​

  

  ​

  

  
  
  

• Hancock: All hospital visitors and outpatients will have to wear face coverings.
  
  

• Hancock urges people not to attend large gatherings this weekend.
  
  

• Hancock: Hope we can get zoos open but it has got to be done in a way that the R number does not go above 1.
  
  

• Hancock says the government are willing to accelerate work to get progression in EU talks.
  
  

• R is closer to one in the South West and in the North West, the advice from SAGE is that R is below one in all regions. "However, we want to increasingly have an approach in tackling local lockdowns where we spot a flare-up. "We've been doing this over the last few weeks, for instance there was a flare-up in Weston-super-Mare which we successfully got under control."
  
  

To read a brief summary of last night's points and important measures click here.

​