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Day 86: Key points from today's conference

Posted on June 2020 By Aaron Liffen

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Today's daily government coronavirus conference was led by Business Secretary Alok Sharma, joined by Sarah Albon, the chief executive of the Health and Safety Executive (HSE). It comes after he recently tested negative to COVID-19 after appearing unwell in parliament.

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

  • The business secretary says the country continues to meet the five tests for lifting lockdown figures, while the R rate of infection remains below one.

  • Business Secretary Alok Sharma begins by going through the latest data on coronavirus in the UK. He says there have been 102,930 tests in the last day. He says the number of cases have been falling "steadily". The average number of daily deaths from coronavirus has fallen from 943 on 14 April to 216.



  • Sharma confirms today that retail outlets that were forced to shut can now reopen from Monday 15 June, so long as they comply with COVID-19 secure guidelines.

  • Mr Sharma also announces he will now lead five new recovery round tables to feed directly into the government's work on helping the UK economy recover from the coronavirus crisis.

  • On Social distancing and whether it could be reduced to one metre, as it is in some other countries. He replies: "Of course, when it is safe to do so, we will see if you can move to a shorter distance."

  • 'Significantly less' chance of passing on infection at two metres than one metre Sarah Albon says: "The science is very clear that where someone has a COVID infection, the chance of them passing that on is significantly less at two metres than one metre."

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