Coronavirus Count

Our daily updated guide to key facts and information about the illness drawn from Government sources.

The question isn’t whether to end the lockdown. It’s when and how to do it. Can the Government rise to the challenge?

The Prime Minister’s hospitalisation accentuates the need for a new strategic structure to support a new strategic plan.

John Redwood: The Government should prepare for a return to normal work for people not in the vulnerable categories

We are looking at a possible deep recession, with a big surge in jobless and the loss of substantial capacity to produce goods and services for the future.

Will Tanner: Service and self-sacrifice. Our new polling suggests that people are more concerned about others than themselves.

A deep reservoir of community and contribution, obscured in normal times, has been uncovered by our present situation.

David Gauke: The virus – and my journey from serving as Lord Chancellor to volunteering to stack shelves

Plus: Treasury and Work & Pensions lessons. Greenlighters v the rest. Remembering Attlee’s surplus. And: the key question now is “how”, not “what”.

Robert Halfon: Britain is now a moderate social democratic state

Whether moderate right Conservative, or moderate left, austerity is dead, and this new age will be with us for a long time to come.

Britain moves nearer to a full quarantine. Now watch for the moves to isolate Johnson.

The perils and volatility that the Coronavirus – that ultimate leveller-down – brings with it suddenly endanger last year’s near-landslide winner.

Liam Fox: The latest evidence from Italy suggests that public health messaging should change. We need less “me” and more “us”.

It should be moved away from how we stop becoming infected ourselves and start to focus on how we stop infecting those who might be at particular risk.

Johnson’s main aim: to prevent the NHS from being overwhelmed

In this way, he hopes to minimise the loss of life among the most vulnerable and others that will now happen.

Roderick Crawford: The Government should move now to utilise hotel beds

The 200,000 hotel rooms run by the main hotel chains alone in the UK provide sufficient additional capacity to draw upon both locally and nationally.

Budget 1) This was less a Conservative Budget than “the People’s Budget”. From a Vote Leave Government – not the usual Tory one.

It may be necessary, given the Coronavirus, and could even work. But Britain has a long, long record of state spending failing to turbo-charge growth.

The crucial decisions on the virus are not scientific. They are political.

As the old saying doesn’t quite put it, scientists advise, but Ministers decide – on moving to mitigation or anything else.

WATCH: Hancock on the Coronavirus. GPs should be contacted remotely rather than at surgeries

“We will take a digital-first approach to accessing primary care and outpatient appointments wherever clinically and practically possible.”

Coronavirus 2) Ryan Bourne: Beware it being used as a cover for promoting socialism and protectionism

A home-focused industrial policy hardly saved China from this epidemic. And openness and markets ensure diversity of supply – particularly in medicine and food.

As the coronavirus spreads, Hancock is endangered by twin perils – complacency and panic

At the least, we can expect reduced growth worldwide – and a more expansionary Budget next month.