Coronavirus: UK Health Minister Matt Hancock back at work but Boris Johnson still sick

His health secretary is back at work, but the news is not so good for UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson as he battles virus.

Britain’s Health Secretary Matt Hancock speaks at a remote press earlier today. Picture: AFP

Hours after emerging from self-isolation and recovering from coronavirus, Britain’s health secretary Matt Hancock was back at work, fronting a press conference and promising that there would be 100,000 coronavirus tests a day by the end of April.

On the seventh day of his illness — and just days after Prince Charles, 71, ended his self-isolation — Mr Hancock appeared chipper, even as Prime Minister Boris Johnson remained sick.

Mr Johnson may not be able to leave his seven-day quarantine on Friday if he is still showing symptoms, Downing Street said.

Yesterday's data showed more people were using transport than in previous days.

Please do not leave your house unless absolutely necessary. It really will save lives. #StayHomeSavesLives

— Boris Johnson #StayHomeSaveLives (@BorisJohnson) April 2, 2020

Official guidance says that people must stay at home for seven days or for longer if they are showing symptoms such as a high temperature or cough.

At the moment the UK is committed to 10,000 daily tests, but significantly ramped-up testing is needed to find out how widespread the virus is in the community and where the hot spots are.

In the 24 hours to Friday, there were another 569 deaths across Britain, taking the total death toll to 2921, with more than 34,190 ­infected with the disease.

That is a handful more deaths than Wednesday’s figures and officials are hoping that the numbers are stabilising as lockdown measures come into play.

It is thought that the UK’s home isolation lockdown, due to be reviewed at Easter, may only be lifted once there is extensive testing — not only among the sick, but on the frontline of the health service and then in the general population.

Mr Hancock said the testing numbers would also include the antigen test — which would determine who has had the virus — if one can be proven to be reliable.

Experts predict that at least two million Londoners and 2 per cent of the British population have already­ had coronavirus, many of them with few or no symptoms.

Making @NightingaleLDN a reality has been a huge national effort in our fight against #coronavirus. Thank you to everyone who has stepped forward. pic.twitter.com/eInmVL2WZh

— Matt Hancock (@MattHancock) April 1, 2020

Great Ormond Street Hospital has revealed that 73 of its 181 ­medical staff have tested positive to coronavirus and more than 300 staff were off work because a ­member of their family was showing symptoms.

A German scientist says coronavirus has not spread while shopping or at the hairdressers and that it is not a smear infection picked up by touching objects.

Hendrik Streeck, the director of the Institute of Virology at the University Hospital in Bonnhas, believes the virus is instead spread by very close personal contact such as “close dancing and exuberant celebrations’’.

Research by Professor Streeck in the home of one infected family showed there was no live virus on surfaces. He had not found the virus on door knobs or animal fur.

He is conducting a bigger experiment on 500 homes in the city of Heinsberg, with a population of 250,000, where COVID-19 has ­exploded with 37 deaths. Across Germany, there have been 84,800 cases and 1111 deaths.

Professor Streeck said it was known the coronavirus spread while people were celebrating in very close quarters. In Britain, there appears to be a cluster centred around Liverpool, believed to have emanated from the Liverpool-Madrid champions league soccer match on March 11.

“There are no proven infections while shopping or at the hairdressers,” he said.

“We know it’s not a smear infection that is transmitted by touching objects, but that close dancing and exuberant celebrations have led to infections.