We keeping promised.

There's more on the way More on the way.

Where are we?

Yes, the personal protective equipment is being driven out to all n hs and social care settings as we speak.

There's a massive logistical operation underway, and I understand just how important it is.

And I feel very strongly about that that when we're asking people in the N hs two put themselves in harm's way to care for Russell, then it's our duty to get them the equipment that they need.

So I'm I.

I understand the concerns.

Of course I do, and we've put in place a help line so you can phone in if you haven't got access to it.

So there still might be people at the end of today, the end of tomorrow.

Hospitals where the kitty isn't isn't deployed.

It's not that well, we've put out a delivery toe, every hospital Andi that was defended it go, but that was dispatched from Friday over Friday, Saturday, Sunday.

But the N HS, with 1.4 million workers, is a very big place and making sure that you get from the right masks to the right people at the right time.

They've been asking for weeks.

Logistical effort?

Yes.

We've been delivering this to the hospital that they've been short for weeks.

People have been saying there's concern for weeks We've been delivering this to the hospitals over over the last few weeks because we've obviously been able to see that the growth of the virus.

While we're also taking the actions to tryto Thio clamp down on that on dhe.

I've now brought the military in to help improve the delivery of that.

What went wrong?

This is this is this is improper, isn't it?

Putting in a chest stuff in danger like this?

Well, I understand very deeply, but what went wrong?

Well, I understand my responsibility to get this right and to make sure that people get the equipment they need.

I think what's happened is that understandably, over the last week or so, the demand for use of the protective equipment has gone up very sharp.

Hang on.

That's what that's what an exponential pandemic is all about, isn't it?

We knew it was gonna go up.

We knew from the middle of January when the W.

H.

O said there's a pandemic on the way.

Brace yourselves.

So why wasn't this all done earlier?

Well, it has been we've been working on this.

No, that they still haven't got the kit.

Well, when you say they at the end, a chest off, we're constantly delivering Maur equipment.

We've got to keep ahead of the need for it that there is in hospitals.

And I'm working 24 7 on making that happen.

What?

Ending on testing.

People are puzzled by that.

There are other countries where an awful lot of testing seems to happen and they seem to If you look at some figures, have got a bit more on top of things.

They seem to have a good story to tell from testing, and yet we're not doing it everywhere.

Well, we're increasing testing as fast as we can, and critically, we're buying some of the new tests that don't need the sample to go to the lab to get the result.

But instead, they're essentially a home test.

You're buying them now?

Yes, because they're really just been invented.

Absolutely.

Some of them have been around for a bit longer than that, and we'll do.

You were buying them absolutely.

Now we've been buying them over the past weeks.

This is something that we've been working on the whole way through.

The heart of the challenge is to keep the testing numbers going.

Oh, to make sure as many people as possible who need it, the especially their the patients in critical care units.

And also that the clinicians, the doctors, nurses who are still not getting tested as we speak.

Of course, the demand for is very, very sharp, but other countries are on top of it.

They've done more testing.

They've got hundreds of thousands of the test going on the Spanish or doing much more than us.

We know more happened in South Korea and in China.

Why not here?

Do we have a different philosophical approach to this?

No, we're doing Maur than many other countries on Dhe.

There's a huge race on to get as much testing is possible.

It sounded like we weren't in that race.

We didn't think it was a good idea for, and that's why we're behind.

No, that's not true.

We've been ramping up the testing as much as possible, as fast as possible.

Throughout.

Where are we on ventilators?

On ventilators.

We started with around 5000 in the N hs, and we've now bought so that we've got over 12,000.

So that number is going up.

That's in total.

But we're still buying on the call to arms that we put out to say manufacturing capacity needs to be turned over to ventilators.

That has had an amazing response.

You spoke about that last weekend.

Yeah, but again, the W H O in the middle of January said yes.

This thing's heading your way.

Yes.

You never thought 5000 respirators would do it, did you?

That's right.

So we've been buying a ll that time.

Absolutely.

Andi numbers only going up now.

We've been low on ventilators for each.

So the number has been going up a ll that time as we've been buying ventilators.

And the other thing that we've been doing over all of that time is training staff.

Because a ventilator is a highly technical piece of equipment on it needs toe, have highly trained staff to make sure that people air safe using it.

But we could be woefully short of ventilators as things stand right now.

Well, at the money, how many do you think At the moment we have the ventilators that we need and we're buying Maur on.

Frankly, I could put a target on it, but I know number is too high.

We want as many ventilators we could get our hands on disposable people wonder about was there this period between the middle of January, when the w h o say this thing is coming towards you and where we all now, maybe even the whole of February were not enough was done.

The grip was not got on the sort of supplies that would be needed in this kind of fancy.

So Gary completely reject that.

The supplies that we've got, for instance, on the protective equipment are vast.

The challenge you just haven't gotten them out.

Yes, the challenge.

But Amazon can get a kettle to you the next day.

And then surely there should have been more effort made on that from the challenges The logistical one off getting the kit out and likewise on ventilators.

We've been buying them for for weeks.

And on the testing public health.

England came up with one of the first tests in the world, and we've been ramping up since then.

So of course, this is a massive challenge for the country.

Of course it is.

And we're doing everything that we can.

But we have been on this for weeks now, and, you know, it may be that the severity of Corona virus may have only you come home to some people more recently, but we in the in the n hs on with public health England across government have been working on this for weeks and weeks to make sure that we are as well prepared as possible.

Another example is the is the contact tracing.

At the start, when they were a small number of cases, we managed to keep the spread here slower than elsewhere because we did all of that contact tracing that has bought us valuable time, meaning that we are behind France, Germany, Spain and certainly Italy in the curve, giving us more time to get these things in place.

What did you think you saw those images of the weekend of crowded beaches, open spaces, People too close together.

What's gone wrong?

Well, I frankly thought that people were selfish not to be following the public health advice because the more people who who engage in unnecessary social contact the Maur that this disease spreads on, the more people who will die on the house.

So it will be two sold Thio Get out of it and we're so I'm prepared to take the action that's necessary.

We've already demonstrated that were close to Italy.

Why aren't we doing what is happening in Italy?

And while we're doing it now, well, we've taken the action last week.

Thio take very severe restrictions on what people could do on there.

But it didn't work.

We just talked about that this weekend.

It didn't work.

And then with and then the we've also taken the powers in order to make sure that people must follow those rules that we set out last week.

And, you know, I I am prepared to take the action.

That's necessary.

Just Prime Minister safe.

Yes, Andi, That sounds that he's the guy.

They're pulling back opinion in the room a bit, holding back from sterner measures.

No, I mean the Prime Minister has worked 24 7 on this unbelievable amount.

Is your good man to deliver a stern message.

Yes, and it's a hard look.

Leading the country through this time requires you to follow the science, to listen to people's concerns and then to take the action that's necessary.

And we've demonstrated that we're prepared to take the action that's necessary.

Way will always follow the science.

It's incredibly important.

But we'll also do what is necessary to keep people safe and to protect life Very quick.

Last question.

Have you seen any evidence to suggest we're not heading fast in exactly the same direction?

Is Italy Well, We are taking the actions earlier, in many cases on the curve, the curve of the epidemiology, because we're further behind and we've been able to see that the numbers go up.

So we are prepared to do whatever it takes to get a grip on this disease and to keep people safe.

Why can't I find a scientist thinks that you think you're doing the right things?

That's what the vast majority of the scientific community think.

Including, of course, the top scientists, like the chief scientific adviser and the chief medical officer, which makes some people wonder if something strange happens in that room because the moment you go outside that room where they're meeting with the government, you can't find a scientist who agrees with it.

They're all saying clam down, So I don't think that's true.

I think if you look at the broad scientific community, then there is very strong support for the science on which which were published on which were taking their decisions on making those decisions based on science is obviously critical to getting them right.