I'm sorry I've bean away from my desk for much longer than I would have liked on.

I want to thank everybody who has stepped up in particular the first Secretary of State, Dominic Raab, who has done a terrific job.

But once again I want to thank you the people of this country, for the sheer grit on guts you've shown andare continuing to show every day.

I know that this virus springs new sadness on morning toe households across the land.

And it is still true.

This is the biggest single challenge this country has faced since the war.

And I in no way minimize the continuing problems we face.

And yet it is also true that we are making progress with fewer hospital admissions, fewer covert patients in I C.

U and real signs now that we're passing through the peak.

And thanks to your forbearance, your good good sense, your altruism, your spirit of community, Thanks to our collective national resolve, we are on the brink of achieving that first clear mission to prevent our national health service from being overwhelmed in a way that tragically we have seen elsewhere.

And that is how and why we're now beginning to turn the tide.

If this virus where a physical assailant unexpected and invisible mugger which I can tell you from personal experience it is, then this is the moment when we have begun together to wrestle it to the floor.

And so it follows that this is the moment of opportunity.

This is the moment when we compress home our advantage.

It is also the moment of maximum risk, because I know there will be many people looking now at our parents success on beginning to wonder whether now is the time to go easy on those social distancing measures.

And I know how hard and how stressful it is being to give up, even temporally those ancient on basic freedoms.

Not seeing friends, not seeing loved ones, working from home, managing the kids, worrying about your job and your firm.

So let me say directly also toe British business to the shopkeepers, to the entrepreneurs, to the hospitality sector, to everyone on whom our economy depends.

I understand your impatience.

I share your anxiety, and I know without our private sector, without the drive and commitment of the wealth creators of this country, there will be no economy to speak off.

There will be no cash to pay for our public services, no way of funding our NHS.

And yes, I can see the long term consequences of locked down as clearly as anyone.

And so, yes, I entirely share your urgency.

It's the government's urgency, and yet we must also recognize the risk of a second spike, the risk of losing control of that virus and letting the reproduction rate go back over one, because that would mean not only a new wave of death and disease, but also on economic disaster.

And we would be forced once again to slam on the brakes across the whole country on the whole economy and re impose restrictions in such a way as to doom or and lasting damage.

And so I know it is tough.

I want to get this economy moving as fast as I can, but I refuse to throw away all the effort and the sacrifice of the British people and to risk a second major outbreak and huge loss of life on the overwhelming of the NHS.

And I ask you to contain your impatience because I believe we're coming now to the end of the first phase of this conflict and in spite of all the suffering we have so nearly succeeded, we defied so many predictions.

We did not run out of ventilators or I see you.

Bets we did not allow are really chest to collapse.

And on the country we have so far collectively shielded our NHS said that are incredible.

Doctors and nurses and healthcare staff have been able to shield all of us from an outbreak that would have bean far worse and we collectively flattened the peak.

And so when we're sure that this first phase is over on that we're meeting our five tests deaths falling NHS protected rate of infection down, rarely sorting out the challenges of testing on PP, avoiding a second peak.

Then that will be the time to move on to the second phase in which we continue to suppress the disease and keep the reproduction rate all rate down, but begin gradually to refine the economic and social restrictions and one by one so far up, the engines of this vast UK economy.

Andi, In that process, difficult judgments will be made on.

We simply cannot spell out now how fast or slow or even when those changes will be made, though clearly the government will be saying much more about this in the coming days and I want to serve notice now that these decisions will be taken with the maximum possible transparency on.

I want to share all are working and are thinking my thinking with you, the British people.

And of course we will be relying as ever on the science to inform us as we have from the beginning.

But we would also be reaching out to build the biggest possible consensus across business across industry across all parts of our United Kingdom, across party lines, bringing in opposition parties far as we possibly can, because I think that's no less than what the British people would expect.

And I can tell you now the preparations are underway and have bean for weeks to allow us to win phase two of this fight as I believe we're now on track to prevail in phase one.

And so I say to you finally, if you can keep going in the way that you have kept going so far, if you can help protect our NHS to save lives.

And if we as a country can show the same spirit of optimism and energy shown by captain Tom Moore, who turns 100 this week, if we can show the same spirit of unity, a determination is we've all shown in the past six weeks, then I have absolutely no doubt that we will beat it.

Together we will come through this all the faster on the United Kingdom will emerge stronger.

The never before, Thank you all very much.

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