Boris Johnson this morning chaired the first ever totally ‘remote’ meeting of his Cabinet as he continued to self-isolate in Downing Street while suffering from coronavirus.
The meeting of the UK’s top ministers was held entirely via videolink after three of the four people who were in the room for last week’s semi-remote meeting were struck by the virus or showed symptoms.
Mr Johnson and Health Secretary Matt Hancock have been under quarantine since testing positive last Friday.
Chief Medical Officer professor Chris Whitty, who gave a presentation to last Tuesday’s meeting, is also self-isolating with symptoms.
A Downing Street spokeswoman said: ‘Ministers all appeared on a single digital screen, in a meeting chaired by the Prime Minister.
The meeting of the UK’s top ministers was expected to be held entirely via videolink – which Mr Johnson has been using to communicate with aides since last’s coronavirus diagnosis
Asked about Mr Johnson’s condition, Grant Shapps told BBC Breakfast: ‘The Prime Minister is Good. He is chairing Cabinet later this morning and we will be dialling in via video, via Zoom.
‘Only the Cabinet Secretary (Sir Mark Sedwill) and a small number of officials were in the Cabinet room itself, observing social distancing rules on keeping two metres apart.
‘Updates on the Government’s coronavirus response were given by videoconference by the Chief Scientific Advisor and the Chief Medical Officer.
‘Cabinet discussed the work which is taking place to support the NHS, expand testing, safeguard jobs and repatriate British citizens who are stranded abroad.
‘They thanked the NHS and frontline workers for all of their tremendous hard work.
‘The PM said the rising death toll in recent days showed the vital importance of the public continuing to stick to the social distancing guidance which has been put in place by the Government, based on scientific and medical advice.’
Concerns were raised about the use of Zoom last week after it was reported that the Ministry of Defence was examining it for possible security weeknesses.
But a Government spokesman said: ‘In the current unprecedented circumstances the need for effective channels of communication is vital.
NCSC (National Cyber-Security Centre) guidance shows there is no security reason for Zoom not to be used for conversations below a certain classification.’
Earlier, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps had confirmed the meeting would take place via web video conferencing.
Asked about Mr Johnson’s condition, he told BBC Breakfast: ‘The Prime Minister is good. He is chairing Cabinet later this morning and we will be dialling in via video, via Zoom.
‘He is in fine fettle.’
It comes as 1,408 people are confirmed to have died in UK hospitals after testing positive for Covid-19, as of 5pm on Sunday.
But the true death toll of the coronavirus outbreak in the UK could be 24 per cent higher than NHS figures show, according to statistics released today.
Patients who had COVID-19 mentioned on their death certificates numbered 210 in England and Wales up to March 20, the Office for National Statistics revealed.
This was 24 per cent higher than the 177 deaths recorded by NHS England during the same time frame.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) has launched a new data series adding in the numbers of people who have died with or after having COVID-19 in the community, including those who died in care homes or at home.
Coronavirus was not necessarily the cause of death for every one of the patients, but was believed to have been a factor.
Anyone who has the virus – for which at least 22,141 people have tested positive in the UK – mentioned on their death certificate will be included in the statistics.
This adds to the daily updates coming from NHS hospitals around the country where patients of all ages are dying in intensive care units.
Mr Johnson using Zoom to chat with ministers at last week’s Cabinet meeting. He and Matt Hancock, who were both in the room together, have since tested positive for coronavirus
The meeting this morning comes amid growing pressure to get more protective equipment to health workers.
The Prime Minister has faced heavy criticism over shortages of personal protective equipment (PPE) for frontline NHS staff as well as the slow rollout of testing – issues which are likely to be discussed by ministers on Tuesday morning.
Former health secretary Jeremy Hunt has also voiced further concerns about the lack of testing in the UK after it emerged the Government had still not hit its target of 10,000 tests a day.
This is despite earlier claims by Mr Hancock that the target had been reached.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has urged countries to ‘test, test, test’ as a key part of their strategy to beat the virus.
But officials have admitted the UK does not have the same capacity as other countries that are testing more, including Germany which is conducting around 70,000 per day.
Mr Hunt told the Guardian: ‘The big advantage we now have is evidence that testing works in other countries.
‘We can see that Asian countries have been spectacularly more successful than European ones in avoiding mass lockdown.’