'No need to get worked up': Britons urged to abide by coronavirus lockdown rules ahead of Sunday's review
Video report by ITV News Political Correspondent Carl Dinnen
Secretary of State George Eustice urged Britons to abide by lockdown rules during the sunny bank holiday weekend, saying there was no need to "get worked up" about other nations taking different approaches to the pandemic.
Wales and Scotland have announced tweaks to their lockdowns, and there has been speculation about the possibility of England relaxing certain measures when Boris Johnson gives a statement on Sunday.
The Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said: “I’m conscious that there is a great deal of speculation about what the Prime Minister might say on Sunday when he outlines a roadmap for the future and how we will evolve the current restrictions.
“But in the meantime, in spite of the sunny bank holiday, it is vitally important that we continue to abide by the current restrictions.
“Stay at home, protect the NHS, save lives.”
He added: “The devolved administrations do have competence over these issues and some of these measures, and from the beginning some have done slightly different things to England.
“But, generally speaking we’ve taken similar approaches, even though there have been slight differences.
“I don’t think we need to get too worked up about timings of different announcements, Scotland made some comments last week, Wales has today.
“The Prime Minister will be setting out his approach and that road map and how we intend to evolve these restrictions on Sunday.”
Mr Eustice also revealed that 97,029 coronavirus tests were carried out - missing Matt Hancock's target of 100,000 tests a day for the sixth day in a row.
However the number of tests carried out had risen, up from 86,583 the day before.
The latest figures from the Department of Health also show that a total of 31,241 people had died in hospitals, care homes and the wider community after testing positive for coronavirus in the UK as of 5pm on Thursday, up by 626 from 30,615 the day before.
But the number of deaths involving Covid-19 that have been registered across the UK now stands at 33,021.
This includes 29,710 deaths that occurred in England and Wales up to April 24 (and which had been registered up to May 2), according to the Office for National Statistics.
Asked why the UK had not tested at full capacity for six days in a row and about reports of delays of up to 10 days in getting results back, Mr Eustice said:
“If you have, as we do, 50 different sites offering drive-through tests you will get regional variances.
“You will get some days of surplus tests where people haven’t come forward to take them in some areas, and you will have other areas where you don’t have quite enough capacity for that local demand.
“The important thing is to have those ambitious targets you’re working to, to just continually build the capacity. But you will of course get daily fluctuations in availability in any given local area.”
It comes as a six-week-old baby was among the 332 deaths announced by NHS England.
The number of deaths involving Covid-19 that have been registered across the UK now stands at 33,021.