I am sorry I have been away from my desk for much longer than I
would have liked
and 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 and guts
you have
shown and are continuing to show
every day I
know that this virus brings new sadness and mourning to households across the
land
and it
is still true that this is the biggest single challenge this country has faced
since the war
and I in no
way minimise the continuing problems we face
and yet it is
also true that we are making progress
with fewer
hospital admissions
fewer covid
patients in ICU
and real
signs now that we are passing through the peak
and thanks to
your forbearance, your 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 are now beginning to turn the tide
If this virus
were a physical assailant
an 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 can press home our advantage
it is also
the moment of maximum risk
because I
know that there will be many people looking now at our apparent success
and 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 has been to give up
even
temporarily
those ancient
and 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 to 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
that without our private sector
without the
drive and commitment of the wealth creators of this country
there will be
no economy to speak of
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 lock down as clearly as anyone
and so yes I
entirely share your urgency
it’s the
government’s urgency
and yet we
must also recognise 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 an economic
disaster
and we would
be forced once again to slam on the brakes across the whole country
and the whole
economy
and reimpose
restrictions in such a way as to do more and lasting damage
and so I know
it is tough
and 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 and the overwhelming of the NHS
and I ask you
to contain your impatience because I believe we are 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 ICU beds
we did
not allow our NHS to collapse
and on the
contrary we have so far collectively shielded our NHS so that our incredible
doctors and nurses and healthcare staff have been able to shield all of
us
from an
outbreak that would have been far worse
and we
collectively flattened the peak
and so
when we are sure that this first phase is over
and that we
are meeting our five tests
deaths
falling
NHS
protected
rate
of infection down
really
sorting out the challenges of testing and PPE
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, the r rate, down,
but begin
gradually to refine the economic and social restrictions
and one
by one to fire up the engines of this vast UK economy
and in
that process difficult judgments will be made
and 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
and I
want to share all our working and our 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 will
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 as far as we possibly can
because I
think that is no less than what the British people would expect
and I can
tell you now that preparations are under way
and have been
for weeks
to allow us
to win phase two of this fight as I believe we are 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 and determination as we have 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
and the
United Kingdom
will emerge
stronger than ever before
