'Government lockdown was likely to do more damage than coronavirus'

The practising GP told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that too much attention had been paid to prediction models that often proved to be "some way out" and that not enough testing had been carried out.

He said: "The key is no-one has really understood how many people actually have the infection.

"You could do that really quickly with random sampling of a thousand people in London who thought they had the symptoms.

"You could do that in the next couple of days and get a really key handle on that problem and we'd be able to then understand coming out of lockdown much quicker.

"In fact, the damaging effect now of lockdown is going to outweigh the damaging effect of coronavirus."

Professor Sarah Gilbert said that her team hopes to begin clinical trials of a coronavirus vaccine by the end of this week.

The professor of vaccinology at Oxford University BBC told BBC Breakfast that with the virus still circulating there was a lot of pressure to go as quickly as possible.

She added: "Unfortunately we are under a lot of pressure now because we need to be testing the vaccine at a time when there is still virus circulating in the community and that means we need to go as quickly as possible.

"We are actually hoping to start testing at the end of this week not next week."

Chris Hopson, chief executive of NHS Providers, said some hospitals were now running low on personal protective equipment (PPE).

He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "There is no doubt that at the moment, we have now got trusts who have definitely got shortages of gowns.

"Trust leaders are doing absolutely everything they can to try and address that problem."

Some trusts had taken to washing fluid-repellent gowns at 60C and had found, when washed a maximum three times, they remained resistant.

Others had staff in boiler suit-type outfits that also passed PPE guidelines, he said.

Prof Gilbert said she had used the same vaccine technology before and it had performed well.

When asked if she was confident it will work, she added: "We have used this vaccine technology before and we have seen it perform very well. We think it is the best thing to use."

Prof Gilbert said her team had been developing the vaccine since January 11 and it would normally take five years to get to the stage they are now at.

However, she said that none of the normal safety steps had been missed out and added: "We are just doing it very at risk - that's not at a safety risk, it means we start paying for work before we know that the the first part has been successful.

"That's why we are able to go faster but it doesn't mean we have missed any of the steps to ensure the vaccine's safety."

Mr Hopson said PPE supplies would have been fine if early orders had been delivered "to time and quality".

He added: "PPE is always likely to run out when you get through your pandemic stock reserves.

"We know for a fact that the first orders of additional PPE were placed on January 30.

"If those orders had actually come in to time and quality, then we wouldn't have been in this position.

"A great example would be that, last week, there was an order for 200,000 gowns due to come in from China but only 20,000 actually arrived.

"We know that with other orders, when the boxes were opened up and it said on the outside 'Gowns', when you opened it up, they were actually masks.

"We also know that some consignments have failed.

"But I suppose the question we will need to ask when all this is over is, actually, was the pandemic stock reserve that was meant to tide us over, was it correctly configured?"

Prof Gilbert said that there were about 140 vaccines in development but not all of them will be successful.

She said that the Government's chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance's comments that all vaccines were "long shots" did not pour cold water over her work.

She added: "We have always said this will not be the only vaccine.

"We think multiple vaccines can be successful, but there now I think about 140 different vaccines in development and not all of them will be successful by any means."

Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden said he was hopeful a promised package of 84-tonnes of PPE would arrive from Turkey on Monday after being delayed on Sunday.

He told BBC One's Breakfast show there had been "challenges" in acquiring the consignment, which includes 400,000 gowns.

"We are very hopeful that later today that flight will take off and we will get those gowns," the Cabinet minister said.

"We are working very hard to resolve this, there have been challenges at the Turkish end.

"I don't want to start making more and more promises but I understand that that flight will take off this afternoon and they will be delivered."

Another 25 million gowns from China had been procured and the UK would be "getting those shortly as well", he confirmed.

Prof Gilbert said it was still not clear that once a vaccine is discovered whether people will need a single dose or an annual one.

She added: "The first thing is to have a vaccine that works at all, and then to start looking at how long the immunity lasts for.

"We have been hearing about the antibody tests picking up people who have been infected and then also sometimes describing those as being immune, well we don't know how long that immunity lasts for either.

"So there's still a long way to go. I suspect that in younger adults, say under the age of 55, it won't need to be an annual vaccination, maybe it will need to be for older people."

Mr Dowden defended the Prime Minister following reports in the Sunday Times that he skipped a number of emergency Government meetings on dealing with Covid-19 at the early stages.

He told the BBC: "It is perfectly normal for other ministers, appropriate secretaries of state, to chair Cobra.

"Cobra is basically a committee that co-ordinates action across Government and, at the early stages, that was chaired by the Health Secretary. That's exactly what you would expect.

"That does not mean the Prime Minister is not engaged. The Prime Minister was being briefed on an hourly and daily basis, took a very close personal interest in this and clearly, as the crisis progressed, he then took over chairing.

"That's a normal course of events."

He said it was "exactly what previous governments had done" and added: "In the early days, he was very much engaged with it, I can assure you of that."

Mr Dowden, asked whether mistakes had been made by the Government, said ministers would look back at the "things they could have done differently" when the crisis was over.

Speaking to the BBC, he said: "Of course, when we are dealing with an unprecedented crisis like this, we are not going to have perfect, 20-20 hindsight vision.

"We are going to have to look back at the things we could have done differently.

"Right now, people would not expect us to be looking back over the past few months, they would expect us to be dealing with this crisis on a day-to-day basis.

"We have said that, of course, we will review all the lessons that we need to learn from this and, indeed, we need to learn the lessons globally, as the Foreign Secretary said on Friday.

"But those are issues for another day. Right now, our focus continues to be on dealing with this crisis."

The Government has confirmed it is looking into having a one-minute silence for NHS workers who have lost their lives on the front line of the coronavirus struggle.

It follows a campaign by Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer to recognise the sacrifice health workers have made during the pandemic.

Mr Dowden told the BBC: "I think it is a very good idea. We are looking into it.

"Actually, as Culture Secretary, I have responsibility for ceremonials and things like minute-silences, and we are actively looking into that and think it is a good idea."

Asked whether it could be an official Government-led event, he said: "Yes, I think it could be but we will make an announcement on that at an appropriate time."

When asked about reports suggesting pubs could remain closed until Christmas, he said that was "pure speculation".

He added: "We're all desperate to end this lockdown.

"But we need to do it in a sensible way because the worst thing we could possibly do is to prematurely ease the restrictions and then find a second peak, and have to go right back to square one again with potentially even more draconian measures."