Health chiefs say the Midlands is ‘now obviously a concern’ after an uptick in hospital admissions related to coronavirus.

Answering questions at today’s Downing Street press conference, Public Health England director Dr Yvonne Doyle said the ‘threat is everywhere’ and that hospitals across the country need protection.

The Covid-19 outbreak is most advanced in London, but cases in the Midlands are picking up quickly. Showing journalists a chart of how the airborne virus has taken hold of each region, Dr Doyle called the outlook ‘slightly concerning’.

She said: ‘It’s still too early to say whether the plateau of hospital admissions has ended but we’ve now seen three days of increases in a row and again, we need to protect the NHS, and the best way to do that is to stay at home, to avoid catching the disease yourself and obviously avoid giving it to anyone else.’

Despite hospital admissions being miles ahead in London, Dr Doyle added: ‘The chart shows that the threat is everywhere, we need to protect the NHS everywhere and the Midlands now is obviously a concern as well.’

The region has had just under 2,000 Covid-19 related hospital admissions since the beginning of March, roughly half the rate of the capital.

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Comparing the UK to other countries, Ms Doyle said: ‘As things stand it has not been as severe here as in France and we’re just tucked in under the USA and obviously Italy on a different trajectory, but… and Spain and the United States, as we’ve said. But there’s no reason to be complacent.’

Despite a nationwide lockdown in which Britons have been urged to stay at home unless absolutely necessary, Dr Doyle says there has been a rise in the number of people driving.

She said: ‘The message here is people really do need to stay at home. Most are doing the right thing as you can see from the rapid decline in public transport use.

‘So everyone needs to do that. ‘The message here is we need to save lives and protect the NHS so please stay at home.’

Also speaking at today’s conference, Business Secretary Alok Sharma called the coronavirus pandemic ‘the biggest threat our country has faced in decades’ and said ‘we have harder times ahead of us’.

He said local authorities have today received more than £12 billion in grants for small businesses and urged them to pay it out ‘as quickly as possible’.

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