Coronavirus: Health Secretary urges Britons to ‘stay home to save lives’

'How quickly we get through this will be determined by the actions of every single person in this country,' says health secretary

Matt Hancock has told Britons to "stay at home to save lives" and appealed to people to stop stockpiling food and vital goods as the coronavirus outbreak deepens.

Amid concerns people are continuing to flout social distancing guidance by going to pubs, the health secretary said the only way for the country to get through the crisis was for people to behave responsibly.

Mr Hancock also appealed to retired health workers to join the fight against the virus, adding: "Your NHS needs you now."

"How quickly we get through this will be determined by the actions of every single person in this country," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

"Everybody listening, you can help us get through this faster by following the advice and by keeping away from others.

"Stay at home to save lives."

He said his "heart bleeds" for those struggling to find food in response to a video by an NHS nurse, where she tearfully urged people to stop stockpiling.

Mr Hancock said: "It's vital that people act responsibly, responsibly to follow the advice to stop spreading the virus and responsibly in terms of what people need.

"There are many, many people doing extraordinary things to respond and by taking more than you need from a supermarket, you are harming the chances of other people, whether they are vulnerable people or older people who really need to stay away."

The health secretary suggested the government could introduce tougher measures to keep people at home, saying it was prepared to do "whatever it takes".

Regulators wrote to more than 65,000 retired doctors and nurses on Friday urging them to return to frontline service, he said, adding that the NHS "needs you like never before".

As the chancellor Rishi Sunak prepares to unveil emergency measures to support workers, Mr Hancock said it was vital to use the "financial heft" of the state to protect people's livelihoods.

The health secretary said: "The only way to think about this is that it is a war against an invisible killer and that means we have to marshal the resources of the entire nation as best we possibly can."

Mr Sunak was expected to announce a new package of support at a Downing Street press conference on Friday amid intense pressure from senior Tories and opposition MPs to protect people's livelihoods.

The new chancellor held talks with union leaders and businesses until late into the evening on Thursday as he sought to hammer out a plan to prevent mass redundancies.

Earlier in the week he announced a £350 billion support package for businesses, but critics said there was little help for staff facing the prospect of being laid off.

Former Tory business secretary Greg Clark and former Labour shadow local government minister Jack Dromey told the Daily Mirror "lending alone will not keep many businesses trading and paying staff".

"Economic measures that do not rise to the immense challenge risk a contagion ripping through the British economy as vicious and as infecting as a virus," they said.

"In the global financial crisis, governments fulfilled their role as a lender of last resort to the banking system - and that proved decisive. This time, it is different.

"It will involve the state providing a vast sum. For businesses, support should replicate what business continuity insurance would provide. It should allow workers to continue to be employed. It should offer cash for paying the demonstrated wage bill."

Meanwhile, Labour called for state to underwrite up to 90 per cent of wages in return for a guarantee from employers that they will not lay off staff.