By Andrew Sparrow (now) and Matthew Weaver (earlier)
Anger mounts over PPE shortages; culture secretary says official minute’s silence for NHS workers killed by virus ‘a very good idea’
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11.29am BST
The Dragon’s Heart hospital, an emergency hospital set up at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff, is opening today, WalesOnline reports.
The Dragon’s Heart Hospital in Cardiff will be officially opened today as it prepares to treat coronavirus patients @CV_UHBhttps://t.co/zBnFYFEfZV pic.twitter.com/73ZcrpLCb6
11.18am BST
Oliver Dowden, the culture secretary, told ITV’s Good Morning Britain this morning that firms should only use the government’s coronavirus job retention scheme – the furlough initiative, which opened for business this morning – if they could not afford to keep paying staff themselves. He made the point when asked about a story saying Victoria Beckham is using the scheme for staff at her fashion company. Dowden would not comment on the Beckham story, but speaking generally he said:
We are facing an unprecedented global health crisis and in response to that we have taken unprecedented measures which are clearly having a big effect on the economy.
I think each person and each company should ask themselves: do they have to rely on the taxpayer? Because this scheme is meant to be for, if you are about to make someone redundant and you haven’t got the money to continue to employ them, then you can rely on the government to stop people being made redundant.
