NHS hospitals to restore elective treatments for cancer, heart disease and other conditions as experts suggest first coronavirus peak passing

- Sir Patrick Vallance said that the membership of the government's Scientific Advisory Group on Emergencies (Sage) would be would be published shortly, following controversy over the involvement of No 10 adviser Dominic Cummings, although individual members could ask to remain anonymous. The restoration of a wider range of operations in NHS hospitals comes amid growing concern that the emergency response to Covid-19 has had a knock-on effect of driving up deaths from other causes, with official statistics showing around 5,000 “excess” fatalities not linked to the virus in the three weeks to 10 April. Some 30,000 beds in England were freed up for Covid cases by postponing non-urgent operations and discharging inpatients, in order to ensure that the NHS was not overwhelmed by numbers of patients requiring ventilation in an intensive care setting. Speaking at the daily 10 Downing Street press conference on Monday, Mr Hancock said: “As the number of hospitalisations from coronavirus begins to fall, I can announce that starting tomorrow, we will begin the restoration of other NHS services starting with the most urgent like cancer care and mental health support.” The exact pace of the restoration over the coming will be determined by local circumstances, with the most urgent treatments brought back soonest, said the health secretary.