If the NHS is to stave off a tsunami of preventable cases, Matt Hancock has to win the people’s trust back

Editorial: There may not be national collapse across every hospital in the coming weeks, but if the government continues to confuse the public, cases could be especially acute in certain areas

Matt Hancock, the secretary of state for health and social care, is a reassuring figure in that he has made such a complete recovery from coronavirus that he has returned to work with rather more vigour than he showed before.

At his press conference and at the opening of the first Nightingale hospital, Mr Hancock was positively Tiggerish in his enthusiasm. He has also been rather more open and transparent than most of his colleagues.

Still, by his very own testament, Mr Hancock and his colleagues face a reckoning this month. On the one hand, Mr Hancock conceded that the kind of mass testing needed to get on top of the pandemic will possibly not be under way until the end of the month. On the other hand, Mr Hancock also tells us that the peak of coronavirus infections will arrive sooner than expected, and before the end of the month.