Coronavirus news you may have missed overnight: Fresh questions over EU ventilator scheme as Trump freezes US green cards

Health secretary says UK government is 'throwing everything' at search for vaccine

As the UK coronavirus death toll rose to more than 17,000 yesterday, the government has faced yet more questions about its preparations for the Covid-19 pandemic and its ongoing strategy. Here is your morning briefing of everything you may have missed overnight.

The most senior civil servant at the Foreign Office has raised new questions about the UK’s failure to participate in the EU’s procurement scheme for medical kit and ventilators after he suggested it was a “political decision”, before backtracking on his comments hours later.

Sir Simon McDonald, the permanent under secretary at the department, told MPs that ministers had been briefed about the scheme – directly contradicting the government’s stance that the decision not to participate was due to a “communication problem”.

“All I can say is that it is a matter of fact that we have not taken part. It was a political decision... and the decision is no,” he said.

However, the senior civil servant walked back his statement later, claiming there had been a “misunderstanding” and ministers had actually not been briefed about the scheme.

Donald Trump has announced plans to freeze new green cards for two months following his surprise statement saying he would temporarily suspend immigration to the US due to Covid-19.

The president told his daily press conference he felt it “would be wrong and unjust for Americans laid off because of the virus to be replaced” by foreign workers.

The US has seen an unprecedented surge in unemployment due to its coronavirus outbreak and subsequent lockdown, with millions filing for benefits in recent weeks.

“Right now, we have to have jobs for Americans,” Mr Trump told reporters.

“We’ve closed down the largest economy in the history of the world.

“They have to work. They need to support their families ... People need money ... We cannot break our country.”

Although Mr Trump has pushed to reopen the US quickly to get the economy going again, polls have shown a clear majority of Americans are more concerned about the pandemic than returning to work.

Terrorists are calling for attacks on UK hospitals and other “vulnerable places” during the coronavirus outbreak, a senior police officer has told The Independent.

The national coordinator for the Prevent counter-extremism programme said Isis supporters were “encouraging people to target the places that appear most vulnerable” in the hope that the lockdown could mean police services are “distracted and overwhelmed”.

“We’re seeing the exploitation of the circumstances to encourage acts of violence,” Chief Superintendent Nik Adams said.

“The reality is we’re very prepared for any such eventuality, and monitoring any literature being disseminated around the world.”

Protective security advice is being distributed to NHS trusts by counterterror officers due to the concerns.

Human trials for a potential coronavirus vaccine developed at the University of Oxford are to begin on Thursday, the health secretary has announced, in a long shot bid which could help the world to get the Covid-19 pandemic under control.

Matt Hancock said the government was “throwing everything” at the search for a vaccine and announced he was providing £20m to the Oxford team to help fund its clinical trials, with a further £22.5m going to researchers at Imperial College London.

Although health experts have repeatedly cautioned it could take 18 months or more to produce a vaccine, the Oxford team have said they could begin large-scale production as early as September if trials are successful.

However, Mr Hancock has cautioned that the plan is not certain to work and warned vaccine development is a matter of “trial and error”.

Female NHS staff are putting themselves at risk because they are not able to access correctly sized protective gear for women during the coronavirus pandemic, The Independent has learned.

The British Medical Association (BMA), the professional organisation for doctors, warned personal protective equipment (PPE) tends to be designed for the “size and shape of male bodies”, even though 75 per cent of NHS workers are women.

“It is vital that to keep staff in clinical environments safe they have an adequate supply of PPE and that it fits correctly,” Dr Helen Fidler, the deputy chair of the BMA UK Consultants Committee and a member of the BMA Council, said.

“However, we are aware that in the current crisis, female doctors and other NHS staff are having issues with filtering face-piece (FFP) masks and other PPE not being available in smaller sizes as they tend to be designed to the size and shape of male bodies.”

The warning came amid mounting criticism over a drastic shortage of PPE which is putting frontline health workers treating coronavirus patients at risk of contracting Covid-19.