Coronavirus epidemic in care homes is coming under control, says Matt Hancock

At the Downing Street press conference, he said adult care homes would now be included in the plan after claiming success in his target of getting staff and residents in elderly care settings a test by early June.

It came as the number of new reported deaths of people testing positive for Covid-19 in the UK fell to 55, the lowest daily total since before lockdown was announced.

Mr Hancock said there had also been a 79 per cent fall in the number of people dying in care homes since the peak of the pandemic in late April and early May.

On Sunday, a study warned that the death toll by the end of June from Covid-19 infections and other excess deaths is “likely to approach 59,000 across the entire English population, of which about 34,000 (57 per cent) will have been care home residents”.

Mr Hancock said: "With all the measures we've put in place over the last few months, all of the billions of pounds extra we've put in, it is clear the epidemic in care homes is coming under control."

Describing the care home testing programme, he said: "We've now sent over a million test kits to almost 9,000 elderly care homes and the care homes themselves asked that they have the flexibility to do the test when it works for them.

"The good news is that the test results so far do not show a significant rise in the number of positive cases despite going through and testing all of the residents and staff. "

Extending the scheme, he said: "We will now make sure that we do all of this in working age care homes as well.

"I can announce that from today all remaining adult care homes in England will be able to order the whole care home testing service for residents and staff.

"This service will benefit residents and staff in over 6,000 more care homes."

Mr Hancock said because coronavirus is "in retreat" the Government could proceed with its plans to ease the lockdown, which include the proposed opening of non-essential shops from June 15.

He said the figures on deaths, recorded positive tests and an almost 50% fall in the number of new care home outbreaks were "good news".

"When you look across the board, it is clear that coronavirus is in retreat across the country.

"But we must be vigilant and we must be cautious, and we are taking a safety-first approach.

"It means that we can proceed with our plan of making some changes, for instance looking towards the proposals that have been made next week on the retail sector, and that people can have confidence to take their children to school in the three years that we've opened so far."

Separately, the newly-appointed chairman of the national Covid-19 social care support taskforce said it will focus on stopping infection while looking after the people who receive care.

David Pearson, the director of Adult Social Care and Health in Nottinghamshire, told the Downing Street press conference: "The taskforce will bring together the concerted and determined actions of central and local government with care providers.

"Our focus will be on stopping infection whilst trying to ensure the wellbeing of all people who receive care and support, whether they live in care homes or at home.

"Social care has a crucial role to play in supporting the people who receive care and support and their carers, and our job is to harness our efforts as we go through the various phases of this pandemic and support social care in its crucial role."

Earlier, it was revealed that a total of 55 deaths were reported to the Department of Health in the 24 hours to 5pm on June 7.

The last time this particular number was lower than 55 was for the 24 hours to 5pm on March 21, when the total reported deaths were 35.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced the lockdown in a televised address on the evening of March 23.

The number of deaths announced each day by the Government is based on data reported to the Department of Health & Social Care by each of the four nations of the UK.

This data is not a real-time snapshot of the number of people who have died in the previous 24 hours.

Rather it is the number of new deaths reported to various health authorities during this period, regardless of when the deaths actually took place.

Deaths can take several days to be recorded and processed before they appear in these particular figures - so caution should be taken in reading too much into the day-on-day changes.

Fewer deaths are also reported over the weekend, which is why these figures are always lower on Sundays and Mondays.

However, the latest number fits the overall direction of this data, which has been on a broadly downward trend since early April.

The total number of people in the UK who have died after testing positive for Covid-19 now stands at 40,597, according to the Department of Health & Social Care.

The overall number of deaths involving Covid-19 in the UK, based on deaths where Covid-19 has been mentioned on the death certificate - including suspected cases - is close to 51,000.