Employees who cannot take all their annual leave due to the coronavirus pandemic will be able to carry it over for two years, the business secretary has said.

Alok Sharma spoke about the move at the government's daily briefing about the COVID-19 crisis on Saturday.

He said: "We've introduced measures to ensure that workers who have not taken all of their statutory annual leave due to COVID-19 will now be able to carry that entitlement over into the next two years.

"This will protect staff from losing out, while providing businesses with flexibility when they need it most."

NHS England director Stephen Powis said at the briefing it would be a "good result" if there were under 20,000 coronavirus deaths in the UK once the pandemic is over.


He said: "If we can reduce the transmission rate... then the virus will start to decline in the population."

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Mr Powis continued: "The number of deaths that arise out of this epidemic in the UK, if it's less than 20,000, as Sir Patrick Vallance [the government's chief scientific adviser] said, that would be a good result - although every death, as I've said, is absolutely a tragedy."

Mr Sharma also said there will be new measures to improve the insolvency system to help businesses hit by the coronavirus crisis.

He added that "red tape" will be reduced to allow new producers of hand sanitiser to bring products to market "in a matter of days".

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Mr Sharma said at the news conference in Downing Street: "We are also introducing a range of measures to boost the supply of personal protective equipment, such as face masks, to protect frontline NHS staff.

"And we're removing administrative barriers to the production of hand sanitiser.

"By reducing the amount of red tape, new suppliers and businesses that produce ingredients for safe hand sanitiser will be able to bring their products to market in a matter of days."

Image: PM Boris Johnson chaired the coronavirus crisis meeting from self-isolation

The prime minister and his health secretary, Matt Hancock, have both tested positive for COVID-19.

Boris Johnson sought to show he's still leading the government's response by chairing the daily cross-Whitehall crisis response meeting via videolink on Saturday.