TRANSPORT Secretary Grant Shapps said a "gentle approach" to enforcement would be used over the "first couple of days" after face coverings are made compulsory on public transport in England on Monday.

He told the Downing Street briefing: "Remembering your face covering should be the same as picking up your phone, your wallet or your purse whenever you're leaving your house."

Mr Shapps said there was no need for people to wear face coverings in all public settings, just in enclosed spaces.

Responding to whether people should wear face coverings at all times in public, Mr Shapps said: "By its very nature if you are on a train or a plane or a ferry or a bus you are in an enclosed are. That is not the case if you are out and about on the streets. And I think that may be the principle difference of this."

The Transport Secretary also said a "jet zero council" had been formed to aid an environmentally-friendly recovery for the aviation industry.

He told the Downing Street briefing: "There's a real determination within the industry to have a greener restart so we're bringing together leaders from aviation, environmental groups and Government to form the jet zero council.

"This group will be charged with making net-zero emissions possible for future flights.

"Our goal within a generation will be to demonstrate flight across the Atlantic without harming the environment."

Mr Shapps has played down reports that the chief nursing officer for England has been unable or unwilling to take part in the No 10 press briefings because she would not defend Dominic Cummings.

The Transport Secretary told the Friday briefing that he expected Ruth May would be appearing again at future briefings.

"I don't think it is true. She has attended them many times before. I notice that at the top of the No 10 Twitter feed I see one of her tweets pinned," he said.

"I am absolutely sure she has been a regular contributor before and I am sure she will be back here again."

Earlier, the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) said 41,481 people had died in hospitals, care homes and the wider community after testing positive for coronavirus in the UK as of 5pm on Thursday, up by 202 from 41,279 the day before.

The Government figures do not include all deaths involving Covid-19 across the UK, which is thought to have passed 52,000.

The DHSC also said in the 24-hour period up to 9am on Friday, 193,253 tests were carried out or dispatched, with 1,541 positive results.

Overall, a total of 6,434,713 tests have been carried out and 292,950 cases have been confirmed positive.

The figure for the number of people tested has been "temporarily paused to ensure consistent reporting" across all methods of testing.

The reproduction number, referred to as R, of coronavirus across the UK remains between 0.7 and 0.9, while across England it is 0.8-1.0.

Network Rail's chairman Sir Peter Hendy told the Downing Street briefing: "The reality of our transport systems and particularly as the economy ramps up is that there will be more occasions at which you might be closer to people than you would care for.

"So it seems perfectly logical to me and all my colleagues and transport operators to mandate face coverings now, because as we get to Monday and the restart of non-essential retail and looking at more people going to work it is much more likely that you'll see, or be close to other people.

"So face coverings is a sensible thing to do and we're expecting on Monday, because passengers are hugely sensible, for people to be wearing face coverings."

Professor Stephen Powis added that "the evidence is weak, but nevertheless there is some evidence and it is better for closed spaces than open spaces where there is less risk of transmission".

He also the NHS has been working hard to prepare for a possible second wave of coronavirus in the winter.

He said: “The Nightingale hospitals were built in case we need them and we are actively considering what we need to do with those going forward to ensure that if there is a second wave if we have capacity in place.”