The chancellor Rishi Sunak announced that the job retention scheme – the multi-billion coronavirus 80% wage subsidy – will be extended by one month until the end of June. The scheme is due to formally open on Monday next week, although payments will be backdated to 1 March. The extension amounts to an immense spending announcement, perhaps costing the Treasury £10bn or more. Ministers reportedly believe that keeping the scheme going through the summer and beyond would be simply unaffordable. The government has set up a vaccine taskforce to find a coronavirus vaccine, the business secretary Alok Sharma announced at the daily press conference. He called producing a vaccine a “colossal undertaking” that would take many months and there was no guarantee of success. The health secretary Matt Hancock was unable to give MPs assurance that some hospitals won’t run out of gowns this weekend. This came on the same day the Guardian learned that NHS bosses have asked doctors and nurses to work without full-length gowns when treating Covid-19 patients, as hospitals across England are set to run out of supplies within hours. The government will meet on Tuesday to discuss whether to recommend a change in policy on face masks. Sadiq Khan has been lobbying the government to change its advice on wearing masks to members of the public. Appearing on BBC Breakfast, the mayor of London urged the public to wear non-surgical masks when they go out, particularly on public transport and in shops where it isn’t always possible to stay 2 metres apart. He was backed by the Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer who said he thought he was “inevitable” that the government would have to start advising people to wear masks in certain circumstances, in step with changes taking places across Europe. Booking summer holidays at this time would be a mistake, the transport secretary Grant Shapps said, highlighting that while there are signs that the curve is flattening there has yet to be a decline. That’s it from us today on the UK side. Thank you to everybody who got in touch throughout the day with tips and suggestions, and to all of you for reading along. If you’d like to continue following the Guardian’s coverage of the worldwide picture, head over to our global live blog.