UK ministers were warned last year that the UK needed a robust plan to deal with a pandemic and its economic and social consequences, the Guardian revealed. The 600-page Cabinet Office document warned that even a mild pandemic could cost tens of thousands of lives and included recommendations such as the need to stockpile PPE and organised advanced purchase agreements for other essential supplies. It comes as the government continues to face accusations that it has reacted too slowly to to the coronavirus outbreak. Dominic Cummings, the prime minister’s chief adviser, and data scientist Ben Warner, who worked on the Vote Leave campaign, are on the secret scientific group advising the government on its response to the coronavirus pandemic, the Guardian revealed. With multiple attendees of Sage disclosing to the Guardian that both Cummings and Warner had been taking part in meetings of the group as far back as February, the inclusion of Downing Street advisers on Sage will raise questions about the independence of its scientific advice. Despite growing pressure on the government to make public more details about the group, both its membership and its advice to ministers on Covid-19 is being kept secret. The government’s expansion of testing for key workers and their families suffered a setback after all 5,000 home test kits for key workers ran out within two minutes this morning. And the Department for Health and Social Care apologised after the website for booking tests online stopped accepting applications due to high demand. The Welsh government became the latest devolved administration to publish a plan for easing lockdown restrictions and learning to live alongside Covid-19, amid mounting pressure on the UK government to do the same. The UK’s hospital death toll rose by 684 to 19,506. Transport for London announced it would furlough 7,000 workers – around a quarter of its workforce – from Monday for an initial period of three weeks. The move followed TfL recording a 90% revenue loss during the lockdown and is expected to save the network £15.8m every four weeks. The lockdown will be lifted when it’s “safe to do so” and this depends on the number of new infections falling, the health secretary Matt Hancock said. He said he would not allow for changes to be made that are unsafe and that keeping the number of cases down is also the best thing for the economy. There is no prospect of easing the lockdown yet, he added. And that’s it for today. From the UK side, thank you so much to everybody who got in touch throughout the day, keeping me going with tips and stories, comments and suggestions, jokes and music videos. I couldn’t do this without you! If you’d like to continue following the Guardian’s coverage of the pandemic, head over to our global live blog.