Social distancing is likely to be needed until a vaccine is available for Covid-19, according to the chief medical officer for England, Chris Whitty. He told the daily news briefing he was hopeful for a vaccine within a year but there is a long way to go between having a vaccine and widespread immunity. It would therefore be “wholly unrealistic” to think that restrictions would be relaxed any time soon and some “very socially disruptive” measures would almost certainly have to remain in force for the rest of the year, he said. Whitty added that coronavirus was not going to be eradicated, so we must accept we will be working with it globally for the foreseeable future. We are at the peak of the outbreak, the health secretary, Matt Hancock, told the Commons. But this was put into further perspective by Chris Whitty at the press briefing, who highlighted that the peak was an “artificial peak” as it was the result of the lockdown. The first secretary of state, Dominic Raab, also reiterated that the biggest risk was a second spike. This all reinforces that an “exit strategy” from physical distancing measures is proving more and more difficult to devise. A contact-tracing system will be in place “in a matter of weeks”, Hancock also said. He said the effectiveness of “test, track and trace” every new case as a method rested on the incidence of transmission in the community. The UK’s hospital death toll surpassed 18,000, as a further 759 deaths took the total to 18,100. The ONS said there had also been 1,043 coronavirus-related deaths in care homes in England and Wales by 10 April. In a joint statement with the CQC, the government conceded that the true number “could be double”. Chris Whitty also said he thought the ONS figures were “an underestimate”. And analysis from the Financial Times suggested the real UK death toll could be as high as 41,000. The EU denied the UK government’s claim that a mix-up was to blame for its non-involvement in its coronavirus procurement scheme. The European commission said the UK was well aware of the initiative when it decided not to participate, contradicting the government’s claim that it didn’t get involved because of a “misunderstanding” about eligibility. Facing questions from the Commons foreign affairs committee, Sir Simon McDonald, the head of the Foreign Office, said it was a “political decision”, though he later issued a retraction and said non-involvement had been due to a “communication problem”. The Welsh government is to fund free “school meals” for disadvantaged children during the summer holidays. It is the first UK nation to make such a pledge. And the London mayor, Sadiq Khan, urged the government to ban evictions over rent arrears built up as a result of the coronavirus crisis. He also called for an increase in housing benefits and that the government should cover, for the duration of the crisis, any shortfall in payments by private renters. Thank you so much to everyone who got in touch throughout the day with news tips, suggestions, comments and advice. That’s it from us on the UK side, we’ll be back tomorrow to bring you all the latest updates on the pandemic. But in the meantime you can continue to follow the Guardian’s coverage of the worldwide picture over on the global live blog.