The NHS faces a “potentially catastrophic winter” if coronavirus cases creep back up at the traditional time of maximum pressure on the service, the NHS Confederation has warned. Its director, Dr Layla McCay, said staff were already “exhausted and overstretched”.
Elsewhere, Russia claims to have approved for use the first Covid-19 vaccine. Vladimir Putin said the jab, developed by Moscow’s Gamaleya Institute, had received the green light from the country’s health ministry even as human trials were still going on. It will be called Sputnik V.
And globally, infections have passed 20 million, according to Johns Hopkins University. Deaths are approaching the 750,000 mark, while 12.3 million people have recovered.
Global cases pass 20 million
The global number of Covid-19 cases has reached 20 million, according to Johns Hopkins University (JHU).
The grim milestone was reached in the early hours of Tuesday morning, UK time, with 20,090,541 cases worldwide at the time of writing.
Some 736,208 people have died and about 12.8 million have recovered.
According to JHU's tracking tool, the world has logged more than 200,000 daily cases regularly since mid-July.
UK employment falls at fastest rate since 2008 crash
UK employment dropped by 220,000 between May and July, the largest quarterly fall since the aftermath of the financial crisis more than a decade ago, writes Ben Chapman.
A further 81,000 people dropped of company payrolls in July, taking the total to 730,000 since March, official figures show.
Greece imposes curfew
Greece has announced new measures to curb the spread of Covid-19 including orderings bars, restaurants and cafes in several regions to shut between midnight and 7am.
Other measures include requiring those arriving in the country from land borders, as well as those flying in from several European countries, to have proof of a negative coronavirus test.
Greece's culture ministry has also closed the Museum of the Ancient Agora, a major archaeological site in central Athens, for two weeks after a cleaner there was diagnosed with coronavirus.
A ministry statement said the museum would be comprehensively disinfected, while the actual site of the Ancient Agora, which was the administrative, political and social center of the ancient city, will remain open.
Greek sites and museums are open to visitors, with the wearing of masks obligatory in museums.
The country has some 5,749 cases and 213 deaths.
California sees highest daily rise in cases
The Golden State has recorded its highest one-day rise in Covid-19 cases since the start of the pandemic.
At least 12,784 new infections were recorded, including a backlog from the weekend. In total 573,904 cases have been recorded.
There were 91 new deaths, taking the total to 10,569.
Meanwhile California's governor has cast doubt on his state's ability to share the burden of boosting unemployment benefits, as envisioned by Donald Trump in one of a series of executive orders he signed recently.
The president wants states to contribute to top-up payments that many Americans have relied on during the outbreak.
But Gavin Newsom said: "There is no money sitting in the piggy bank. It simply does not exist."
Paying part of the bill would cost California $700m a week (£536m), Mr Newsom said.
One in 10 left waiting for refund during pandemic
More than one in 10 people who have requested a return for items and services bought during the coronavirus lockdown are yet to get their money back, a survey has found, writes Ben Chapman.
Meanwhile, more than a third (36 per cent) of people are avoiding making big purchases due to fears their money would not be returned if they needed a refund and over a quarter (28 per cent) are more worried about securing a refund since the pandemic started.
Victoria outbreak appears to stabilise
The coronavirus outbreak which forced a strict lockdown in Melbourne appears to be stabilising.
Victoria state, which currently accounts for nearly all of Australia's new cases and is the country's second-most populous region, detected 331 Covid-19 infections and 19 deaths in the past day, up from 322 infections and the same number of fatalities a day earlier, health officials said.
Daily infections in Victoria peaked at 725 on 5 August and have been trending lower following the imposition of a stringent lockdown in Melbourne on 19 July.
"We continue to see numbers coming down. Exactly how long that takes and to what the lowest number is we can get to, only time will tell," Victoria state premier Daniel Andrews said.
The restrictions are to be in place until September.
Health minister walks back effusive ministerial claims on school safety
Edward Argar, the health minister, has sounded a note of caution regarding research touted only yesterday by the education secretary as showing it was safe to reopen schools.
Asked about transmission of the virus in relation to secondary pupils, Mr Argar said the Public Health England research was "still work in progress".
He told Sky News: "I think we should be cautious about reading too much into that work in progress, it's important work but it isn't complete yet."
He added: "On the basis of the work that has been completed and those international comparators, we are confident that children and young people are much less at risk from this disease and from passing it on than other adults more broadly in the community.
"On the basis of the evidence we have thus far, we believe that the levels of transmission between young people and the infectiousness is low. In terms of schools and the approach to getting pupils back in schools. The prime minister's made absolutely clear this is a national priority.
"Every day that children are out of school is a day lost to them, so we are going to get all pupils back to school from September."
He added: "We do have the measures in place, including testing and tracing and including the sort of measures we've seen - local lockdowns if they were necessary, but at the moment schools are a low-infection, low-risk environment compared to say some of the local lockdown areas."
Argar defends test and trace after staff cuts and redeployments
Edward Argar, the health minister, has insisted NHS test and trace is a "successful system" after it was announced that 6,000 centralised, national-level jobs would be cut and thousands more people redeployed to the local level.
The national scheme was awarded to private companies and has faced criticism for failing to tap into local expertise.
Mr Argar said the effective U-turn was in fact a sign of success.
He told Sky News: "I think this is actually, this is a reflection of a successful system that, as we've always said, will flex and evolve to meet our understanding of the disease and the changing needs of our communities.
"But in terms of the 'world beating', the world comparators, we are one of the few countries in the world that actually publishes transparently, quite rightly so you and others can question us on it, our test and trace data."
He added: "We are making contact with just shy of 80 per cent of those who test positive and then we are making contact with around a similar amount of their contacts. This is better than many, many other countries, look at New Zealand, they have a slightly higher percentage success rate, they've traced 360 people.
"We've traced a quarter of a million in the space of about two and half months, that is a significant achievement... so I do think that this is a reflection of an effective system built up rapidly that is now evolving to reflect the changing needs of local lockdowns and a local-centric approach."
In a separate interview with the BBC, he added: "What you're seeing today in this announcement is a hybrid system.
"We're reducing the number of contact tracers nationally through that Serco contract from 18,000 to 12,000, and throughout we have worked closely with local public health officials, but we are strengthening further that relationship, so you will still have that national calling, that national push to make contact.
"But for those hard to reach or for those people who can't be contacted, then you've got this door-to-door approach as well."
Read more below:
No masks for school pupils, Argar says
Schoolchildren will not be made to wear face masks, the health minister has said
Edward Argar told BBC Breakfast: "That's not something that's in prospect at this point. We've been clear and the Department for Education have been clear that that poses a challenge to actually the ability to teach and the ability to learn in certain contexts.
"We don't think that that's necessary at this point, not least because we are essentially setting up different class groups or year groups as social bubbles.
"But at the moment we believe the measures that have been put in place around social distancing, around those bubbles and around the facility to test if necessary, are the right ones to continue to make our schools safe when they reopen."
Hold places for A-level students challenging their results, universities told
Ministers have issued a plea to universities to hold places for students challenging their A-level grades this year amid fears of chaos on results day, write Adam Forrest and Kate Devlin.
Universities minister Michelle Donelan urged institutions to reserve spaces and warned that “nobody should have to put their future on hold” because of the coronavirus crisis.
In return universities will be allowed a number of extra places for students who meet certain conditions as part of their appeal, she announced.
Indonesia sees lowest daily case count in months
Indonesia reported 61 new Covid-19 cases on Tuesday, its lowest daily tally for more than four months.
The Asian city-state locked down in mid-April after mass outbreaks in cramped migrant worker dormitories pushed its caseload to one of the highest in the region.
Last week, it said it had cleared infections from all of the dormitories - housing around 300,000 workers - barring some blocks which continue to serve as isolation zones.
Russia claims to have approved first Covid-19 vaccine
Russia has approved the world’s first vaccine for Covid-19, President Vladimir Putin said.
The vaccine was developed Moscow’s Gamaleya Institute in Moscow and on Tuesday received approval from the country’s health ministry.
Duterte volunteers for Russian vaccine trial
Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte has offered to be “injected in public” with a Russian coronavirus vaccine, as Moscow prepares to launch the jabs without full clinical trials to international scepticism, writes Chris Baynes.
Mr Duterte declared he had “huge trust” that the vaccine would be “really good for humanity” despite safety concerns raised by virologists and the World Health Organisation (WHO).
The Russian ambassador to Manila said last week Vladimir Putin’s government would be willing to supply the vaccine to the Philippines as Covid-19 infections surge in the southeast Asian nation.
UK Covid-19 deaths near 60,000
More than 56,800 deaths involving Covid-19 have now been registered in the UK, official data shows.
Figures published on Tuesday by the ONS show that 51,779 deaths involving Covid-19 had occurred in England and Wales up to 31 July, and had been registered by 8 August.
Figures published last week by the National Records for Scotland showed that 4,208 deaths involving Covid-19 had been registered in Scotland up to 2 August, while 855 deaths had occurred in Northern Ireland up to 31 July 31 (and had been registered up to 5 August) according to the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency.
Together, these figures mean that so far 56,842 deaths have been registered in the UK where Covid-19 was mentioned on the death certificate, including suspected cases.
More on Edward Argar vs Gavin Williamson
A health minister has warned a major Public Health England report into the transmission of coronavirus among school children is still a “work in progress”, as he urged caution about “reading too much” into the incomplete study, writes Ashley Cowburn.
Despite the education secretary Gavin Williamson insisting the study showed "little evidence that the virus is transmitted at school” in an official statement, Edward Argar claimed no-one had seen the final results of the yet-to-be-published work.
Philippines update
The Philippines reported 2,987 new coronavirus infections on Tuesday, taking its tally of confirmed cases to 139,538 - the highest in southeast Asia.
A health ministry bulletin also reported 19 more fatalities, bringing the country's death toll to 2,312.
Harry Roque, a spokesperson for Rodrigo Duterte, said an intensified contact tracing to isolate positive cases was necessary to slow community transmission, as he dismissed the possibility of extending a two-week strict lockdown due to end on 18 August in and around the capital Manila.
Mr Duterte today volunteered to be a guinea pig for Russia's apparent new Covid-19 vaccine.
First community cases for 102 days emerge in NZ
New Zealand has logged its first community coronavirus infections for 102 days.
Scottish pupils back in school today
Pupils in Scotland will return to the classroom as schools in the country become the first in the UK to begin reopening.
Councils across the country are taking different approaches to the time frame for reopening for the first time since 20 March.
Pupils in the Scottish Borders are returning on Tuesday, as are some in Shetland on a phased basis.
Elsewhere, pupils will return from Wednesday, with many councils operating a phased return ahead of the 18 August deadline for all pupils to be back full-time.
Oldham becomes worst-hit spot in England
Oldham has overtaken nearby Blackburn to become the worst-hit area for coronavirus in England, new government figures show, writes Colin Drury.
The surge in cases comes despite the Greater Manchester town being included in the so-called northern lockdown, with households there banned from mixing.
Some 145 new Covid-19 infections were identified in the borough in the seven days up to Sunday, according to Public Health England - the equivalent of 61 cases per 100,000 people.
P&O cancels yet more cruises
P&O Cruises has extended the suspension of sailings until November.
The UK's largest cruise line blamed Foreign and Commonwealth Office advice for people to avoid cruises due to coronavirus.
It has cancelled all sailings until 12 November, while two trips with longer itineraries due to begin in January 2021 have been suspended.
