There has been a 17 per cent increase in the number of people testing positive for coronavirus in England in the past week as officials target testing in virus hot spots.
Officials say the rise corresponds with the targeted testing for areas where there is known outbreaks in cases but that the increase also reflects the overall rise in incidence of the virus.
New figures from Greater Manchester show almost half of all coronavirus contacts across the region are not being reached by the government’s tracing system.
Great Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham said the failings were now so bad, they were “hampering” efforts to keep the region’s infection spike under control.
Follow the latest updates below:
Lockdown restrictions reimposed on Aberdeen
A cluster of coronavirus cases has led to lockdown restrictions being reimposed on the Aberdeen area.
At 5pm on Wednesday, pubs, restaurants and cafes were closed, while a five-mile travel limit was put in place.
Residents are also not allowed to go into other people’s homes.
Of the 54 new cases detected in the area, Scotland’s first minister Nicola Sturgeon said 191 contacts have been traced and 20 pubs and restaurants were involved.
As a result, Ms Sturgeon hinted that pub crawls may be banned.
Extra police officers will be on the streets in Aberdeen to ensure that people follow the new lockdown rules.
Police Scotland Deputy Chief Constable Will Kerr said: "It's really important that people follow the instructions and guidance from the Scottish Government.
"To support that, we will have additional patrols in Aberdeen, where local restrictions have been reintroduced."
Facebook takes down video on Trump’s page
Facebook removed a video on Donald Trump’s page over its misleading claims that children are “almost immune” to the coronavirus.
The content of the clip, taken from an interview with Fox News, goes against the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention’s finding that children can transmit the virus.
“This video includes false claims that a group of people is immune from Covid-19 which is a violation of our policies around harmful Covid misinformation,” the platform said.
My colleague Alex Woodward has more on the story here:
Global health expert calls indoor drinking 'super-spreading' events
Devi Sridhar, chair of Global Public Health at the University of Edinburgh, has said that indoor drinking in pubs and bars can "easily become super-spreading events".
Speaking to the BBC's Today programme about the local lockdown in Aberdeen, Ms Sridhar said on Thursday that spikes in infections can be linked to drinking venues.
"I think we have seen this in Aberdeen, where actually progress had been made over the last couple of months."
Her comments came after Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland's first minister, hinted that pub crawls could be banned over fears that they allow the virus to spread.
Charity network says more people looking for redundancy advice
A spokesperson for Citizens Advice has said the free information service is offering advice to people regarding redundancy concerns every two minutes.
Katie Martin, director of external affairs, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "We've been seeing case after case of people coming to Citizens Advice for help around redundancy - in particular, selection for redundancy and potential questions around discrimination."
She added that visits to the service's online advice pages on redundancy have doubled in the last few months.
Ms Martin also said: "We've also conducted some polling that suggests that disabled people, parents, carers and those people who have previously been shielding are more than twice as likely to be at risk of redundancy as other workers.
"So it is a really, really concerning trend and something that we feel really needs to be addressed."
Her remarks come a few months before the end of the furlough scheme, which is scheduled to stop in October.
Unemployment to surge, Bank of England says
The Bank of England has predicted that the recession caused by the pandemic will not be as severe as previously anticipated but that unemployment will soar, writes Ben Chapman.
The UK's economy is expected to shrink by 9.5 per cent this year, lower than the previous estimate of 14 per cent, the bank said on Thursday.
However, it said that unemployment could increase to 7.5 per cent by the end of 2020, meaning that 2.5 million people could be out of work.
The number of new coronavirus cases in Germany rose by 1,045 on Thursday, raising fears about a second wave of the virus.
This marks the first time since early May that the country has seen more than 1,000 new infections in a day.
The figure went down to as low as 159 in Mid-July before rising again.
A poll in Der Spiegel suggests that four-fifths of the population in Germany expect more lockdowns as a means of controlling the spread of the virus.
Health minister Jens Spahn is scheduled to give a press conference on the numbers later on Thursday.
Travellers pick Eurotunnel over other options
Travellers are choosing to go through the Channel Tunnel rather than fly during the pandemic, writes Simon Calder.
In July, passenger traffic between the UK and France on Eurotunnel was only down one-fifth compared to the same month in 2018.
By comparison, the main airlines in the UK are working at below half their planned services this summer.
Preston could be next area to face government intervention
The head of Preston City Council has said that rising coronavirus rates in the city could lead to a government intervention.
As things stand, official restrictions have not been imposed on the Lancashire city, unlike parts of the country including Greater Manchester.
However, authorities have advised residents not to visit other households.
Speaking on BBC Breakfast, Preston City Council chief executive Adrian Phillips said: "We are not waiting for some Government announcement.
"We know our rates are increasing and they have increased over the last week to a level now where we are concerned that we could face Government intervention.
"We've been working with our communities to make sure we get those key messages out."
Vietnam is close to completing the conversion of a sports stadium into a 1,000-bed field hospital in its new coronavirus epicentre Danang, as it battles an outbreak that has spread to at least 11 locations.
Aggressive contact-tracing, targeted testing and strict quarantining had helped Vietnam halt an earlier contagion, but it is now racing to control infections in the central city and beyond after a new outbreak ended a run of more than three months without domestic transmission.
Danang's Tien Son Sports Palace will from Saturday be used to treat an overflow of infected patients should the city's hospitals become overwhelmed, said Sun Group, the company behind the project,
Danang has reported more than 200 cases since the virus reappeared there on 25 July.
Authorities have said the situation was "under control" and the outbreak would likely peak in the next 10 days.
If infection numbers stabilise, the facility would be used to isolate people who were in direct contact with a positive case, as part of Vietnam's centralised quarantine programme, Sun Group said.
Just 53 per cent of people who are known to have been exposed to the deadly virus have been spoken to by NHS Test and Trace.
In one borough, Oldham, that number falls as low as 47 per cent and to just 48 per cent in another, Rochdale. Even in the highest area – Trafford – only 61 per cent of people are being reached.
Residents in the Lancashire city have been strongly advised to avoid hosting visitors at homes as fears grow that government intervention will be needed if the growing spike cannot be brought under control.
A total of 47,762 people who tested positive for Covid-19 in England have had their cases transferred to the NHS Test and Trace contact tracing system since its launch, according to figures from the Department of Health and Social Care.
Of this total, 37,231 people (78.0%) were reached and asked to provide details of recent contacts, while 9,032 (18.9%) were not reached.
Since the launch of Test and Trace, 199,524 close contacts of people who have tested positive for Covid-19 have been reached through the tracing system and asked to self-isolate.
This is 82.2% out of a total of 242,749 people identified as close contacts.
Courtney Parella, deputy national press secretary, accused Facebook and Twitter of “flagrant bias” after the tech giants penalised Trump and his campaign team for promoting a video in which the president claimed children are “almost immune” from the disease.
Emily Stevenson, a marine biologist who runs a project called Beach Guardian with her father, Rob, said evidence had found “PPE actually sinking below the ocean surface”.
In a recent video shared online, the 23-year-old was filmed collecting PPE, including face masks and gloves, from the ocean.
The FFP2 masks ordered by the government have ear loops instead of head loops, meaning there is a risk they would not be secure enough.
The masks were supplied by Ayanda Capital, who was awarded a £252 million contract to supply personal protective equipment (PPE). The government is now being sued over its decision to award the private family fund the contract by EveryDoctor and Good Law Project.
As of May 2020, 150,000 households had their social security payments capped by the policy, a 93 per cent increase from the previous quarter.
There was also a 500 per cent increase in new households being hit by the cap for the first time – suggesting many people are feeling its sting for the first time.
Addressing the cluster in Aberdeen, Nicola Sturgeon said there were a suspected 39 cases in the NHS Grampian area.
The first minister also said 17 new cases in Greater Glasgow and Clyde are being examined to see if there are any visible patterns.
New data from England’s test and trace service shows the rise in positive cases comes despite the number of people overall being tested rising just four per cent.
Officials say the rise corresponds with the targeted testing for areas where there is known outbreaks in cases but that the increase also reflects the overall rise in incidence of the virus.
