Evening summary
Here’s a roundup of today’s key UK coronavirus developments:
- Some local lockdown measures in Leicester have been lifted by the health secretary. Matt Hancock said that while coronavirus cases per 100,000 people were still above average in the city, restrictions on schools and early years childcare could be lifted, while local authorities would be able to close non-essential shops where necessary. The rules will apply to the city of Leicester, as well as Oadby and Wigston in Leicestershire.
- Leicester’s mayor is “angry, frustrated” and “very disappointed” that some measures remain in place. Peter Soulsby said he believed the government had “released the Tory voters” from the restrictions in its amendment of the boundaries of the local lockdown, rather than focussing on the areas with a particular rise in cases.
- A further 66 people have died in UK hospitals, care homes and the wider community after testing positive for Covid-19. Although the Department of Health and Social Care death tally now stands at 45,053, the figures do not include all deaths including coronavirus across the UK, which are thought to have passed 55,000.
- Sage scientists advised the government to impose lockdown around a week before it was implemented. The government’s chief scientific adviser, Sir Patrick Vallance, told a science and technology committee that the group had advised the government to put the measures in place “as soon as possible” on the 16 or 18 March, after realising in mid-March that “we were further ahead in the pandemic than had been thought”.
- The government does not yet have capacity to carry out the 350,000 Covid-19 tests a day needed this winter. During the committee meeting, Vallance said the government “haven’t got the capacity to meet that at the moment”, in relation to a report by the Academy of Medical Sciences that suggested the tests would need to be carried out on people as they show symptoms of flu or coronavirus during the winter.
- Scotland has recorded its first coronavirus-related death in eight days. The first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, said the country’s total deaths now stands at 2,491, while 18,384 people have tested positive for the virus.
- About one in three companies plan to lay off staff over the next three months, a report has warned. The British Chamber of Commerce said 29% of businesses in a survey of 7,400 firms planned to cut the size of their workforce before November.
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Two of Manchester’s popular music venues have closed for good as a result of the economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic.
The Deaf Institute and Gorilla will remain closed after initially shutting down due to the lockdown.
Mission Mars, the company that owns both sites, confirmed the news on Thursday, describing it as a “difficult” decision announced with “great sadness”.
Roy Ellis, the chief executive and founder of Mission Mars, said: “The Deaf Institute and Gorilla have been at the forefront of the music scene in Manchester for many years and it is with great sadness that we announce that we will not be reopening.
“This difficult decision has been made against the backdrop of Covid-19 and the enforced closure of all of our sites and with continued restrictions upon opening of live music venues.
“We appreciate that these music destinations are well loved and have provided an early stage for many acts in the north-west and are therefore well known in the world of music.”
The number of staff who will be affected by the closures has not yet been made public.
You can read a full report from our music editor Ben Beaumont-Thomas here:
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Although Soulsby said he was “not surprised” by the government’s decision to keep some lockdown measures in place, he added that he was surprised they had chosen “to release from lockdown all of the Tory-voting areas around the city, and frankly that just looks nasty and party-political”.
While he accepted that the city’s infection rate was above the national average, he added: “Now that we’ve had all the data we’ve been asking for for weeks in perhaps 10% of the city. What he has chosen to do is to release from lockdown the areas in the county where you know a lot more Tory voters and to keep locked-down many parts of the city that have no greater prevalence of the virus than those that he’s released.”
“Frankly it has very little to do with focussing, as we ought to be, on where that virus really is.”
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Leicester mayor 'angry, frustrated, very disappointed' that some lockdown measures will remain
Leicester’s Labour mayor has said he is “angry, frustrated, very disappointed” about the news that some lockdown measures will remain in the city.
Peter Soulsby said he believed Hancock had “released the Tory voters, and left the Labour and Liberal voters locked in” in its amendment of where the localised measures apply.
The eased restrictions now apply to the city of Leicester, as well as Oadby and Wigston in Leicestershire.
He added that Leicester city council had only started to receive detailed data from the government two weeks ago. Now that they know where the spikes of cases are occurring, said Soulsby, local authorities could “work with those communities and ensure that with those communities are preventing the virus being transmitted.
“That’s what we ought to be doing, not playing silly party-political games,” he added.
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An important point from the science and technology committee earlier. The government’s chief scientific adviser has said the UK does not yet have the capacity to carry out 350,000 coronavirus tests a day over winter.
Sir Patrick Vallance made the comment in relation to a report by the Academy of Medical Sciences, which suggested 350,000 people would need to be tested daily as they show symptoms of either flu of Covid-19 during the winter.
Asked if the UK had such capacity, Vallance told the committee: “We haven’t got the capacity to meet that at the moment.”
However, he said he “believed” a plan was being developed, adding: “It’s essential.”
“The other question on this is whether you can do what’s called multiplex testing, so whether you can do something to test for multiple respiratory viruses at the same time, which would allow you to say: ‘you’ve got flu / you’ve got flu plus Covid / you’ve just got Covid’, and triage much more effectively.”
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Commenting on reports that Boris Johnson is due to encourage the further easing of lockdown and a wider return to work tomorrow, transport union TSSA has raised concerns about the government’s “bull in a china shop” approach to public health.
General Secretary Manuel Cortes said: “Johnson’s bull in a china shop approach to our serious health emergency has sadly sapped people’s confidence in what the government says or does.
“Mixed, conflicting messages appear to have been a core strategy - either by design or more likely through incompetence. Tomorrow’s expected announcement appears to be more of the same.
“We really can’t rebuild confidence that our government knows what it’s doing until at the very least we have a working track and trace system. Something which currently is completely off beam
Elsewhere, the former health secretary, Jeremy Hunt, has predicted that social care reforms could cost an extra £7bn a year, along with higher taxes to fund it.
The prime minister has promised to publish a plan for reforming the sector this year, although the current health secretary, Matt Hancock, has since said the coronavirus crisis could cause the timetable to be pushed back.
The Conservative manifesto said the changes would ensure that “nobody needing care should be forced to sell their home to pay for it”.
Hunt – who was Boris Johnson’s rival in last year’s Tory leadership contest – said the overhaul was likely to require tax hikes because of the country’s ageing population and the increase in wages for carers.
Speaking at a virtual Institute for Government event, the Commons health committee chair said:
We are all getting older so we’ve all got to pay for it, which is the short answer.
“I recognise that is going to mean an increase in taxes and I think we have to be honest with people about that.
“Precisely which taxes I think is a matter for the chancellor but I would favour a progressive approach to that decision.”
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The health secretary has also announced an issue related to some swab testing kits that have been distributed in the UK.
“We’ve identified some swabs that are not up to the usual high standard that we expect, and we’ll be carrying out further testing of this batch,” said Hancock.
“As a precautionary measure and while we investigate further, we’re requesting that the use of these Randox swab test kits are paused in all settings until further notice.
“This problem was brought to my attention yesterday afternoon. We contacted settings using these swaps last night, and published the pause notice immediately.
“Clinical advice is that there is no evidence of any harm, the test results are not affected. There is no evidence of issues with any of our other test swabs and there is no impact on access to testing.”
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“Some say the local lockdown is unnecessary. I wish this were true, but sadly it may remain vital for the health of everyone in Leicester, and the rest of the country, that these restrictions stay in place,” Hancock said.
“We’ll review them again in a fortnight. I hope that this careful easing of restrictions will provide some comfort to people in Leicester and Leicestershire.
“And I’d say this directly to people of Leicester and of Leicestershire, I pay tribute to all your perseverance and your hard work has brought real and tangible results, and you’ve shown respect for one another. I understand that this hasn’t been easy.”
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“The latest data shows that the seven-day infection rate in Leicester is now 119 cases per 100,000 people, and that the percentage of people who have tested positive is now at 4.8%,” said Hancock.
“These are positive indicators, especially in light of the huge increase in testing in the local area, but they still remain well above the national average.
“We’re now in a position to relax some, but not all of the restrictions that were in place.”
Some, but not all, lockdown measures lifted in Leicester
Some restrictions in Leicester will be relaxed, Matt Hancock says. From 24 July, restrictions on schools and early years childcare will be lifted.
Meanwhile, a “more targeted approach” will be taken towards non-essential shops. Local authorities will now have the power to close non-essential shops where necessary.
Pubs, restaurants, bars and other parts of the hospitality sector will remain closed in the city. Restrictions on travel, as well as only meeting up to six people, will also remain in place.
The eased restrictions will apply only to city of Leicester, as well as the Oadby and Wigston area of Leicestershire.
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Matt Hancock is now making a speech in the House of Commons on the local lockdown in Leicester.
“At the end of June we made the decision to close schools and on a central retail in the city, and not to introduce the relaxations that applied elsewhere from 4 July, like the reopening of pubs,” said Hancock.
“This was not an easy decision, but it was one that we had to take. At that point, the seven-day infection rates in Leicester was 135 cases per 100,000 people, which was three times higher than the next highest city, and Leicester was accounting for 10% of all positive cases in the country.
“This decision was taken with the agreement of all local leaders, and I’m grateful to the leader and officers of Leicestershire county council and to the officers of Leicester city council for their support and continued hard work. Since then, we’ve doubled testing in the city, and through a monumental programme of communications and community engagement.”
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The health secretary, Matt Hancock, is about to make a statement in the House of Commons.
Although further details about the content of his speech have not been provided, the government met on Thursday to decide whether Leicester’s lockdown will continue.
The family and friends of a railway ticket office worker who died of coronavirus after being spat at while on duty say the incident raises serious questions for her employer.
Belly Mujinga, 47, was working on the concourse of Victoria station in central London on the morning of 22 March when a man who said he had Covid-19 spat and coughed at her and a colleague. Within days of the assault, both women fell ill with the virus.
Mujinga, the mother of an 11-year-old girl, Ingrid, was admitted to Barnet general hospital and put on a ventilator but died on 5 April. Her cousin Agnes and a colleague who witnessed the incident said Mujinga had pleaded against working outside the protection of the ticket office without PPE.
You can read the full report from my colleagues Matthew Weaver and Vikram Dodd here:
One final – very important – point that Vallance made was that he said he saw “absolutely no reason” to change the advice on people working from home.
He told the committee of MPs:
I think my view on this, and I think this is a view shared by Sage (Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies), is that we’re still at a time when distancing measures are important.
And, of the various distancing measures, working from home for many companies remains a perfectly good option because it’s easy to do.
I think a number of companies think it’s actually not detrimental to productivity. And in that situation, absolutely no reason I can see to change it.
His comments come as the government is reviewing its guidance, in place since lockdown started, to work from home where possible. The prime minister said last week the public should “go back to work if you can”.
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Police are to step up checks on bus and tram passengers wearing face masks in Greater Manchester after authorities admitted compliance was falling sharply.
The mayor, Andy Burnham, warned that police could fine passengers £100 and stop them from travelling, in a sign policy is moving from encouragement to enforcement.
According to Transport for Greater Manchester, about 90% of passengers wore masks when they first became compulsory a month ago, but some bus operators are now reporting 50% compliance, while the figure has been dropping to 60% on the Metrolink tram service.
Burnham said: “From this week passengers will start to see an increased presence across the networks as we seek to project a safety-first approach and boost people’s confidence in our public transport network.
“Although we would rather persuade passengers to do the right thing and wear a face covering if they can, they need to be aware that we can ask them to leave or even fine them up to £100 if they refuse.”
Some reports suggest compliance is even lower. Kieran Dobson, 23, a live music event staffing manager from Chorlton, Manchester, said only one other passenger in seven was wearing a covering when he travelled this week on the lower deck of the 368 bus from Stockport to Wythenshawe. “The driver wasn’t wearing one, he was in close proximity to another guy without one – it was a bit of a shock that the driver wasn’t bothered. There’s no kind of enforcement at all … It’s people just doing what they want.”
According to a reply from the operator, Stagecoach, drivers were told not to confront passengers and it was “virtually impossible to police”.
On London buses, compliance remains at about 90%, according to Transport for London’s estimates. Graham Daly, head of compliance, enforcement and on-street operations for TfL’s buses, said: “We started more robust enforcement from the weekend of 4 July. Our emphasis is still fairly light touch, education, with a positive message about safety. While we have more punitive sanctions we can move to that as a last resort.”
He said that TfL staff had now “interacted” with 18,500 passengers since 4 July, and fined aabout 60 of them £100.
Daly said he hoped the new rules enforcing masks in shops, due to come in on 24 July, would help increase compliance, as well as perceptions around the safety of public transport: “It will give the idea that [mask-wearing] is ubiquitous and a normal thing to do.”
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The chief scientific advisor, Sir Patrick Vallance, has concluded his evidence to the science and technology committee.
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Northern Ireland’s Public Health Agency says it has identified a cluster of Covid-19 cases in the town of Limavady, Co Derry, believed to be linked “to a social gathering in a private/residential setting”. It said:
Testing and contact tracing is being conducted to identify people who may be potentially affected to help prevent any further spread.
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66 new coronavirus deaths in UK
Here is the latest on the UK death toll and infections from PA News:
The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) said 45,119 people had died in hospitals, care homes and the wider community after testing positive for coronavirus in the UK as of 5pm on Wednesday – up by 66 from 45,053 the previous day.
The figures do not include all deaths involving Covid-19 across the UK, which are thought to have passed 55,500.
The DHSC also said that in the 24-hour period up to 9am on Thursday, there had been a further 642 lab-confirmed UK cases. Overall, a total of 292,552 cases have been confirmed.
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There are more than 100 attempts to develop a vaccine currently in development across the world and the Oxford one is in front, says Vallance.
The most likely thing for any single vaccine programme is it won’t work ... Our assumption is we won’t have it and when we get it we will be thrilled ... The chances of having a 100% sterilising vaccine (which totally protects you) are low.
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Asked about R, Vallance says it “becomes a blunt and lagging tool” as the number of infections go down.
It was the right thing to measure early in the epidemic but “it’s not the right thing to be using now”.
He says indications as to a second wave will come from a higher proportion of positive tests.
Vallance told the committee that coronavirus was likely to be around for a number of years.
Asked about the potential of a second wave, he said what most people mean by this is essentially a re-emergence of the first wave, which has been suppressed.
But he told MPs that if there is an increase in cases in the winter: “You could argue that is the tail end of the first wave still.
“And I think it is quite probable that we will see this virus coming back in different waves over a number of years.”
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SAGE advised government to impose lockdown on 16 or 18 March
Vallance told the committee that SAGE advised the government to impose lockdown measures “as soon as possible” on the 16 or 18 March.
He said this happened as soon as data showed further restrictions were needed. “Looking back, you can see the data may have preceded that but the data was not available before that.”
Scientists realised in mid-March that “we were further ahead in the epidemic than had been thought”.
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Back to the Science and Technology committee, where chief scientific adviser has said the coronavirus lockdown “carries risks” to the public’s mental and physical health.
He told the committee it was “crucially important” that the indirect impact of the measures on people’s health were fully understood.
“I think the chief medical officer has been pretty clear about this, and that is the way this should be looked at... overall excess deaths,” said Vallance.
“If you look at overall excess deaths then you’re looking at the integrated effect of the virus itself with all the other reasons people may have suffered as a result of this.
“We do need to understand the impact of that and it’s very clear that lockdown itself carries risks, and those risks are to both physical health and mental health.”
Half a million fewer affordable houses will be built over the next five years unless there is a step change in supply, a commission has found.
In a report published today, the Affordable Housing Commission calls for a sustained ‘counter-cyclical’ social housing programme, with funding targeted at social rented properties for low income households – many of whom, the report found, are essential workers stuck in the more costly private rented sector.
The report, ‘Making housing affordable after Covid-19’ found that with government backing, a boosted social housing sector can also help improve housing conditions, reduce carbon emissions and combat poverty.
The Commission proposes a 12-point social housing-led recovery plan, which includes measures to: return housing grants to the previous levels which helped rescue the housing market after the global financial crisis, a new ‘Housing Conversion Fund’ for social landlords to buy unsold homes and other properties, reforms to the Right to Buy and Permitted Development Rights, caps on rent rises, strengthening the safety net for renters, and extending Help to Buy to existing properties for those on the margins of home ownership.
Lord Richard Best, chair of the Affordable Housing Commission, said. “As people face reduced incomes and potential unemployment, the need for truly affordable social rented homes becomes even greater.”
Darren Baxter, policy & partnerships manager at the independent Joseph Rowntree Foundation said: “High housing costs were a key driver of poverty in the UK before the pandemic and now with unemployment rising, many people risk being pulled into hardship and even homelessness if they can no longer afford to meet their housing costs.
“To prevent this, the government must strengthen the safety net for renters, so that our social security system can provide a lifeline for the thousands at risk of unemployment when the furlough scheme draws to a close. And as the task of rebuilding our economy begins, investment at scale in social and affordable housing must be a priority.”
For the full report see: www.affordablehousingcommission.org
19 more Covid-related deaths in hospitals in England
A further 19 people who tested positive for Covid-19 have died in hospital in England, bringing the total number of confirmed hospital deaths to 29,144.
NHS England said the patients were aged between 52 and 91 and all had underlying conditions.
Another 10 deaths were reported with no positive coronavirus test result.
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Vallance has been asked if the government was right to wait until a study that showed care home staff were at increased risk of catching the virus, and could pass it on to residents while showing no symptoms, was published earlier this month before they rolled out regular testing for care home staff and residents.
Vallance emphasised that Sage members are not policy-makers, but provide advice to the government. He added that Sage was giving the government advice on protecting care homes from coronavirus outbreaks “in February”, but cannot remember if it advised the government that staff and residents should be routinely tested.
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Asked his views on the UK’s response to the coronavirus pandemic not being “the most admired in the world”, Vallance said: “It’s clear that the outcome has not been good in the UK, I think you can be absolutely clear about that.”
He stressed that adequate “data systems” needed to be in place so that authorities had the necessary information to deal with emergencies such as the pandemic.
“It would have been absolutely preferable to have had much greater testing capacity earlier on, but it’s not just testing, it’s basic information flows around patients in hospital, rates of admission, rates of movement,” he said.
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Sir Patrick Vallance has just been asked if there were any instances in which the government had gone against scientific advice on Covid-19.
“In general, what I can be absolutely clear about is that those making policy decisions have heard and understood the scientific advice,” Vallance said.
“Clearly as the pandemic progresses and indeed as we get into release measures from lockdown there are many other considerations that need to be taken into account as well as the science.”
“What we’re doing is laying out the scientific reasons behind options from which people can choose and overlaying that with economic and other considerations is the job of government.”
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Patrick Vallance gives evidence to MPs
The science and technology committee is taking evidence in the House of Commons as part of its UK science, research and technology capability and influence in global disease outbreaks inquiry.
The government’s chief scientific adviser, Sir Patrick Vallance, and the health secretary, Matt Hancock, will both appear as witnesses on the latest developments in the scientific evidence on Covid-19, as well as the government’s response to the crisis.
You can watch the proceedings in the live link at the top of this blog.
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Contact tracing will not sufficiently reduce transmission of Covid-19 if a person is not tested within three days of developing symptoms, a new study claims.
Researchers said the R value, which is the number of people a single infected person will go on to infect, can be reduced from 1.2 to 0.8 through contact tracing in the “most optimistic scenario”.
But for that to work, at least 80% of eligible people must be tested, with no delays in testing after the onset of symptoms, and at least 80% of contacts must be identified on the same day as test results are received.
The study, published in The Lancet Public Health journal, found that if testing is delayed by three days or more, even a system that is able to trace 100% of contacts with no delays cannot bring the R value below 1.
Prof Mirjam Kretzschmar, one of the lead authors of the study, from the University of Utrecht in the Netherlands, said: “This study reinforces findings from other modelling studies, showing that contact tracing can be an effective intervention to prevent spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, but only if the proportion of contacts traced is high and the process is fast.”
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The Welsh chief medical officer, Frank Atherton, has said a spike in deaths in Ceredigion in mid Wales at the start of 2020 will be investigated but he believes it unlikely it is due to Covid-19.
The Plaid Cymru MP Ben Lake has called for the increase in deaths, around 20% above the average, to be looked into.
Speaking at the Welsh government’s daily press conference, Atherton said: “There are fluctuations and statistical changes that happen, and it may be a part of that,” he said.
“I’ve heard questions about: ‘Could there have been coronavirus earlier than Christmas?’, for example. I think that’s extremely unlikely, that coronavirus was in Ceredigion before it was in Wuhan.”
He said it was “unlikely to be a coronavirus effect” but that the director of public health in the county “will be looking at that with her colleagues in the health board and across the local authority”
Atherton said he would not describe himself as a sceptic on the benefits of face coverings. But he said that if too much focus was put on masks it was possible to lose sight of “bigger things” such as social distancing and good hygiene.
Three-layer face coverings will be mandatory on public transport in Wales from 27 July – but the country is not ordering people to wear them in shops.
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Wales has recorded no new deaths of people who tested positive for coronavirus, with the number remaining at 1,545.
Public Health Wales said on Thursday the total number of cases had increased by 18, bringing total infections to 16,871.
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Russian state-sponsored hackers are targeting UK, US and Canadian organisations involved in developing a coronavirus vaccine development, according to British security officials.
My colleague, Dan Sabbagh, reports that the UK’s National Cyber Security Centre said drug companies and research groups were being targeted by a group known as APT29, which it said was “almost certainly” part of the Kremlin’s intelligence services.
British officials would not say if any of the attacks had been successful in their goal of stealing medical secrets – although they stressed that none of the vaccine research had been compromised as a result.
You can read the full report here:
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Physical distancing will not be necessary in primary or secondary schools, or on school transport, according to the latest scientific advice published by Scotland’s education secretary, John Swinney, today.
But he added that the advice differentiates between younger children – for whom the risk of transmission is very low - and those in seniors 4 to 6, essentially young adults, said Swinney - for whom smaller groups might still be necessary because there is less clarity about the need for distancing.
With Scotland’s schools still aiming to return full-time on 11 August, Swinney said that the advice would now be turned into guidance by the end of the month, which would include specific measures for BME staff and pupils who are more at risk.
Responding to criticisms from Scotland’s children’s commissioner that young people had not been included in the dramatic changes being made to their education and support at the beginning of lockdown he said that he was “very committed” to including their voices.
Nicola Sturgeon also announced that one further death of a person who tested positive for coronavirus has been registered overnight, ending a seven-day run of no registered deaths.
The deputy chief medical officer, Nicola Steedman, also presented estimates showing the proportion of people with Covid-19 antibodies between the end of April and the end of June was 4.3%, which she said illustrated the relatively small portion of the country that had been exposed to coronavirus and the importance of ongoing distancing and hygiene measures.
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Labour leader Keir Starmer has called for the government’s “absolutely awful” handling of Covid-19 outbreaks in care homes to be a key focus of an independent inquiry.
He issued the demand the day after prime minister Boris Johnson committed to holding an independent inquiry to “learn lessons” from the crisis.
Speaking to reporters after visiting a care home in Gedling, Nottinghamshire, Starmer said frontline care workers had been “desperate” for access to tests, particularly in the early stages of the outbreak.
They have said to me that they were frustrated and disappointed,” he said.
“Even now the Health Secretary says there are weekly tests, and they are telling me they haven’t had tests for two weeks - they are still waiting for the next batch.
“It is very important there is the inquiry and we need a commitment from the Prime Minister that getting to the bottom of what happened in care homes will be a priority for that inquiry.
“I want him to make that commitment because what’s gone on in care homes has been absolutely awful.”
On Wednesday, Johnson told MPs he did not believe now was the right time for an inquiry but it would “certainly” happen in the future.
Britain has said Russia sought to interfere in the 2019 general election by illicitly acquiring sensitive documents relating to a planned free-trade agreement with the US and leaking them on social media.
The foreign secretary, Dominic Raab, said: “It is almost certain that Russian actors sought to interfere in the 2019 general election through the online amplification of illicitly acquired and leaked government documents.”
“Sensitive government documents relating to the UK-US free-trade agreement were illicitly acquired before the 2019 general election and disseminated online via the social media platform Reddit.”
He added: “The government reserves the right to respond with appropriate measures in the future.”
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The equivalent of 20 double-decker busloads of litter was left strewn across London’s royal parks over one month of lockdown.
In June, 62 extra tonnes of rubbish were left in the eight parks compared with the same month last year – an increase of a third.
Litter pickers spent more than 11,000 hours collecting more than 250 tonnes of rubbish in the same month.
Royal Park managers described it as a “never-before-seen level of littering”, with office furniture, face masks and pizza boxes among the abandoned items picked up by staff. Tom Jarvis, director of parks, said:
We’ve had lots of really nice messages from people thanking us for keeping the parks open and telling us how the parks have been a lifeline for them, particularly for those without gardens,” he said.
But the downside is the litter. We’ve never seen anything like this before.
Every day we wake up to unprecedented levels of litter, with PPE, pizza boxes, plastic bags and picnic scraps strewn all over the grass.
He added: “We’re asking everyone who visits the parks for a bit of help to spread some kindness this summer and help us look after the environment.
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People who are shielding in Wales will no longer need to do so after 16 August, the country’s chief medical officer has confirmed.
Dr Frank Atherton said the 130,000 people in Wales who have been advised to shield could go to work, school or shopping from that date. He added:
As the level of the virus in our communities is now low, shielding should pause from August 16.”
This means those who have been shielding can gradually resume day-to-day life, but taking extra care around physical distancing and hand washing.
“We will keep this under review and if we see transmission levels increase, we may need to consider advising the shielding group to take extra precautions and measures to protect themselves in the future.
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Figures released by the Department for Health and Social Care show that as of 8 July, an estimated 741,021 coronavirus tests had been carried out on workers in UK social care settings. The number includes symptomatic household members.
An estimated 352,946 tests have been carried out on care home residents. However, the estimates are not an indication of the number of people tested, as some people have been tested more than once.
Scotland records first Covid-related death in eight days
The Scottish first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, has begun her daily press briefing on coronavirus.
She confirmed that one further person who tested positive for Covid-19 died overnight in Scotland, taking the country’s total deaths to 2,491.
It is the first coronavirus-related death to be recorded in Scotland in eight days.
A further 11 people have tested positive for the disease, taking the total to 18,384.
There are 630 people in hospital with confirmed or suspected coronavirus, an increase of 19 on Wednesday. Of these patients, six are in intensive care, no change on yesterday.
You can follow our Scotland correspondent Libby Brooks on Twitter for more updates:
Word. At her daily briefing, Nicola Sturgeon says to parents: "I can only imagine the disruption that closure of childcare settings has caused..."
— Libby Brooks (@libby_brooks) July 16, 2020
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Economists have criticised the treasury’s “lack of transparency” on the chancellor’s Plan for Jobs, after it was revealed that the scheme will involve up to £10bn less spending on previously planned projects.
An analysis by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) has revealed that the proposals – which Rishi Sunak said could amount to up to £30bn in support – are partly funded by spending cuts on previously planned projects and investments.
All that extra money announced by govt last week not quite what it seems. https://t.co/iwaQROENHH
— Paul Johnson (@PJTheEconomist) July 16, 2020
The "Rooseveltian" additional £5.5bn of capital spending represents an increase of precisely zero this year on Budget plans. Is a reallocation from one set of projects to another
The thinktank said the failure to clarify this in its plans was “corrosive to trust”.
Sunak’s Plan for Jobs will ultimately cost around £20bn, the IFS said, adding that it was revealed with “much less fanfare” that there were reductions in previously planned spending.
According to the IFS, the Treasury’s decisions on funding for the devolved administrations suggest they expect these underspends to amount to almost £8bn, while the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) expects it to be around £10bn.
IFS associate director David Phillips said:
In its summer economic update last week, the UK government launched its £30bn Plan for Jobs.
What it didn’t say was that almost £8bn of that is to be paid for by spending less than previously planned on other things.
Indeed, the whole of the £5bn of additional capital spending trumpeted by the prime minister a couple of weeks ago in fact represents funding previously allocated to other capital projects which will no longer happen this year.
The IFS said the £2bn green homes grant announced by the chancellor is funded from within pre-existing spending limits, while almost half the £400m for traineeships and apprenticeships is reallocated money.
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The proportion of people receiving Covid-19 test results from regional or mobile testing units within 24 hours has fallen week-on-week.
Some 87.7% of people received the result within a day in the week ending 8 July, down slightly from 90.7% the week ending 1 July.
Last month, Boris Johnson pledged to get the results of all in-person tests back within 24 hours by the end of June
He told the House of Commons he would get “all tests turned around within 24 hours by the end of June, except for difficulties with postal tests or insuperable problems like that”.
The latest NHS Test and Trace data has been published by the Department of Health and Social Care.
Between 2 and 8 July, 3,579 cases were transferred to the service out of 3,818 people who tested positive for coronavirus in England.
Of these, 2,815 people (79%) were reached by tracers and asked to provide details of recent close contacts.
NHS Test and Trace data [2 July - 8 July]
— Department of Health and Social Care (@DHSCgovuk) July 16, 2020
➡️ 3,579 positive cases transferred to service
➡️ 79% reached to provide contacts
➡️ 13,807 contacts identified
➡️ 71% of identified contacts were reached and advised to self-isolate
Of the 13,807 people who were identified as close contacts, NHS Test and Trace managed to contact 71% and ask them to self-isolate.
Of the cases transferred to the service, 618 people – 17% – could not be reached, while an additional 146 could not be contacted because no contact details were provided for them.
I’m Amy Walker, taking over from my colleague Lucy Campbell. I’ll be updating you on the key UK coronavirus developments throughout the day.
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The government is to finally publish the greatly anticipated Russia report before the summer parliamentary recess begins next week.
A statement from the intelligence and security committee said:
The intelligence and security committee has unanimously agreed this morning that it will publish the Report on Russia prepared by its predecessor before the house rises for the summer recess. There will be no further comment.
The committee produced a report on alleged Russian interference in UK politics which was supposed to be published before last year’s general election. But the prime minister Boris Johnson withheld its release, promising it would be published “in due course”.
There will be more on this as we get it.
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Michael Gove has confirmed that up to five sites in Kent will be used as Brexit border facilities as the government confirms purchase of the vast Kent site for customs clearance and a lorry park.
Just days after the Cabinet Office minister said it was not the intent to use it as a lorry park, the Department for Transport has written to residents in Ashford to confirm the move, first revealed by the Guardian on Friday.
Local MP Damian Green, a former close ally of Theresa May, criticised the move on Monday as “wrong headed” attacking the lack of consultation on a scheme that would affect those who were buying new houses next to the site and the local hospital.
Full story here:
Here is Julian Lewis’ statement via Sky’s Beth Rigby.
Julian Lewis statement via PA
— Beth Rigby (@BethRigby) July 16, 2020
1/ PM doesn’t get to pick ISC chair
2/ He did not give undertaking to support Grayling
3/ Given Govt explicitly denied it was trying to parachute candidate in, it’s ‘strange’ to have whip removed for failing to vote for ‘preferred’ candidate pic.twitter.com/onAU63xjPt
The new chairman of parliament’s intelligence and security committee has condemned Downing Street’s attempt to impose its “preferred candidate” to lead the committee.
Lewis said he did not respond to a call to vote for former cabinet minister Chris Grayling as he considered it to be an “improper request”.
Lewis was expelled from the parliamentary Conservative party on Wednesday after securing the prestigious ISC chairmanship with the support of opposition members.
In a statement, he said that the 2013 Justice and Security Act explicitly removed the right of the prime minister to choose the ISC chairman and gave it to the committee members.
It was only yesterday afternoon that I received a text asking me to confirm that I would be voting for the prime minister’s preferred candidate for the ISC chair.
I did not reply as I considered it an improper request. At no earlier stage did I give any undertaking to vote for any particular candidate.
The Cabinet Office minister, Michael Gove, sidestepped questions about Lewis losing the Tory whip when asked about the issue in the Commons.
The shadow Cabinet Office minister Rachel Reeves asked:
Can the minister explain or justify the decision of his party to withdraw the whip from [Lewis], a Conservative MP for 23 years, former Royal Navy reservist and chair of the defence committee for the crime of being elected as a chair of the intelligence and security committee?
Losing the whip used to be the result of serious misdemeanour, not independent thought. What does this say about the government’s approach to expertise and scrutiny?
Gove, in his reply, said:
The intelligence and security committee’s membership is chosen by this house, an election was appropriately taken place, but whipping matters are quite properly matters for the respective whips’ offices of our parties and not for those like myself who exercise a different constitutional role.
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Away from the economy, the Times (paywall) reports that hopes are up for a successful coronavirus vaccine after two leading groups got positive early results.
The paper understands that a phase-one trial involving roughly 1,000 volunteers, a University of Oxford vaccine seems to have stimulated the desired response from the immune system, indicating encouraging levels of neutralising antibodies and the mobilisation of T-cells.
The Lancet medical journal will publish early-stage human trial data from the Oxford team on Monday.
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The UK’s largest arts complex, the Southbank Centre, has confirmed 400 jobs are at risk as it enters into talks with staff in an attempt to reduce losses caused by the Covid-19 crisis.
A spokesperson confirmed the news after workers were told about the cuts on Wednesday, which could lead to two-thirds of its staff being made redundant.
It joins several other British arts institutions in confirming job losses, including the National Theatre, which announced it would shed 400 casual staff, including its entire front-of-house team.
The recently announced £1.57bn arts recovery package has not stemmed the tide of redundancies affecting many venues.
Last week the Birmingham Rep said it may make 40% of roles redundant, and on Wednesday, the union Bectu said there was an urgent need for a timeframe for how the cultural recovery package would be distributed.
Around one in three companies plan to lay off staff over next three months, report warns
Almost a third of UK firms plan to lay off staff over the next three months in a further sign of the coronavirus pandemic’s devastating impact on Britain’s job market, according to a report.
The British Chamber of Commerce said 29% of businesses in a survey of 7,400 firms planned to cut the size of their workforce in the next three months, the highest percentage of companies planning to make redundancies since the BCC began tracking employment intentions in 1989.
The BCC said the survey was carried out prior to the chancellor, Rishi Sunak, announcing in the summer econmic update up to £30bn of fresh tax and spending measures last week to protect jobs and kickstart Britain’s economic recovery from Covid-19.
Despite those additional spending measures promised, the BCC said Sunak still needed to take further action to limit the damage for jobs, including a temporary cut in employer national insurance contributions and more funding for training staff.
Get the full story here:
Updated
If you’ve been made unemployed in the last three months, we would like to hear from you.
You can get in touch by contributing to our form or via WhatsApp by clicking here or adding the contact +44(0)7867825056.
For more in-depth analysis on the latest UK labour force statistics as well as rolling coverage of the world economy, eurozone, financial markets and business, head over to the Guardian’s business live blog, run by my colleague Graeme Wearden.
Updated
The business secretary Alok Sharma said many people were facing a “very, very difficult” time, following the publication of the latest unemployment figures.
“I think the best thing we can do is continue to open up the economy in a phased manner, a cautious manner, and get businesses up and running again,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
As a government, we have put in £160bn of support through the furlough scheme, through loans, through grants to businesses. If we hadn’t done that the economy would have been in a far worse position.
It is going to be very, very difficult for lots of people and we are going to do everything we can to support them and keep businesses going through this very difficult period.
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Around 500 jobs are being cut at luxury fashion firm Burberry in the UK and globally as it axes office space and makes cuts across stores outside Britain after lockdown sent sales tumbling.
The firm said around 150 office jobs were expected to go in the UK, where it is headquartered, and a further 350 overseas as it looks to slash annual costs by a further £55m. This comes on top of the previously announced £140m cost savings.
The cuts will affect around 5% of its 10,000 employees, including 4% of its 3,500 staff in the UK. It said it would also look to axe some office space as home working has proved successful amid lockdowns worldwide.
The details came as Burberry revealed comparable retail sales plunged 45% in the three months to 27 June due to the coronavirus lockdown closing stores and amid travel restrictions worldwide. Retail revenues were 49% lower.
It started the quarter with around 60% of stores closed, which reduced to 15% in June.
London was among the cities particularly badly impacted, as the firm makes much of its sales in the capital from tourist trade, which was been decimated by the grounding of planes during lockdowns.
Marco Gobbetti, the chief executive of Burberry, said:
Sales were severely impacted by the drop in luxury demand from Covid-19 and we expect it will take time to return to pre-crisis levels with the resumption of overseas travel.
He added:
As we enter the second phase of our strategy, we are sharpening our focus on product and making other organisational changes to increase our agility and generate structural savings that we will be able to reinvest into consumer-facing activities to further strengthen our luxury positioning.
The group also warned it expects its second quarter to the end of September to be “materially impacted” by the pandemic, with sales forecast to drop by up to 20%.This comes after comparable sales declines narrowed to 20% last month.
In retail, tourist flows are likely to remain negligible, and store operations are continuing to face significant headwinds, with some remaining closed and operating with reduced trading hours.
It said trading in the second half will “largely depend on the actions governments pursue to control the spread of the virus as economies restart”, including the potential for a second peak of the pandemic and additional lockdowns.
Updated
Here is the Guardian’s economics correspondent Richard Partington’s piece on the ONS figures.
The figures reveal that the number of hours worked in the UK plummeted between March and May at a record pace, the steepest drop since records began in 1971.
The England cricketer Jofra Archer has been dropped from playing the second test against the West Indies for breaking Covid-19 rules. After apologising to his teammates, Archer will now self-isolate for five days. More on this story to follow:
Mayor of Leicester 'angry and frustrated' at government's handling of avoidable 'blanket' local lockdown
Continued lockdown in Leicester is no longer justified, the city’s mayor has said as the government prepares to decide whether to make changes to the restrictions.
Sir Peter Soulsby claimed the government had got Leicester into a “messy situation” by its handling of the local lockdown.
He said government data had “finally” told city officials which areas of Leicester were worst affected by coronavirus.
He told BBC Radio Leicester:
If only we’d had this information in advance, we’d have been able to do what they’re now doing in Blackburn, which is actually working closely with the communities and avoiding having to be locked down.
I very much regret the fact that the government didn’t trust us with this data earlier but I think now we’ve got it, we are the ones well-placed here in the city to make sure that we use it effectively.
Speaking to Sky News, he criticised what he described as the government’s “blanket political-led lockdown” of the whole of the city, and said he was angry and frustrated.
Some streets have no issue at all and in other streets nearby you’ve got a major issue, and we needed to know that at the time so we could intervene with pinpoint accuracy.
Further advice needs to be given, support needs to be given, and we needed to know where that advice and support was needed.
Asked when he expected to learn whether the local lockdown was being lifted, he added:
The secretary of state is due to make an announcement this afternoon. I expect to hear when the rest of the city, and indeed the rest of the country hears - because frankly we have not been involved in any of the decision-making about this.
We have been told what the political decisions will be, and we will be told again what the political decision will be - whether or not we come out of it.
Asked what he hoped the health and social care secretary Matt Hancock would say, Soulsby went on:
I hope he’ll recognise that as a result of what we are already doing here in the city, we are dramatically driving down the transmission of the virus.
Now that we do know where we need to be focusing our attention, I hope that he will allow us and trust us at a local level to work with the people of the city - and to recognise that the other 90% of the city that has been locked down, along with the area that is of concern, should be allowed to go free with the rest of the country.
Asked what his reaction would be if the government announced a further two-week lockdown, the city’s mayor said:
I think if we are told that, there are going to be an awful lot of Leicester people who are very angry indeed.
It was quite clear that it was a political decision taken without the advice of Public Health England to take us into this lockdown in the first place.
It’ll be a political decision to let us out and the sooner that political decision is taken, the better.
Updated
The ONS figures show that vacancies fell 463,000 between March and May to a record low of 333,000 as companies froze hiring in the face of the coronavirus crisis.
The pace of job cut announcements has also showed no sign of slowing down in recent weeks, with some 75,000 job losses announced last month alone, according to recent analysis by the PA Media news agency.
This points to further grim jobless figures in the months to come.
The ONS data also showed pressure on wages, with average weekly wages including bonuses down 1.2% year over year in May - a sign of the impact of millions of furloughed workers on 80% pay.
Jonathan Athow, the ONS’s deputy national statistician, said:
Pay is now falling on most measures, with many furloughed workers not having their wages topped up by their employers.
Matthew Percival, director for people and skills at the CBI business group, told PA:
These figures show serious difficulties for hundreds of thousands of people, but unfortunately this is still only the beginning of the impact on the labour market.
Flattening the unemployment curve will remain paramount.
Updated
The shadow chancellor, Anneliese Dodds, has said the latest unemployment figures from the ONS underlined the need for continuing government support to those sectors particularly hard hit by the coronavirus crisis.
“Clearly there are some trends that can be discerned - the number of hours worked going down and the amount of economic inactivity going up as well,” she told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
I think this is a very concerning time because we could see that being worsened by changes going ahead with the furlough scheme.
We do think that for particularly badly affected sectors there does need to be continuing support, otherwise we will see extra waves of people potentially moving into unemployment or economic inactivity.
Updated
The ONS’s early estimates showed the number of paid employees fell by 1.9% year on year in June to 28.4 million, and by 0.3% compared with the previous month.
As we’ve reported earlier, this suggests the number of UK workers on company payrolls has fallen during lockdown by nearly two-thirds of a million as the coronavirus crisis claimed another 74,000 jobs last month.
The ONS said the pace of job losses appeared to have slowed in June, with claims under Universal Credit by the unemployed and those on low incomes falling by 28,100 between May and June to 2.6 million.
But the claimant count has more than doubled since March - soaring 112.2% or by 1.4 million - in a sign of the mounting jobs crisis.
The ONS said unemployment fell 17,000 between March and May to 1.35 million, with the rate unchanged at 3.9%. Experts said this masked a fall in employment, down 126,000 in the quarter to 32.95 million, with the rate dropping to 76.4%.
With 9.4 million people on furlough classed as employed, the true impact is expected to only be shown after the current support scheme ends in October.
Updated
The ONS figures suggest the increase in job losses were not as bad as many feared, partly due to large numbers of businesses placing employees on furlough. This suggests the full impact of the pandemic on jobs won’t be known until the furlough scheme ends in October.
But the early estimates show 649,000 fewer people in employment in June compared with March.
Early estimates for June 2020 show there were 649,000 fewer employees than in March. The largest falls were seen between March-April 2020.
— Office for National Statistics (ONS) (@ONS) July 16, 2020
These are experimental monthly estimates of paid employees from @HMRCgovuk PAYE Real Time Information data https://t.co/9LGc7LORlu pic.twitter.com/bhlI2NOwF0
ONS analysis suggests around half a million employees who said they were temporarily away from their jobs due to the pandemic were receiving no pay.
They also indicate that 76.4% of people aged 16-64 were in paid work between March and May.
76.4% of people aged 16 to 64 were in paid work in March to May 2020. The unemployment rate was 3.9% , and the 16-64 economic inactivity rate (those who were neither working nor looking for work) was 20.4% https://t.co/X0gj4iKmeA pic.twitter.com/1AXvNjAxzF
— Office for National Statistics (ONS) (@ONS) July 16, 2020
There was also an all-time record low level of vacancies between April and June, 333,000 - 23% lower than the previous record, which was April 2009.
ONS analysis also found that pay is now growing at a slower rate than inflation, especially in sectors where furloughing is more prominent.
Pay is now growing slower than inflation, especially in sectors where furloughing is most prominent.
— Office for National Statistics (ONS) (@ONS) July 16, 2020
The three lowest-paying industries saw a fall in average pay, in particular accommodation and food service activities https://t.co/IIIxpnIT5L pic.twitter.com/nPVjpkbiWa
Updated
649,000 fewer people employed in June compared with March, when UK went into lockdown, ONS figures suggest
Good morning! I’m Lucy Campbell, here to take you through the latest developments in UK politics and the coronavirus outbreak as the morning unfolds.
The number of UK workers on payrolls fell by 649,000 between March and June as the coronavirus crisis claimed another 74,000 jobs last month, according to the Office for National Statistics.
Jonathan Athow, deputy national statistician at the ONS, said:
As the pandemic took hold, the labour market weakened markedly, but that rate of decline slowed into June, though this is before recent reports of job losses.
There are now almost two-thirds of a million fewer employees on the payroll than before the lockdown, according to the latest tax data.
The Labour Force Survey is showing only a small fall in employment, but shows a large number of people who report working no hours and getting no pay.
He added:
There are now far more out-of-work people who are not looking for a job than before the pandemic.
If you would like to get in touch to share a news tip or suggestion, please feel free to get in touch with me as I work.
Email: lucy.campbell@theguardian.com
Twitter: @lucy_campbell_
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