Closing summary
Thanks for joining us today, we’re now going to close our UK-focused live blog. You can visit our global blog with my colleague Jessica Murray for further updates.
- A Covid-19 outbreak has been confirmed at a sandwich factory in Northampton which supplies Marks & Spencers after almost 300 people tested positive for the virus. The East Midlands town, where the site which employs more than 2,000 people is located, had already been identified as potentially facing a local lockdown (see 5.12pm). Earlier today, the World Health Organization downplayed the danger of coronavirus entering the food chain.
- The number of people waiting longer than 18 weeks for routine hospital treatment in England was more than 1.85 million in June – the highest since records began in August 2007. NHS England said this was likely to be a consequence of the coronavirus outbreak, with A&E attendances at hospitals in England down 30% last month compared with a year ago. More than half a million patients in England had been waiting more than six weeks for a key diagnostic test in June 2020.
- The Royal College of Surgeons of England’s president, Professor Neil Mortensen, said the new data on record NHS waiting times showed that coronavirus has effectively caused a “wrecking ball” to strike targets (4.07pm).
- Boris Johnson said the government will be “absolutely ruthless” in deciding whether to impose a requirement on people arriving in the UK from France to quarantine for 14 days (see 4.19pm).
- Public Health England did not issue any Covid-19 testing or case updates today due to technical difficulties.
Owing to technical difficulties with data processing, the England and UK cases and tests data is not expected to be updated today.
— Public Health England (@PHE_uk) August 13, 2020
The #COVID19 data dashboard is available here: https://t.co/XhspoyTG79
- The UK is not at the beginning of a second coronavirus wave, and is still trying to end the first, data suggests (see 1.15pm).
- A further 13 people who tested positive for coronavirus have died in hospital in England, bringing the total number of confirmed reported deaths in hospitals to 29,444, NHS England said.
In case you missed it, here are the statements from Greencore and Northamptonshire county council in relation to the Covid-19 outbreak at the sandwich factory.
A Greencore spokesperson said:
As a result of the rising number of Covid-19 cases in the Northampton area, we took the decision to start proactively testing all of the colleagues at our Northampton site. We can confirm that a significant number of colleagues have tested positive for the virus and are now self-isolating.
We are liaising closely with PHE East Midlands, Northamptonshire county council and Northampton borough council, who are fully supportive of the controls that we have on site. In each case we have immediately conducted contact tracing and instructed potentially affected colleagues to self-isolate.
All of Greencore’s sites have wide-ranging social-distancing measures, stringent hygiene procedures and regular temperature checking in place, and we are doing everything that we can to keep our people safe. As ever, the health and well-being of our colleagues is our number one priority.”
Lucy Wightman, Northamptonshire county council’s director of public health, said:
We are working with colleagues at Greencore in Northampton after the discovery of an outbreak of Covid-19 in the workplace. Public Health England Midlands have been providing support to colleagues at Greencore in managing the outbreak.
This has been supplemented by support from the local Infection Prevention and Control team and Northampton borough council’s environmental health colleagues. It is evident that Greencore has highly effective measures in place and they continue to work extremely hard to exceed the requirements needed to be Covid-19 secure within the workplace.
Northampton borough has been experiencing a high number of cases over the last four weeks and residents and employees have been asked to ‘act now’ to follow additional measures, to avoid a local lockdown or further government intervention.
Businesses and workplaces have worked alongside Northampton borough council and Public Health Northamptonshire to ensure they play a pivotal role in helping employees to understand the risks associated with car sharing, house sharing and sharing crowded areas during breaks or commuting to and from work. They have worked tirelessly in the main to ensure that they are compliant and that workplace procedures are adhered to at all times.
Individuals must now understand their role in acting responsibly outside of the work environment, to ensure that they protect themselves, their colleagues and those that they socially interact with, especially family and friends. The guidance in the workplace is just as important as outside of work.
If individuals do not take responsibility for following the guidance that we have issued, then further intervention and a possible local lockdown will follow. Everyone must be meticulous in following the guidance, especially in social environments where no markers or visual prompts tell you to stay apart, it must become part of our normal and we must all take our individual responsibility seriously.
Updated
No Covid-19 updates today due to technical difficulties, says Public Health England.
Owing to technical difficulties with data processing, the England and UK cases and tests data is not expected to be updated today.
— Public Health England (@PHE_uk) August 13, 2020
The #COVID19 data dashboard is available here: https://t.co/XhspoyTG79
Updated
Earlier today, the World Health Organization downplayed the danger of coronavirus entering the food chain by latching on to packaging.
The WHO head of emergencies programme, Dr Mike Ryan, told a briefing:
People should not fear food, food packaging or delivery of food. There is no evidence the food chain is participating in transmission of this virus.
Updated
A banana distribution centre in Coventry is also working with public health officials to contain a coronavirus outbreak, Sky News reported.
All staff at Fyffes Group Limited, at Cross Point Business Park, are to be tested as a precaution after 10 members of staff tested positive for the virus.
The management at the company are working with public health officials at Coventry city council, Public Health England Midlands and the Health and Safety Executive.
Updated
Covid-19 outbreak sandwich factory supplies M&S
The sandwich factory in the East Midlands where almost 300 people have tested positive for coronavirus (see 3.21pm) supplies Marks & Spencer.
Northampton, where the site which employs more than 2,000 people is located, had already been identified as potentially facing a local lockdown.
The Financial Times reported in May that Dublin-based Greencore also supplies Co-op, Sainsbury’s and Tesco, along with cafes and other food outlets.
One of those to test positive was the Bakers’ Union’s branch secretary for the factory, Nicolae Macari. He said he tested positive on 4 August, along with his mother and father – who also work at Greencore – and his wife. He told the BBC:
When suddenly three or four people are pulled out of a line because they have tested positive, people are terrified.
The company spokeswoman told the BBC that Greencore had “highly effective measures in place and they continue to work extremely hard to exceed the requirements needed to be Covid-19 secure within the workplace”.
She suggested the outbreak was “about how people behave outside of Greencore, not at work”.
Production is said to be continuing as usual as the plant, with no apparent concerns about the products.
In 2014, Greencore sought to recruit hundreds of staff for the factory from Hungary due to what it described as “very low unemployment” in Northampton, meaning few local people had applied for the positions locally.
However, there was speculation that the lack of local interest was down to low pay and unattractive working conditions.
Earlier this year, it was announced Marks & Spencer had poached a new finance chief, Eoin Tonge, from Greencore. He was reportedly paid a joining fee worth up to £2.5m in shares after giving up his right to Greencore stocks.
Sandwich sales slumped as people began staying at home and not going into work in March as food-to-go shops closed, but sales have since begun to recover.
In May, Greencore revenues were about 40% lower than a year earlier after sales of fresh meals initially dropped 70% but later recovered to 40%.
Updated
Afternoon summary
- The number of people waiting longer than 18 weeks for routine hospital treatment in England was more than 1.85 million in June – the highest since records began in August 2007. NHS England said this was likely to be a consequence of the coronavirus outbreak, with A&E attendances at hospitals in England down 30% last month compared with a year ago. More than half a million patients in England had been waiting more than six weeks for a key diagnostic test in June 2020.
- The Royal College of Surgeons of England’s president, Professor Neil Mortensen, said the new data on record NHS waiting times showed that coronavirus has effectively caused a “wrecking ball” to strike targets (4.07pm).
- Boris Johnson said the government will be “absolutely ruthless” in deciding whether to impose a requirement on people arriving in the UK from France to quarantine for 14 days (see 4.19pm).
- The UK is not at the beginning of a second coronavirus wave, and is still trying to end the first, data suggests (see 1.15pm).
- A further 13 people who tested positive for coronavirus have died in hospital in England, bringing the total number of confirmed reported deaths in hospitals to 29,444, NHS England said.
- An outbreak of Covid-19 has been confirmed at a sandwich factory in Northampton after 79 people returned positive NHS tests and a further 213 tested positive through the company’s private testing.
Updated
Funeral price cap proposals shelved due to Covid-19 impact on sector
The competition watchdog has been forced to abandon some of the remedies it was considering to mend the funeral sector because the coronavirus pandemic allegedly made them unsafe to implement.
The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said it would require funeral directors and crematoria to be more upfront with their pricing, but could not take some of the more radical measures that it had considered, such as price caps.
Martin Coleman, who chaired the CMA’s inquiry panel, said:
Given the inherently distressing circumstances in which people arrange a funeral, we want to make sure they can be confident that they are not being overcharged and that their loved one is cared for properly - this is what our investigation has focused on.
The CMA said it struggled to obtain the right data from overstretched funeral directors and crematoria, and therefore could not forecast the impact of price controls on their businesses.
It said the pandemic had created “insurmountable obstacles”, but planned to consider if it needed to carry out another investigation when conditions were more stable. The industry has been waiting 17 months to hear the CMA’s findings.
Insurance company Royal London had been pushing for funeral help for low-income families, and for information on pricing to be available in hospitals and care homes. It said:
It’s disappointing that the CMA’s investigation hasn’t resulted in the change we had hoped but it is encouraging to see that funeral directors will have to be more upfront with the pricing and services they offer.
While there has been change in the market since it was put under scrutiny by the CMA, there is more work to be done, particularly for low-income families who fall into funeral poverty.”
The outcome was positive news for the owners of funeral provider Dignity, where shares jumped more than 60% on the news at one point, after they had been performing poorly.
The CMA also said people in the UK were typically being overcharged by at least £400 – and possibly a lot more – when they paid for a funeral. However, it recognised this figure was “likely to underestimate the customer detriment per funeral significantly”.
Updated
PM: UK must be 'absolutely ruthless' with quarantine decisions
Boris Johnson has said the government will be “absolutely ruthless” in deciding whether to impose a requirement on people arriving in the UK from France to quarantine for 14 days.
His statement comes after the Guardian learned Netherlands and Malta were set to be removed from England’s travel corridor list but that ministers were still mulling over a decision on the UK’s nearest easterly neighbour.
The prime minister told reporters during a visit to Northern Ireland that officials would be looking at the latest coronavirus figures later today.
We have got to be absolutely ruthless about this, even with our closest and dearest friends and partners. I think everybody understands that.
We will be looking at the data a bit later on this afternoon - looking exactly where France and other countries are getting to. We can’t be remotely complacent about our own situation.
Everybody understands that in a pandemic you don’t allow our population to be reinfected or the disease to come back in.
That is why the quarantine measures are very important and we have to apply them in very strict way.
Updated
The Royal College of Surgeons of England’s president, Professor Neil Mortensen, has said the new data on record NHS waiting times (see 10.34am) showed that the responses to coronavirus have effectively caused a “wrecking ball” to strike targets. He added:
By law 92% of patients are supposed to be seen within 18 weeks, but today’s figures show the worst ever performance on record, with only half of patients getting treatment within this legal timeframe.
In June most planned surgery was suspended while the country rallied to flatten the first peak of coronavirus, so these record waits are understandable. Nevertheless, each of these numbers represents another patient waiting in need, potentially in pain, for hospital treatment.
Long waits have a knock-on effect on patients’ families, their jobs and the wider economy. It is a real crisis.
Updated
The looming crisis facing cities in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic has been underlined by new data which shows that the number of people on London’s West End shopping streets is still only a third of normal levels.
The figures came as the mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, warned that the capital faced an “existential threat” from the pandemic.
Eight weeks after all shops were allowed to reopen in England following a three-month lockdown, footfall in London’s West End remains 63% down on 2019 levels, according to the latest data from New West End Company, which represents 600 businesses across Oxford Street, Bond Street, Regent Street and Mayfair.
One in 10 Londoners are employed in the West End, and without a boost to consumer confidence, the capital’s premier shopping area is facing job losses of 50,000 and more than £5bn in annual sales, the NWEC warned.
Footfall had been rising slowly in the West End since the reopening of non-essential shops on 15 June, but has now plateaued. Research carried out on behalf of NWEC reveals that the majority of UK consumers are anxious about going on public transport.
The West End is also usually a prime destination for overseas tourists, but only a small fraction of the usual tourist numbers are in London this year.
Netherlands and Malta to be added to England's travel quarantine list
The Netherlands and Malta are set to be removed from England’s travel corridor list but ministers are still mulling over a decision on France, the Guardian has learned.
The transport secretary, Grant Shapps, met with ministers on Wednesday afternoon where it is understood it was decided the Netherlands and Malta would be taken off the list after a rise in Covid-19 cases in the countries, but that a decision on France was delayed.
Ministers at the meeting are also understood to have agreed that the British overseas territory the Turks and Caicos Islands, and the island of Aruba, a Dutch constituent country in the Caribbean, should be listed for removal.
The move to take the four locations off the list – which means arrivals from those places to England will have to quarantine for 14 days once the measures are imposed – was initially expected to be announced on Thursday.
However, it is understood Boris Johnson intervened to pause plans on Wednesday evening, with more time now being given to analyse Covid cases in France to see whether it should be removed alongside the other four locations.
Coronavirus outbreak at East Midlands sandwich factory
An outbreak of Covid-19 has been confirmed at a sandwich factory in Northampton.
The company took the decision to test workers as a result of a rise in cases in the town. A spokeswoman for Northamptonshire County Council said 79 people returned positive NHS tests and a further 213 tested positive through Greencore’s private testing.
In a statement, Greencore said:
As a result of the rising number of Covid-19 cases in the Northampton area, we took the decision to start proactively testing all of the colleagues at our Northampton site.
We can confirm that a number of colleagues have tested positive for the virus and are now self-isolating. We are liaising closely with PHE East Midlands, Northamptonshire County Council and Northampton Borough Council, who are fully supportive of the controls that we have on site.
In each case we have immediately conducted contact tracing and instructed potentially affected colleagues to self-isolate.
All of Greencore’s sites have wide-ranging social distancing measures, stringent hygiene procedures and regular temperature checking in place, and we are doing everything that we can to keep our people safe. As ever, the health and wellbeing of our colleagues is our number one priority.
Lucy Wightman, director of public health at Northamptonshire County Council, said employees have been asked to “act now” after the number of confirmed cases in the town increased from 66 in the week ending 2 August to 85 for the week ending 9 August.
We are working with colleagues at Greencore in Northampton after the discovery of an outbreak of Covid-19 in the workplace. Public Health England Midlands have been providing support to colleagues at Greencore in managing the outbreak.
This has been supplemented by support from the local infection prevention and control team and Northampton Borough Council’s environmental health colleagues. It is evident that Greencore has highly effective measures in place and they continue to work extremely hard to exceed the requirements needed to be Covid-19 secure within the workplace.
Northampton borough has been experiencing a high number of cases over the last four weeks and residents and employees have been asked to ‘act now’ to follow additional measures, to avoid a local lockdown or further government intervention.
Updated
The Kings Fund, the healthcare thinktank, has warned that people could be faced with lengthy waits for years to come, following the news that the number of people waiting longer than 18 weeks for routine hospital treatment in England is at the highest level since records began.
Gbemi Babalola, senior analyst at The King’s Fund, said:
The sheer scale of pent-up demand for healthcare services and the ongoing challenges facing staff during the pandemic mean there is a long and difficult road ahead.
Health and care leaders are already bracing for an intense winter spike in demand and patients should expect long waits for care to continue for many months and maybe years to come.
Updated
Dr Lilith Whittles, a postdoctoral researcher in infectious disease epidemiology at Imperial College London, has warned there is not enough immunity within the UK population to prevent a second wave of coronavirus infections.
At a Covid-19 webinar hosted by the Royal Society of Medicine on Thursday, she agreed that if local outbreaks were not managed correctly they could potentially lead to a second wave.
Speaking on the results of the largest study on home coronavirus antibody testing, led by Imperial College London, Dr Whittles said:
We’re nowhere near the level of population immunity that we would need to prevent the occurrence of a second wave. In a worst-case scenario of a second wave we could see a peak of a similar size to the first.
This comes after a study suggested around 3.4 million people in England have been infected with Covid-19, a figure far higher than previous estimates but one which equates to up to 6% of the population (see 7.35am).
Meanwhile, Ivan Browne, director of public health for Leicester, has suggested making test and trace more localised to help reach more people, as he described the centralised system as “ludicrous”.
He added that the government needs to refocus its narrative regarding the easing restrictions, as he expressed his concerns over schemes such as Eat Out To Help Out.
His comments came as the latest weekly NHS test and trace figures showed a drop in the 24-hour turnaround target for coronavirus “in-person” test results to just two-thirds, despite Boris Johnson pledging that all such tests would be back within that timeframe by the end of June.
The weekly figures showed that 67.4% who were tested for Covid-19 in the week ending 5 August at a regional site or mobile testing unit received their result within 24 hours - down from 76.9% in the previous week and 90.7% in the week to 1 July.
Overall, 74.2% of close contacts were reached in the week ending 5 August, up from 72.4% in the previous week, but down on the 90.7% reached in the first week of test and trace at the beginning of June.
Figures covering the whole 10-week period of the system showed that, in cases handled by local health protection teams, 97.9% of close contacts were reached and asked to self-isolate, but for cases handled either online or by call centres, just 56.7% of close contacts were reached and asked to self-isolate.
Browne said:
If we’ve got only 65% follow-up, which is what you’re seeing in many areas of the country, that leaves an inordinate amount of people that are not followed up and able to carry on going around their communities.
He added that one of the measures initiated in Leicester was individuals who could not be contacted through test and trace within the first 48 hours being passed across to the local authority.
This was particularly useful for households where an individual would be contacted and other members of the home would also be spoken to at the same time, Browne said, claiming this approach helped to follow up between 85% and 90% of individuals in Leicester, the first city in the UK to be placed in a local lockdown on 29 June.
Figures released on Wednesday show the infection rate in the city has gone up from 56.7 to 68.9 per 100,000, with 244 new cases.
The way the central system was set up was it takes everyone as an individual, which is ludicrous really.
This [the virus] has not gone away ... It’s still here. So, when we start talking about easements and it’s all going to be OK, we’ve got to stop that narrative. I have huge issues with things like Eat Out To Help Out ... when I’m walking up my road and seeing people queuing up, it’s a concern.
We’ve got to get a clear narrative of where we are, being in control and being cautious, and make sure we are not giving this virus the opportunity to pass on, because it will.
Updated
Thirteen more deaths in English hospitals from Covid-19
A further 13 people who tested positive for coronavirus have died in hospital in England, bringing the total number of confirmed reported deaths in hospitals to 29,444, NHS England has said.
The patients were aged between 49 and 90 and one patient, aged 86, had no known underlying health conditions. Another four deaths were reported with no positive Covid-19 test result.
Plans for comprehensive health devolution across England should be developed within the next year in the face of worsening inequalities amid the coronavirus pandemic, a report has recommended.
Democratically led local partnerships could help to create “healthy, resilient and prosperous communities”, the Health Devolution Commission said.
The group, made up of five former health ministers across the Conservative, Labour and Liberal Democrat parties, said there was a “compelling ‘burning deck’ of circumstances that requires an urgent and radical response”.
It said the pandemic had had a disproportionate impact on economically disadvantaged and black, Asian and minority ethnic communities, that people with health conditions like cancer and dementia had been badly affected, and that NHS and social care services were “deeply divided” while the demand for care was increasing.
Updated
Tui, Europe’s biggest holiday company, made a loss of €1.1bn (£994m) between April and June after the pandemic put a stop to travel and triggered a 98% fall in revenues.
The group, which began to take people on holiday again in mid-June, said the revival in demand was “encouraging” but that summer bookings were 80% lower than last year and that it did not expect demand return to normal until 2022.
The German company has reopened more than half of its hotels worldwide, including in Europe, Mexico, Egypt and the Caribbean, although they have an average occupancy rate of only 23% to allow for social distancing.
The firm’s cruise operations remain suspended until later in August.
Updated
Manchester’s night time economy tsar Sacha Lord has warned members of the public are not being honest about how many people are in their households.
Too many frontline hospitality staff are having to deal with customers simply not telling the truth about household numbers. I saw it myself last weekend. The public now play a major role in adhering to guidelines and helping save the hospitality industry.
— Sacha Lord (@Sacha_Lord) August 13, 2020
Andy Burnham, the mayor of Greater Manchester, has said infection rates in Oldham are a “major cause for concern”.
But he said he did not think the town should be subject to a tighter, Leicester-style lockdown “at the moment”.
“We want to continue with the current restrictions, but with much more high profile work on the ground in Oldham,” said Burnham at his weekly press conference.
Oldham has the highest infection rate in the UK at the moment, with 108.8 cases per 100,000 people as of four days ago.
The deputy mayor, Sir Richard Leese, the leader of Manchester city council, said the “vast number” of positive cases across the region were either asymptomatic or with very mild symptoms. Hospital admissions had halved week on week and not many people were calling 111, he added.
Infection rates were up in seven out of ten of the Greater Manchester boroughs, he said – with Wigan having the fewest cases and Salford and Trafford also on the decline.
Asked if Wigan could be released early from the tightened restrictions, with positive cases “in single figures”, Burnham said he wouldn’t support that now, but suggested he may rethink his position next week if their numbers continue to fall.
Wigan is testing fewer people than other boroughs, he warned, suggesting the numbers “aren’t fully comparable”.
Debt collector job vacancies up 20%, study suggests
The number of job adverts has increased, including a big rise in vacancies for debt collectors, a study suggests.
The Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC) said adverts in the first week of August rose to the highest weekly total since the lockdown began.
There were 1.1 million vacancies in the week starting August 3, up from 1.04m the previous week, although this remains well below the 1.35m before the first week of March, said the report.
Last week also saw the highest number of new job postings since lockdown began, with almost 126,000 adverts between 3-9 August. REC said hiring “hotspots” included parts of Northern Ireland and London.
There has been a “notable” rise in job adverts for gardeners, construction workers, painters and decorators, bricklayers and LGV drivers, and a 20% increase for debt collectors, said the report.
Neil Carberry, chief executive of REC, said:
The latest economic data tell a stark story of the scale of the lockdown recession, but now it is all about how quickly we recover. Many firms will face cash struggles in September and October, so redundancies will be with us for months to come and unemployment will rise, but a recovery is under way, as today’s tracker data shows.
Construction sites have reopened, logistics companies are dealing with high demand, and with people spending more time at home, many have been looking to spruce up their house and gardens.
Updated
More than one-in-three people may not return to work for their employer if they don’t trust them to make workplaces safe, a new study suggests.
Half of 2,000 workers surveyed by insurance giant Aviva said they felt positive about the prospect of returning to offices after the lockdown.
Where businesses have not put risk management and prevention strategies in place, employees may decide not to return to work at all, the report suggested.
It was also clear there was a long way to go before businesses are compliant with practical guidance from the government to make work environments safe, said Aviva.
Three-out-of-five respondents said they believed their employer will make their work space safe to return to, but 35% do not trust their employer and may not return to work for them.
The risk of infection, as well as physical distancing and travel issues were workers’ main concerns.
Chris Andrews, of Aviva, said:
As Britain gets back to business after lockdown, employees want to know that their employers have taken all the necessary steps, and what those steps are.
That means not just taking action but engaging with employees on their concerns and clearly communicating what is in place and addressing anything that remains unresolved.
Our research shows that the biggest employee concern for returning to work is infection from colleagues and customers. Risk management and prevention strategies, once perceived as red tape, are now essential for businesses in order to keep their people and their customers safe as they open their doors again.
Whether devising safe working conditions in a factory, or ensuring orderly social distance in a retail setting, businesses need to consider how they will minimise the risk of infection for their employees and their customers.
An incident management team is investigating whether a new coronavirus cluster in Orkney is linked to the ongoing outbreak in Aberdeen, which resulted in a local lockdown just over a week ago.
Nicola Sturgeon referenced three different clusters at her daily briefing as she warned that this week’s R number is likely to be above 1, in part due to the inclusion of the ongoing Aberdeen outbreak in some of the modelling.
She said that 26 of the 47 new cases reported overnight across Scotland were in the Grampian area, and that Aberdeenshire council had decided to delay reopening a primary school in Peterhead, while a household cluster was being investigated and contact-traced.
There is also an Orkney-based cluster of at least nine cases, which includes residents of other NHS boards who have travelled across the isles - and Sturgeon confirmed that there are investigations into a link with the Grampian outbreak.
Thirdly, there is a cluster of eight cases under investigation in Greater Glasgow & Clyde, including some students who go to Bannerman high school – but she emphasised that none of those students had actually attended the school, since they are self-isolating at home.
Sturgeon said that while clusters of this kind are “inevitable” and “should not cause undue alarm”, they were a “stark reminder that this virus still poses a risk to us”. She added:
We should become more used to hearing about several different clusters because the virus hasn’t gone away ... Covid is still present and it will spread really rapidly if it gets the opportunity.
She also raised a particular concern about house parties – making the plea especially to young people - saying that they present “a considerable risk” and warning that what happens within houses is harder to monitor “so it is more important that good judgment is used”.
Sturgeon also said that safety equipment manufacturer Alpha Solway has been awarded a £53m contract to supply personal protective equipment (PPE) for NHS Scotland.
The contract will provide 232m surgical masks, 6m respirator masks and 2m visors.
She added:
This order, that will support 200 new jobs in Dumfries, is expected to meet the needs of our health and social care sector in relation to surgical masks and visors between now and next summer. It will also meet most of the sectors’ requirements for respirator masks. This contract is a really important step in ensuring that Scotland has secure supplies of PPE for the foreseeable future.
Updated
UK still trying to end first Covid-19 wave, data suggests
The UK is not at the beginning of a second coronavirus wave, and is still trying to end the first, new data suggests.
There were 1,434 daily new cases in the UK on average over the two weeks up to 8 August, excluding care homes, according to the latest Covid Symptom Study app figures.
The latest figures are based on the data from 10,988 swab tests taken between 26 July and 8 August. The latest prevalence figures estimate that 24,131 people in the UK currently have symptomatic Covid-19.
According to the data, the amount of symptomatic coronavirus nationally has remained stable. The numbers are still higher in the north of England but have slightly decreased since last week. The figure does not include long-term Covid-19 sufferers.
The Covid Symptom Study app’s prevalence estimate is lower, but still within the confidence bounds of the most recent ONS Infection survey last week, with an estimated 28,300 people in England during the one-week period from July 27 to August 2.
Developed by healthcare science company, ZOE, the app has been downloaded by more than 3.9 million people in the UK. Data collected is shared with and analysed by King’s College London.
Tim Spector, professor of genetic epidemiology at KCL, said:
It’s encouraging to see that the numbers are coming down slightly across the UK and that the isolated outbreaks in the north of England appear to be well contained so far.
This is further confirmation that we aren’t at the beginning of a second wave and rather, still trying to end the first. The figures also suggest that the outbreaks we are seeing in other countries such as Belgium, France and Spain aren’t having an effect here in the UK yet.
On top of this, the hot weather which caused concern by making many flock to crowded beaches and parks doesn’t seem to be having the predicted negative impact. Overall, we are pleasantly surprised by the figures this week, which are back down to the early July levels and hope that the good news continues.
The Covid Symptom Study app’s Watch List highlights key areas of concern so they can be focused on.
This week a number of new locations have made the list, including the first area in Scotland, Dumfries and Galloway, Thurrock in Essex, and more regions in the north of England, St Helens, Middlesbrough, Blackpool and Lancashire, PA Media reported.
Blackburn with Darwen has fallen from the top spot to sixth in the table, while Halton in Merseyside has moved to the top slot, making it the one to watch.
When an area of concern is highlighted, it means enhanced testing can take place to help confirm if the situation needs further action such as a localised lockdown.
Updated
Air pollution Covid-19 effect less than previously thought - ONS
Air pollution may have less of an effect on the risk of dying from coronavirus than previously thought, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) has said.
Previous research suggested that toxic air with high levels of pollutants such as fine particulate matter known as PM2.5 and nitrogen dioxide which are harmful to health could be increasing Covid-19 deaths.
But analysis by the ONS has found that while the pollutants may correlate with increased mortality rates from Covid-19, the scale of the impact may be smaller than reported in earlier studies, PA Media reported.
Death rates have generally been higher in polluted areas, but that does not on its own mean toxic air is worsening the risk from the virus, the assessment said.
Poorer communities and people who are black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) have seen higher death rates from the virus, and are also likely to suffer from worse air pollution. The study assesses which contributory factors to mortality fates are most impactful.
The statistical analysis grouped areas across the country according to levels of deprivation, population density and average exposure to PM2.5 over five years to account for regional differences in infection rates.
It included 46,471 deaths of people in England between March 7 and June 12, using a model that also took into account factors such as pre-existing health conditions and smoking rates. It also looked at ethnicity.
At the start of the pandemic, deaths involving Covid-19 were more common in highly polluted areas, but the trend decreased and then levelled out as the death toll rose and the country went into lockdown.
The early link between exposure to dirty air and Covid-19 deaths appears to be partly down to the outbreak in London, where pollution levels are generally higher than the rest of the country, the ONS said.
As the virus spread and deaths became more evenly distributed across England, the correlation between air pollution exposure and Covid-19 mortality decreased, the study found.
Overall, the assessment found that, without taking ethnicity into account, long-term exposure to fine particulates PM2.5 could increase the risk of contracting and dying from Covid-19 by up to 7%.
But if ethnicity is factored in, air pollution exposure has no statistically significant impact on Covid-19 deaths, it said.
BAME people are more likely to live in inner city areas that are more polluted, but dirty air is just one of the many factors that could be driving the worsened death rate for minority ethnic groups, the ONS said.
As a result, the apparent increased risk of dying from Covid-19 seen without taking ethnicity into account is likely to be an overestimate of the true effect.
The ONS said the study’s findings were inconclusive, and understanding the role of pollution would require analysis of the individual details of people who died from the disease.
Prof Alastair Lewis, from the National Centre for Atmospheric Science, University of York, who advised the ONS on the design of the study, said:
The study shows that some of the early associations made between exposure to air pollution and an increased risk of Covid-19 mortality were artificially enhanced because the disease initially spread in large cities. As Covid-19 became more evenly distributed through the UK over time, the effect of air pollution on mortality became less pronounced.
The ONS analysis shows that long-term exposure to air pollution does still potentially increase the risk of mortality from Covid-19 but by perhaps less than has been reported in other studies that looked at the effects early in the pandemic.
But he said areas with a large fraction of their population from ethnic minorities experienced higher levels of both nitrogen dioxide and PM2.5.
Ethnic minority communities have been some of the most affected by Covid-19 and it is very plausible that higher exposure to air pollution will be a contributory factor.
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Private hospital owner Spire Healthcare has said it is now available “to support the NHS to reduce waiting lists” after helping the health service during the pandemic
The company expects to swing to a loss in the first half of the financial year as it looks to return to normal after changing the terms of a contract it signed with the NHS in March at the onset of the pandemic.
The changes will set aside a minimum number of beds for private patients at Spire’s hospitals, after more than 46,000 NHS admissions were treated over the first six months of 2020.
The company said it is seeing “increasing confidence and demand” from private patients. Spire said it will swing to a pre-tax loss of between £24m and £29m in the period, compared with a £10m profit in the first half of last year.
The company said it is also planning to bid for contracts which start from towards the of the year to help shorten NHS queues.
Spire said in a statement to shareholders:
NHS England has signalled that it expects to conduct a procurement process to tender for providers to help reduce the NHS waiting list, which Spire Healthcare expects to participate in.
Growing call numbers and bookings, and indications from insurance partners, show a steady return of the private market, which, combined with strong NHS demand, provides the company with confidence for the medium term.
Spire Healthcare will now be available to support the NHS to reduce waiting lists whilst growing private activity and remains committed to focusing on its private business over the medium term.
Since the launch of NHS test and trace, 214,890 close contacts of people who have tested positive for Covid-19 have been reached through the tracing system and asked to self-isolate, according to official figures.
This is 81.5% out of a total of 263,515 people identified as close contacts. The remaining 48,625 people (18.5%) were identified as close contacts, but were not reached.
The weekly figures show that 74.2% of close contacts were reached in the week ending 5 August, up from 72.4% in the previous week, but down on the 90.7% reached in the first week of test and trace, on the week ending 3 June.
The NHS test and trace figures also show that for cases handled by local health protection teams 97.9% of close contacts of people who tested positive for Covid-19 have been reached and asked to self-isolate.
By contrast, for those cases handled either online or by call centres, 56.7% of close contacts have been reached and asked to self-isolate over the whole 10-week period of test and trace.
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New contact-tracing app trial in Isle of Wight and Newham
Residents of the Isle of Wight, the London borough Newham, and NHS volunteer responders across England will be part of a new contact-tracing app trial, the Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC) has said.
The app will include alerts based on postcode, QR check-in at venues, a symptom checker and a way to book tests, using Google and Apple-developed technology.
Trials will start from Thursday on the Isle of Wight and with NHS volunteer responders across England, followed shortly by Newham residents, as part of the country’s NHS test and trace service.
“There is no silver bullet when it comes to tackling coronavirus,” said Dido Harding, executive chair of the NHS test and trace programme.
“The app is a great step forward and will complement all of the work we are doing with local areas across the country to reach more people in their communities and work towards our vision of helping more people get back to the most normal life possible at the lowest risk.”
It comes after an analysis showed infection rates dropped dramatically on the Isle of Wight following the launch of an NHS contact-tracing phone app pilot, which was later scrapped in an embarrassing government U-turn.
The new service will log the time and distance a user has spent near to anyone, even if they don’t know them, so it can alert them if necessary if that person later tests positive for Covid-19.
DHSC has also released the most recent statistics for the test and trace service.
The results from 93.6% of tests at our drive through, walk through and mobile testing units were returned the next day.
— Department of Health and Social Care (@DHSCgovuk) August 13, 2020
For the quickest results, book a test at one of these testing sites. Find your nearest site on Google Maps.
Read the full report ⬇️https://t.co/3Tq379NWlX pic.twitter.com/ac6E5mOjYo
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Nobody should be put off seeking help from the health service if they need it, an NHS spokesman has said.
NHS staff have worked around the clock to treat 108,000 people for coronavirus since the pandemic escalated in March, including record numbers getting help through NHS 111, whilst also providing nearly 10 million urgent tests, checks and treatment for non-Covid issues, and 85,000 treatment starts for cancer patients, in a safe way.
Now that we are through the first wave, local NHS staff are restoring non-Covid services, which have the capacity to treat those needing urgent, emergency and other essential care, so nobody should be put off seeking help from the NHS when they need it, whether through NHS 111, their GP, a pharmacist or hospital.
Hospitals have successfully and quickly cared for patients urgently referred by their GP, with over 92% of urgent cancer referrals being investigated within two weeks, and 85,000 people starting treatment for cancer since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic.
More people are now coming forward for a cancer check, with 45,000 extra referrals this month, and the key point remains that anyone who is concerned about a possible symptom should contact their GP and get a check-up.
The UK’s largest charity supporting people with arthritis, Versus Arthritis, has said that those with the condition have “borne the brunt” of disruption to treatment during the pandemic.
Liam O’Toole, CEO of the charity, said:
The figures reveal the stark reality for millions of people with arthritis who have borne the brunt of disruption to treatment during the pandemic. Many are still without a surgery date and continuing to wait in ongoing pain and uncertainty.
Waiting times before the pandemic were bad enough – though we can see more figures for June show little improvement. Urgent action is needed to prioritise joint replacement surgery as part of NHS recovery planning. Without this, people with arthritis will be left feeling that their pain is being ignored.
The pain of arthritis is impossible to ignore. We need action to bring down waiting times safely and end the pain of delays.
In the UK, more than 10 million people have arthritis or other similar conditions that affect joints, according to the NHS.
Sara Bainbridge, head of policy and influence at Macmillan Cancer Support, said that the 21% drop of urgent cancer referrals by GPs suggested “an alarming backlog of undiagnosed cancer” as well as a growing number of people yet to start treatment.
This could directly impact on many of these people’s chances of survival. To ensure services are able to catch up we need the government to deliver the recovery plan promised and continue to address the scale of the challenge by securing more staffing and resources.”
She urged people with cancer symptoms to contact their GP “to limit the potentially detrimental, long-term impacts of delays in diagnosis”.
Dr Nick Scriven, immediate past president of the Society for Acute Medicine, said:
These are worrying times for the NHS given the threat of a second wave of Covid-19 in addition to all of the other pre-existing issues such as bed capacity, staffing, funding and social care provision.
Performance remains poor and concerning and, with what we know will be a challenging winter ahead, it will take more than a token cash injection announced by the prime minister this week to make up for years of neglect.
We are particularly worried by the ongoing crisis in accessing diagnostic tests with the total number of patients waiting six weeks or more from referral for one of the 15 key tests at 540,600 - 47.8% of the total number of patients waiting - which, given the target is 1%, is scandalous.
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London City airport has announced a “temporarily pause” to its expansion project as it waits for passenger demand to return.
The airport said it is halting its £480m scheme at the end of the year as it acknowledged levels of travel seen in the pre-Covid-19 market “will take longer than initially expected” to come back.
New aircraft stands, a parallel taxiway and new passenger facilities are due to be completed by this stage, but a major extension of the terminal building will be delayed.
London City, close to the capital’s financial district, was the UK’s 12th busiest airport last year, handling 5.1 million passengers.
It was closed for nearly three months from 25 March because of the coronavirus pandemic. The airport has since reopened, but is anticipating that passenger numbers for this year will be “well down” on the 2019 total.
The airport’s chief executive, Robert Sinclair, said:
For the time being, we have taken the decision to focus our attention on delivering the vital additional airfield infrastructure which will provide our existing and prospective airline customers with the potential to bring new generation aircraft to this airport in greater numbers, which will be a crucial aspect of how we build a better, more sustainable airport.
Completing the terminal extension and new east pier very much remains part of our future and, with the foundations for both in place, we stand ready to take those projects forward when demand returns.
In the months ahead we will work with airlines and government to help restore confidence to the UK aviation market and we will continue to support our local authority and our communities as they plan for life beyond the crisis.
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Half a million patients in England waiting over six weeks for key diagnostic test
Thanks Helen, and hello to everyone. Readers can also contact me on Twitter.
With NHS waiting lists are now the longest since records began (see 10.34am), more than half a million patients in England had been waiting more than six weeks for a key diagnostic test in June 2020, after having been referral.
A total of 540,593 patients were waiting for one of 15 standard tests, including an MRI scan, non-obstetric ultrasound or gastroscopy. The equivalent number waiting for more than six weeks in June 2019 was 40,099.
Emergency admissions at hospitals in England fell last month, down 15% from 554,069 in July 2019 to 472,646 in July 2020.
NHS England also said this was likely to be a consequence of the coronavirus outbreak, with A&E attendances at hospitals in England down 30% last month compared with a year ago.
A total of almost 1.6 million attendances were recorded in July 2020, down from around 2.3 million attendances in July 2019.
NHS England, which published the figures, said “significantly lower” attendances compared with the previous year were “likely to be a result of the Covid-19 response” - suggesting that people are still staying away from A&E departments because of the coronavirus outbreak.
The 30% year-on-year drop for July compares with a fall of 33% recorded in June, 42% in May and 57% in April.
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That’s all from me for now as I scuttle back to old-school news reporting. Mattha Busby will be looking after this blog for the rest of the day, so please do send story tips to him: mattha.busby.freelance@theguardian.com
Ta-ra.
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Bar and restaurant trade halved in July
UK pub, restaurant and bar chains have said that sales halved in July compared with last summer after reopening for the first time after lockdown.
Sales in July were 50.4% lower year-on-year, according to data from the latest monthly Coffer Peach Business Tracker of hospitality firms.
Bar sales tumbled by 63.3% for the month, while restaurant sales dived by 59.8%.
Pubs were more resilient, with sales falling by 44.7%, according to the tracker, which collates figures from 49 group-owned or managed companies that run more than 7,500 sites across the UK.
London was worst hit, down by 58.3% in July across venues, while trading outside the M25 was down by 48.5%.
The tracker also revealed that 76% of sites which had been open in February were open again in July.
Analysts expect to see a sharp upturn in August for venues serving food as a result of the government’s Eat Out To Help Out voucher scheme.
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NHS England waiting lists longest since records began
The number of people waiting longer than 18 weeks for routine hospital treatment in England was more than 1.85 million in June - the highest since records began in August 2007.
New data from NHS England shows the number of people waiting more than 52 weeks to start hospital treatment in England rose to 50,536, up from 1,089 in June last year, and the highest number for any calendar month since February 2009.
The number of patients admitted for routine treatment in hospitals in England was down 67% in June compared with a year ago.
A total of 94,354 patients were admitted for treatment during the month, down from 289,203 in June 2019.
However, 76% of patients in total for admitted and non-admitted pathways were seen within 18 weeks in June.
NHS England figures also show that a total of 153,134 urgent cancer referrals were made by GPs in England in June 2020, down from 194,047 in June 2019 - a drop of 21%. This is the number of people referred to a cancer consultant by a GP for a first appointment.
Urgent breast cancer referrals showed an even bigger drop: down from 14,885 in June 2019 to 8,495 in June 2020, a fall of 43%.
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More insight into the study of 100,000 people that found just 6% of people in England have probably had Covid-19.
Prof Graham Cooke, the research professor of infectious diseases and research lead at Imperial College, said the data would have “important implications” as decisions are taken to ease lockdown restrictions in England.
He said the numbers are still “relatively small” as a proportion of the country’s population and show that a complete relaxation of lockdown would result in a resurgence of the virus.
He told the PA Media news agency: “Clearly the numbers are still very big and that explains the high levels of mortality we’ve seen but as a proportion of the overall population it’s still relatively small, except in some groups where the prevalence is higher such as for people of Asian and black ethnicity.
“But obviously it means that if we had relaxation of the lockdown completely, we wouldn’t have a very protected population so we would expect the virus to return and so I think that has implications for decisions that are made.”
The study tracked the spread of infection across England after the pandemic’s first peak, with volunteers testing themselves at home between June 20 and July 13.
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If you’re wondering why I haven’t mentioned the ongoing row over exam grading in England and Wales, it’s because there is a special A-level results day live blog:
There is an interesting piece in the Manchester Evening News today looking at whether Greater Manchester is likely to remain subject to the extra lockdown restrictions for another week.
Jen Williams reports that overall, local officials want the measures to stay in place for another week — despite heavy lobbying from Tory MPs representing areas with low infection rates. They should hear later on what the government wants to do, though legally there doesn’t have to be a review of the measures until 19 August, next Wednesday.
Around 2.8 million people live in Greater Manchester’s 10 boroughs, but rates vary wildly.
Oldham remains the big outlier. Yesterday it recorded the highest daily infection rate in England, at more than 100 cases per 100,000, and leaders are openly worried about it becoming “another Leicester”.
By contrast, Wigan has remained in single digits, roughly flat at around seven cases per 100,000. Williams suggests if any borough is released early from the extra restrictions, it will be Wigan — though probably not for another week.
As Williams notes, many Greater Manchester residents travel daily across boroughs for work or play, making it hard to contain the virus. Others have jobs in neighbouring local authorities also subject to the enhanced lockdown, such as Pendle in east Lancashire and Calderdale and Kirklees over the border in West Yorkshire.
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In Blackburn with Darwen — which now has the third highest rate of Covid infections, behind Pendle in Lancashire and Oldham in Greater Manchester — the director of public health says the national test and trace systems have so far only been able to contact tracing for about 54% of Blackburn local cases.
“This low rate of contact tracing completion has been a challenge to our capacity to control the community spread of Covid-19 in Blackburn with Darwen,” writes Dominic Harrison in a column in the Lancashire Telegraph.
Welcoming the government’s recent decision to give power contract tracing powers to local authorities, Harrison says the national system just wasn’t good enough, with just three contacts recorded per positive case in Blackburn.
As of 11 August, Blackburn has a confirmed Covid-19 case rate of 77.9 per 100,000 and a positivity rate of 4.2%. The positivity rate is the percentage of all those getting tested who test positive.
Harrison says Blackburn is testing at a rate of 267 per 100,000 – the national average is about 94 per 100,000.
Failing to trace the contacts of confirmed cases has hampered efforts to control the spread of the virus in Blackburn, writes Harrison:
In the seven days to the 4 August, Blackburn with Darwen had 121 confirmed cases. With only 54% of the contacts being traced – even at a rate of three per case – this suggests a large number of residents will have a higher and un-notified risk of being positive for Covid-19 in the borough. They will not have been directly contacted, may not therefore have got tested and are subsequently not self-isolating if positive.
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Yesterday the Department of Health and Social Care reduced the UK’s death toll by more than 5,000 following a review of how figures are calculated.
Professor David Spiegelhalter, the Covid data guru from the University of Cambridge, suggests the old way of totting up the deaths was “ridiculous”.
Talking on Radio 4’s Today programme, Spiegelhalter discussed how misleading Public Health England’s “daily dashboard” — which listed the number of positive cases and deaths in each area — is.
“People have been watching this daily figure and haven’t realised how ridiculous it is,” he said.
But he insisted the new calculations do not change the fact “we have done very badly and there has been a very large numbers of death”.
Asked whether the previous figures unnecessarily scared the nation into staying at home and not wanting to go back to work, Spiegelhalter said: “I do think on the whole people are rather too cautious, rather too fearful, and the communication hasn’t helped in that.”
Study estimates up to 6% of population of England have had coronavirus
Around 3.4 million people in England have been infected with Covid-19, a figure far higher than previous estimates, a study suggests.
Prof Helen Ward from Imperial College, one of the lead authors, has just been on Radio 4’s Today programme discussing the study, which gave 100,000 volunteers simple finger-prick home testing kits.
Asked why the entire population hasn’t been given tests so that we can all find out if we have had coronavirus — a move Boris Johnson once declared a “game changer” — Ward said:
These kits are very good for the kind of research we have done, that is they can tell us how common it is in the population. For any one individual, the result isn’t 100% accurate – actually no test is – but for this one it will miss some people who have had the infection and will give false results in some people who haven’t. But they are small numbers and we can adjust for that when we do 100,000 tests.
The bigger uncertainty actually is: what does it mean? I don’t think it’s a game changer because we don’t know if you have antibodies you are at reduced risk and how long, if you are at reduced risk, that lasts. So in terms of individuals who have done this test we say: even if you are antibody positive you may still be at risk.
Another day dawns and with it our indefatigable coronavirus live blog. Good morning from sunny Stockport. I’m Helen Pidd, the Guardian’s north of England editor, and I will be keeping you updated until 11am, whether you like it or not. Please send any story tips to helen.pidd@theguardian.com
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