That’s all from me, Caroline Davies, for today. Once again, thank you for your time. Live coverage continues on our global live blog:
Updated
Summary
Here’s a summary of some of today’s major UK coronavirus news:
- Nicola Sturgeon has apologised to tens of thousands of Scottish teenagers whose exam results were downgraded last week and promised urgent changes to their awards.The first minister attempted to defuse a growing crisis for her government by confirming that her deputy, John Swinney, would lay out proposals to regrade results in the Scottish parliament on Tuesday.
- NHS test and trace is cutting 6,000 contact tracer jobs and allocating roles to regional teams to work with councils, following criticism by local authorities that the centrally-run system was failing to tackle local outbreaks.
- At the launch of the “Time Out to Help Out” campaign to ensure workers still get paid when they are asked to self isolate, Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham said schools were “exposed to the risk of real harm” if the government doesn’t step in.
- A newly described disease that occurs in children and is linked to Covid-19 has caused significant changes in white blood cells, experts say.
- A survey by Scotland’s largest teachers’ union, the EIS, has found a large majority of teachers are worried about the safety of reopening schools this week, with most saying they wanted smaller class sizes, much greater cleaning and priority testing for pupils and staff.
- Boris Johnson has reaffirmed Downing Street’s warning that it will “not hesitate” to impose quarantine restrictions on countries, as fears grow that France is next to be removed from the government’s travel corridor list amid a rise in Covid-19 cases.
- Education secretary Gavin Williamson, said the “latest research … one of the largest studies on the coronavirus in schools in the world” – makes it clear “there is little evidence that the virus is transmitted at school”.
- Rape survivors are among those voicing deep concerns about the stigma and ensuing “mask rage” attached to not wearing a face covering in shops, on transport and in other public places, prompting calls for better recognition of legitimate reasons why people are exempt.
- The UK government’s “eat out to help out” scheme triggered a surge in the number of people visiting high streets and shopping malls last week, especially during the evenings.
Updated
UK records 21 new coronavirus deaths
Revised figures on the government’s coronavirus data dashboard last updated at 5.53pm [see earlier posting at 16.47]. It is now saying 21 deaths, bringing the total to 46,526.
Updated
NHS test and trace is cutting 6,000 contact tracer jobs and allocating roles to regional teams to work with councils, following criticism by local authorities that the centrally-run system was failing to tackle local outbreaks.
The government announced on Monday that local and national teams would work together to make sure they reach as many people as possible who have been in contact with someone who has coronavirus. The change means that the number of national contact tracers will be reduced from 18,000 to 12,000 on 24 August.
Currently, a national system is used to contact those who are at risk of having contracted the virus but the move means tracers will focus on specific areas and if they cannot make contact with a resident within a set period of time, local public health officials can use the data provided by NHS test and trace to follow up.
Read the full report by Sarah Marsh and Josh Halliday here:
Scientists have called for routine Covid testing of teachers and pupils alongside a robust test-and-trace system, amid a debate over how to safely reopen schools in England, Nicola Davis reports.
On Sunday, the children’s commissioner for England, Anne Longfield, said teachers and pupils should have weekly tests, but Nick Gibb, the schools minister, ruled out the idea, saying instead that those who are symptomatic should be tested.
Now researchers behind a report from Delve, a multidisciplinary group convened by the Royal Society, have said routine testing will be necessary when the majority of children return to school.
Dr Ines Hassan, a researcher in the global health governance programme at the University of Edinburgh and a lead author of the report, said the group were recommending the widespread and regular screening of all staff in schools, including those who are asymptomatic.
Read Nicola’s full report here:
Those planning on heading to Greece for a summer vacation will be greeted with a night curfew from Monday for restaurants and bars in some of its top tourist destinations after coronavirus infections hit a new high.
A government spokeswoman also announced new entry restrictions for Balkan arrivals and passengers flying in from several EU countries.
Health Minister Vassilis Kikilias said the infection curve was “rising dangerously.”
Areas in which eateries and bars will be closed from midnight to 07:00 am include the popular islands of Mykonos, Santorini, Corfu, Crete, Rhodes, Zakynthos and Kos, spokeswoman Aristotelia Peloni said in a televised address.
Some of these destinations are known for late-night clubbing.
The cities of Thessaloniki, Larissa, Volos and Katerini were also affected, as was the Halkidiki peninsula which is popular with Balkan visitors.
The restrictions will be in place from Tuesday to August 23. In addition, all passengers on flights from Belgium, the Czech Republic, the Netherlands, Spain and Sweden arriving from August 17 must provide a negative COVID-19 result obtained up to 72 hours before entry, as must all land border arrivals.
And only 750 people will be allowed in daily from Albania as of August 16,
The UK has recorded a further eight coronavirus deaths, according to today’s update on the government’s coronavirus data dashboard. The official headline total for deaths is now 46,574.
This is a Public Health England figure for the UK as a whole.
The PHE figure is suspect because it includes people in England who tested positive for coronavirus and died - even if they died of something else.
But the main problem with the headline total is that it is an underestimate because it does not include people who died from coronavirus without testing positive.
Edit: the dashboard is now saying 21 deaths bringing the total to 46,526.
Updated
The TUC will hold its annual congress at its London conference centre over two days next month, it has been announced.
A small invited group will be present in Congress House on September 14 and 15, while union members across Britain will join the event online.
TUC20 will focus on the impact of coronavirus and what action is needed to protect jobs and livelihoods in the weeks and months ahead.
The TUC general secretary, Frances O’Grady, and the Labour leader, Sir Keir Starmer, will deliver their keynote speeches in person.
Other items on the agenda include demands for a pay rise for key workers, and debates on safe working, public services, the challenges facing parents and shielded workers and the impact of Covid-19 on BME workers. O’Grady said:
Working people must not pay the price of the pandemic, and the government must act now to stop mass unemployment. Congress is our chance to come together and debate our priorities for the year ahead. We will hear from the leader of the opposition, from union general secretaries and from frontline and key workers.
This year’s Congress has to be different, to keep us all safe. We are delighted to be able to welcome trade unionists and working people from across the UK to join Congress online.
Updated
Away from coronavirus, there been reaction to the Guardian exclusive that Downing Street is planning a controversial intervention to reverse the record decline in rape prosecutions by imposing targets on police and prosecutors.
In a highly unusual move, the prime minister’s crime and justice taskforce is planning to set targets for police to refer more high-quality rape cases to the Crown Prosecution Service and for the CPS to prosecute and bring more rape cases to trial, the Guardian reported this morning.
The shadow attorney general, Lord Falconer has now put out a statement, explaining why political interference would compromise the CPS.
He said:
The number of rape prosecutions has fallen dramatically over the last few years because the CPS unduly raised the bar for bringing cases to court. The CPS, not Downing Street, must decide in individual cases who is prosecuted. Rape prosecutions in England and Wales are at their lowest ever, but they can increase without compromising CPS independence. More needs to be done to ensure that victims have faith that the criminal justice system will be there to support them throughout.
Boris Johnson’s spokesman denied that a target would be imposed, my colleague Peter Walker reports.
“No,” he said. “Quotas or numerical targets would undermine prosecutorial impartiality where cases are individual by nature, and require a specific set of considerations in each instance.
“We are determined to protect victims of and to give them the confidence that everything will be done to bring offenders to justice.
“A review of the criminal justice response to rape and to sexual offences was commissioned in March last year by the National Criminal Justice Board. That review is due to report in the autumn, and I wouldn’t want to pre-empt its findings or recommendations.”
Asked whether this timetable was too slow, the spokesman said: “I don’t think that is the case. We are determined to do everything that we can to ensure that these appalling crimes are tackled effectively and victims are supported, but it’s obviously very important that we do this in a way that is sensitive and gets this right.”
Updated
One senior local health official, who did not want to speak on the record, said he interpreted the move as “the government saying we can’t do this only from London”.
Whether or not you interpret it as shifting the blame and responsibility [to local teams], I wouldn’t go that far but it’s a reflection that it can’t be either/or - it has to be both [local and national].
The work of two local authority chief executives who were seconded to the national test and trace system – Carolyn Wilkins of Oldham council, and previously Tom Riordan of Leeds council – is said to have “definitively swung the balance” towards local leaders in recent weeks.
Directors of public health were expressing increasing frustration with the centrally-run national system before the shift in approach. One said:
If you look on a map, it’s really clear: there’s probably one case a week in Surrey. It’s not quite like that in Blackburn with Darwen, for instance.
We’ve shifted from a single, universal pandemic across the whole country to a series of localised flare-ups. That’s why the nimbleness and ability to get on top of things at a local level really does matter.
People who have been in contact with confirmed coronavirus cases may get a knock on their door if tracers are unable to reach them over the phone under plans to strengthen regional test and trace powers in England announced by health officials.
In pilot schemes, this has meant that local authorities have been able to visit people at homes where national contact tracers have been unable to reach them. It comes after criticism that the national system was not tapping into local knowledge.
Now, NHS Test and Trace will provide local authorities across England with a dedicated team of contact tracers for local areas.
The government announced plans to strengthen regional contact tracing so more people can be reached. Dido Harding, the executive chair of NHS Test and Trace, said:
NHS Test and Trace is one of the largest contact tracing and testing systems anywhere in the world, and was built rapidly, drawing on the UK’s existing health protection networks, to stop the spread of coronavirus.
At the height of the pandemic, we ensured the system had extra capacity in place to cope with potential peaks in the virus.
We have always been clear that NHS Test and Trace must be local by default and that we do not operate alone – we work with and through partners across the country.
As we learn more about the spread of the disease, we are able to move to our planned next step and become even more effective in tackling the virus.
After successful trials in a small number of local areas, I am very pleased to announce that we are now offering this integrated localised approach to all local authorities to ensure we can reach more people in their communities and stop the spread of Covid-19.
Updated
At the launch of the “Time Out to Help Out” campaign to ensure workers still get paid when they are asked to self-isolate, Greater Manchester’s mayor, Andy Burnham, has said schools – particularly those in poorer areas – would be “exposed to the risk of real harm” if government doesn’t step in.
If this issue is not fixed, we will not be reopening schools in the safest way that we possibly can. We would be leaving a situation in place where people aren’t being supported to do their duty and self-isolate and consequently we will be allowing more of the virus to circulate in communities than should be.
The reality is that it will be schools in some of the poorer communities that will be most at risk because of the higher number of people living in those communities in low-paid, precarious work.
Frances O’Grady, the TUC general secretary, said schools were partly staffed by many low-paid workers in insecure often-outsourced contracts who, unless the government offers them support, will face “making that choice between doing the right thing by your community and your family taking a big hit financially”.
That isn’t good for our public health. I hope the government will see sense and see this as a critical part of that schools reopening plan.
And Liverpool’s mayor, Steve Rotheram, said a fortnight without pay “really could push many people into destitution, into arrears with rent, especially if they don’t qualify for the meagre pittance that is SSP or if they’re paid weekly”.
Updated
A newly described disease that occurs in children and is linked to Covid-19 has caused significant changes in white blood cells, experts say.
The discovery may allow doctors to better assess their young patients’ condition and predict their resistance to current treatments, a new study suggests.
Paediatric inflammatory multi-system syndrome temporally associated with Sars-CoV-2 infection (Pims-TS) is a new disease which shares some features with Kawasaki disease, as well as toxic shock syndrome.
Scientists looked at blood samples from children admitted with the diseases to Birmingham children’s hospital during the UK’s lockdown. They found large changes in the monocytes, a type of white blood cell, in patients with Pims-TS and Kawasaki disease, according to a pre-print which has not yet been peer-reviewed.
The co-lead author Dr Graham Taylor, from the Institute of Immunology and Immunotherapy at the University of Birmingham, said:
Our study is the first to reveal that Kawasaki’s disease and Pims-TS are both characterised by profound changes in the numbers of monocytes and their genetic make-up.
Our results require confirmation in a larger patient cohort, but the changes we have observed are likely to be highly relevant, potentially allowing us to predict the disease resistance of children with Pims-TS and Kawasaki’s disease, as well as identifying alternative therapies for both diseases.
Updated
Six new Covid-related deaths in England
A further six people who tested positive have died in hospital in England, bringing the total number of confirmed reported deaths in hospitals to 29,419, NHS England has said.
The patients were aged between 65 and 93 and all had known underlying health conditions. No deaths were reported with no positive Covid-19 test result.
The region with the highest number of deaths was the south-east with four. There were also two deaths in the north-east and Yorkshire but all other regions of England recorded no deaths for the same time period, including the north-west, where local lockdown measures are in place around Greater Manchester, according to the official figures.
Updated
Here’s a little more detail on those reports that France could be the next country to be added to the quarantine list.
Downing Street has said any changes to the list could be made “very rapidly”, adding: “We keep the data for all countries and territories under constant review. The spokesman said the pandemic meant “there isn’t a risk-free way of travelling overseas”.
Last month, the UK government announced that travellers to the UK from Spain would have to quarantine for 14 days on their return to the country. Luxembourg, Andorra, the Bahamas and Belgium were also added to the UK’s 14-day quarantine list last week.
Over the past four weeks, the weekly rate of new confirmed cases in Spain has risen steadily, from 13.5 per 100,000 people in the seven days to 17 July to 25.9, 34.3 and most recently 55.1 in the seven days to 7 August.
The rate is now roughly half the level it was at peak of the outbreak, when nearly 120 new cases per 100,000 people were being recorded each week in late March. In France, the seven-day rate for the past four weeks is still well below that of Spain, but it has shown an increase: 5.6, 8.3, 10.7 and 13.5.
Updated
A survey by Scotland’s largest teachers’ union, the EIS, has found a large majority of teachers are worried about the safety of reopening schools this week, with most saying they wanted smaller class sizes, much greater cleaning and priority testing for pupils and staff.
The survey, which had nearly 28,500 responses, found 60% supported the return of schools from 11 August but “remain concerned about the spread of Covid-19”, while nearly 25% objected to schools resuming “as I think stronger mitigations are needed”.
A majority of teachers were also unhappy about Nicola Sturgeon’s assertion, supported by ministers in England, that the scientific advice supported the return to schools without physical distancing.
Nearly 35% said they felt uncomfortable with no distancing, while 24% said they felt very uncomfortable. Fifty-three per cent said they believed face coverings should be mandatory for teachers in the classroom, with 28% disagreeing. Scottish government advice is that face coverings are not recommended except where teachers cannot remain 2 metres apart from other adults in school.
The union said 73% wanted to see smaller class sizes, rather than allowing many to stay at 30; 72% wanted priority testing for asymptomatic staff and 57% for asymptomatic pupils; 65% wanted far more cleaning in school. Just over 44% wanted PPE to be available to staff, including aprons, gloves and goggles.
Larry Flanagan, the EIS general secretary, said: “Our survey findings confirm that, even as they return to schools across the country today, Scotland’s teachers are extremely concerned about the risks associated with potential Covid-19 infection in schools.
“There is significant concern amongst all teachers on issues such as the large number of pupils in each class, inability to maintain social distancing, and the need for the wearing of face coverings to ensure safety in some circumstances.
“These concerns grow more acute based on the age of pupils being taught, with secondary teachers expressing a particularly high level of concern over the potential risks of teaching young adults for long periods of time in an enclosed classroom environment.”
Updated
Johnson says he 'will not hesitate' to impose new quarantines if needed
Boris Johnson has reaffirmed Downing Street’s warning that it will “not hesitate” to impose quarantine restrictions on countries, as fears grow that France is next to be removed from the government’s travel corridor list amid a rise in Covid-19 cases.
Ministers are said to be closely monitoring the situation in France – which recorded its highest increase in cases since May on Friday – with holidaymakers facing a nervous wait to see if the country will be dropped from the government’s list of countries from where arrivals are exempt from 14-day quarantine measures.
Speaking on Monday, Johnson said: “I don’t want to advise people about their individual holidays, individual decisions. They should look at the travel advice from the Foreign Office clearly.
“But what I will say, and I hope people would expect us to do this, in the context of a global pandemic, we’ve got to keep looking at the data in all the countries to which British people want to travel.
“Where it is necessary to impose restrictions or to impose a quarantine system, we will not hesitate to do so.”
The chancellor, Rishi Sunak, issued a similar warning last week. Meanwhile, asked whether France would be added to the quarantine list later this week, the prime minister’s official spokesman said on Monday: “We keep the data for all countries and territories under constant review.
“Any decisions to update the exemption list will be informed by the latest health data and we can and will act rapidly if we judge that the public health risk not requiring travellers to self-isolate increase beyond an acceptable level ... We have been updating the exemptions list on a weekly basis in order to make sure that it reflects the changes in the international health picture.”
Updated
The actor Antonio Banderas has confirmed on Twitter that he is suffering from coronavirus. In a message posted on 10 August, his 60th birthday, the actor said he was forced to celebrate in quarantine but reassured followers that his health was largely unaffected.
Quiero contaros lo siguiente... pic.twitter.com/u579iBVLM0
— Antonio Banderas (@antoniobanderas) August 10, 2020
Updated
Mayors launch campaign to get pay for self-isolating people
The mayors of Greater Manchester and Liverpool have launched a campaign to ensure workers still get paid when they are asked to self-isolate.
The Manchester mayor, Andy Burnham, and his Liverpool city region] counterpart, Steve Rotheram, are calling for employees to receive their full normal wage if they are asked to isolate at home, which employers should then be able to claim back from the government, PA Media reports.
They joined the Trades Union Congress (TUC) in launching the “Time Out to Help Out” campaign after figures revealed 22,000 people have been requested to self-isolate in Greater Manchester already.
Failing to do so could put thousands of families at risk of “financial hardship”, campaign leaders have argued.
The mayors said self-employed people should be able to claim for loss of earnings in the same way as the payments are made to those required to go on jury service or under the self-employed income support scheme.
They say where an employee is receiving statutory sick pay, the employer should be able to claim back the difference between that and their normal wage from the government.
Burnham said: “NHS Test and Trace will never work properly until all employees are supported to follow its requests. It’s right that everybody plays their part in helping to get Covid-19 under control.
“But what’s not right is forcing some of our workers – many doing the lowest-paid jobs or self-employed – to make a choice between self-isolating or face a drastic loss of income.”
Updated
On the question of mask-wearing, rape survivors are among those voicing deep concerns about the stigma and ensuing “mask rage” attached to not wearing a face covering in shops, on transport and in other public places, prompting calls for better recognition of legitimate reasons why people are exempt.
A number of rape and sexual abuse survivors have told the charity Rape Crisis they are so scared of being confronted and verbally abused for not wearing face masks that they are avoiding places where they may be challenged.
“A significant proportion of rape survivors had their mouths or noses covered, or were choked or smothered, as part of the abuse and violence they experienced,” said Kate Russell, national spokesperson for Rape Crisis England and Wales. “Covering their face and nose now can trigger flashbacks, panic attacks and severe anxiety.”
You can read Donna Ferguson’s report on this subject here:
Less than half of teachers believe their school has done enough to prevent cybersecurity problems, at a time when pupils have been forced to shift to learning on line from home during the pandemic, according to a survey.
Around 51% said they were unsure or disagreed that their school was well equipped to tackle such issues.
Internet Matters research of more than 1,000 teachers revealed that over a third (36%) have received no information from schools on cybersecurity in the past year, while only one in five (20%) say they were given training after lockdown began.Some 45% of teachers said they feel pupils have a better knowledge of cybersecurity than they do.
Carolyn Bunting, chief executive of Internet Matters, said:
The research highlights how online safety needs to remain a top priority for parents as tech is playing an even bigger role in children’s lives. Following lockdown, children are relying on their devices to socialise, for their downtime and increasingly, for their education.
We’re urging parents to familiarise themselves with cybersecurity risks head-on this summer as children’s use of connected devices is on the rise and devices remain vital to their education when they return to lessons.
Having regular, honest and open conversations with your child about both their personal safety and cybersecurity issues is vital in helping them navigate their online world safely and responsibly.”
The findings come as part of a joint initiative between the online child safety organisation and cybersecurity firm ESET.
ESET’s Julian Roberts said:
Now, more than ever, tackling cybersecurity needs to be a top priority for schools as they may be increasingly forced to turn to the online world to support their pupils and their educational needs. Cybercriminals are constantly evolving their methods and organisations that oversee young people using technology must be fully equipped to not just tackle potential issues but educate as well.
Updated
The UK government’s “eat out to help out” scheme triggered a surge in the number of people visiting high streets and shopping malls last week, especially during the evenings, Julia Kollewe reports
Between Monday and Wednesday – the first days of the half-price meal offer – footfall rose 18.9% after 6pm across the UK’s high streets, shopping centres and retail parks, according to the retail analysts Springboard. The scheme also boosted visitor numbers at lunchtime, between 12pm and 2pm, when they rose 9.6%.
Smaller market towns benefited the most, with footfall up 25% over the first three days of last week, while regional cities recorded a 19.2% gain.
Over last week as a whole, visitor numbers at high streets, malls and retail parks rose 3.8% from the week before. High streets benefited the most, where footfall was up 4.5%.
You can read Julia’s full report here:
Updated
Wearing masks in shops is compulsory from today onwards in Northern Ireland but rank and file police officers have warned that they alone cannot impose Stormont’s new anti-coronavirus measure.
Shoppers risk a £60 fine if they enter retail outlets across the region without a mask.
The Police Federation for Northern Ireland (PFNI) however emphasised today that their members cannot enforce mandatory face coverings on their own.
Mark Lindsay, the PFNI chairman, said it would be “an impossibility” to have a police officer checking masks in every shop in every city and town in Northern Ireland.
Lindsay said: “It is not solely an issue for police officers. Yes, officers will be the final bulwark in enforcement, but retailers will also have a major part to play in making this mandatory instruction workable and effective.
”The vast majority of people will comply because they know the stakes couldn’t be higher.... Common sense and gentle persuasion will be infinitely more preferable than anything else.
“We should all remember this order is being introduced and for all our sakes, I would appeal to the general public to help statutory agencies and retailers combat the virus.”
Updated
The Covid-19 outbreak in Aberdeen is going to grow after Nicola Sturgeon confirmed that a further 23 cases had been linked to the cluster overnight, bringing the total number of cases to 157.
The first minister said during her regular coronavirus update that in addition 18 other cases had emerged in the wider Grampian area overnight, bringing the number of cases to 231. She said 852 people had now been spoken to as part of NHS Grampian’s contact tracing measures.
The national data, however, confirmed the pandemic’s decline had continued across Scotland as a whole.
She said there had again been no deaths reported involving hospital patients who tested positive with Covid-19, with only three people currently in intensive care. No confirmed Covid-19 deaths have been recorded in hospitals in Scotland since 16 July.
Updated
The number of cases of Covid-19 around the world will reach 20 million this week, with a global death toll of 750,000, the director general of the World Health Organization, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said today.
At a virtual press conference, he praised the decision to implement local lockdowns in the UK.
He said:
Over the last few days, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson put areas of northern England under stay at home notifications as clusters of cases were identified. In France, President Emmanuel Macron introduced compulsory masking in busy outdoor spaces of Paris in response to an increase in cases. Strong and precise measures like these, in combination with utilising every tool at our disposal, are key to preventing any resurgence in Covid-19 and allowing societies to be reopened safely.
Updated
More than half of UK workers want to continue working from home when lockdown lifts, according to new research by LinkedIn, the professional network.
Three out of five respondents (63%), who are currently working from home, believed the traditional 9-5 is over, following Covid.
According to the results, 27% thought the ideal set-up would be to work from home three days a week, while one third want to go to the office just once a week, and one in six (17%) never want to go back to the office at all.
Two thirds of those surveyed are ready to make some big sacrifices in order to pursue a career which enables them to spend more time at home - nearly a third (32%) would move to a different industry, 19% would take a 10% pay cut and 30% would even adopt an entirely new career. Research also found that women (11%) are twice as willing to take a 50% pay cut in order to work at home than men (5%).
With many accustomed to this new norm of working from home, 43% believe their work/life balance will suffer when returning to the workplace and over half (52%) are concerned about contracting coronavirus in the office.
The survey, of 2,000 adults currently working from home, and carried out in partnership with Marie Claire magazine.
Emily Spaven, Head of UK News at LinkedIn said:
The pandemic has definitely been a moment that has seen decades worth of change in a matter of months. Every day I see more and more LinkedIn posts about the topic of working from home, many from those who are really enjoying the flexibility this gives them, which is further supported in our research.
We’ve heard from many people on the platform that they’re much happier now that, during their normal working or commuting hours, they’re able to fit in some home exercise, or take a bit of fresh air while walking the dog, be there for bedtime every day, or family meals together – things they were missing out on before the pandemic and that they’re now really reluctant to give up. There’s such a strong demand now for more flexible working hours, and employers are really starting to pay attention, which is great to see.
Updated
On the many questions over travel, Boris Johnson has said ministers would “not hesitate” to impose a quarantine system for travellers from other countries to the UK if needed.
He said:
“I don’t want to advise people about their individual holidays, individual decisions, they should look at the travel advice from the Foreign Office clearly. But what I will say, and I hope people would expect us to do this, in the context of a global pandemic, we’ve got to keep looking at the data in all the countries to which British people want to travel.
Where it is necessary to impose restrictions or to impose a quarantine system, we will not hesitate to do so. It’s been a huge effort for the entire population of this country to get the disease down to the levels that we are currently seeing, but we do not want reinfection and that’s why we’ve got to keep a very, very close eye on the data in destinations around the world.”
Updated
Speaking to reporters during the school visit, Johnson said:
It’s very important that everybody works together to ensure that our schools are safe and they are - they are Covid secure - I have been very impressed by the work that the teachers have done, working with the unions, to make sure that all schools are safe to go back to in September.
A lot of work being done over making sure that there’s social distancing, bubbling, staggered start times, all that kind of thing.
But, basically, the plan is there - get everybody back in September, that’s the right thing for everybody.
He also addressed the issue of exam grades, saying he understood the anxiety felt by pupils waiting for results after exams were cancelled and said he was “very keen” to get back to normal assessments in the coming school year.
He said:
I’m very, very keen that exams should go ahead as normal. Exams are a vital part of our education and I thank all the teachers for all the preparations they are making. Clearly, because of what has happened this year, there is some anxiety about what grades pupils are going to get, and everybody understands the system that the teachers are setting the grades, then there’s a standardisation system.
It’s not right that kids should spend more time out of school, it’s much much better for their health and mental wellbeing, obviously their educational prospects, if everybody comes back to school full-time in September.
It’s our moral duty as a country to make sure that happens.
Updated
With Scotland’s schools reopening this week, the first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, has also been visiting the classroom.
First Minister @NicolaSturgeon visited @WestCalderHigh this morning to see some of the new measures in place ahead of schools reopening across Scotland this week pic.twitter.com/tVvaraaDF6
— First Minister (@ScotGovFM) August 10, 2020
Updated
Boris Johnson said he hoped schools would not be forced to close as a result of local action.
Johnson, who was visiting a school in east London, said:
I very much hope that doesn’t happen for any pupils but clearly what we are doing - the way we are trying to manage the Covid pandemic - is to have local measures in place and local test and trace to introduce restrictions where that’s necessary.
But, as we have all said, the last thing we want to do is to close schools.
We think that education is the priority for the country and that is simple social justice.
Updated
Hi. Caroline Davies here. I am going to be running the live blog for the next few hours. If you have any suggestions you can contact me on caroline.davies@theguardian.com.
The Independent Sage group has published a discussion document on contact tracing and self-isolation, with five key recommendations:
- Contracts with outsourcing firms Serco and Sitel should be cancelled, privatised call centres should be scrapped and budgets should be shifted to contact tracers recruited and traced on a local authority level.
- The Deloitte testing contract (which you will have seen operating in car parks) should be ended because not enough of the results are being received within 48 hours.
- Home testing should be scrapped, and instead everyone in England should have a local testing centre.
- There should be a new national framework for local authorities to make decisions about local restrictions.
- Central government should focus on evidence-based strategy and financial support to local authorities and those who will be asked to self-isolate.
The paper concludes: “If we don’t take isolation seriously our economy will spiral downwards. We should have had an effective isolation policy in February, with better pandemic planning. Not to have one six months later is nothing short of public health malpractice.”
That’s all from me. My colleague Caroline Davies will be taking over shortly.
Updated
Catherine Shoard’s three-year-old is a big fan of trains, but just as lockdown began, she (Catherine, that is) bought a secondhand car. She’s written a lovely piece about the strangeness of no longer using public transport, the curious isolation and narcissism of driving, and the enduring, but now imperilled, charm of the train.
The loss to society of the richness of interaction public transport affords is also significant. Riding buses and trains and being at stations was how I used to see the world, in every way. I grew up in a family without a car, and days were plotted around timetables and route maps, special ticket deals and off-peak loopholes – all part of the fun, even when they went wrong. Your horizons were expanded by the people you’d meet as well as the places you’d see, people you could freely speak to, no matter how different their background. Some of my son’s most memorable encounters have been with ticket inspectors and random fellow travellers. This is now off limits.
It’s not news, but it is a very good piece, and you can read it here.
Updated
Our education editor, Richard Adams, called this piece “easily the best analysis of this year’s exam results” situation on Twitter earlier, so it’s worth your time. On the HEPI website, Rob Cuthbert, emeritus professor of higher education management at the University of the West of England, writes:
For the first time ever, students are competing within the school with their schoolmates for the limited numbers of grades available at each level. These are not the grades this year’s students deserve, they are the grades which the Ofqual model says the school deserves on the basis of past students’ achievements.
The only way to restore individual fairness is to restore individual appeals which look at the student’s actual achievements, not the past record of the school. Every previous student has had, every future student will have, access to an individual appeal process. Not in 2020. So much for the secretary of state’s pledge that this year’s students should not face ‘a systematic disadvantage as a consequence of these extraordinary circumstances’.
Ofqual seem to have arrived in the worst of all worlds, with secrecy, schools working out how best to use a system they don’t understand, limited appeals or checks on school submissions and a scramble to avoid penalising disadvantaged students. But in a zero-sum game this means penalising what the select committee called the ‘well-heeled’ middle classes with, quite possibly, a well-heeled slew of litigation to follow.
Updated
In Wales, today’s the day for gyms, swimming pools, leisure centres and indoor fitness studios, reopening one week after pubs and restaurants.
Unlike the rest of the UK, children’s indoor play areas can open their doors but some facilities that cannot be easily cleaned, such as ball pits, will have to remain shut.
The Daily Post has a full list of what’s changing today.
Earlier we referred to Gavin Williamson citing a PHE report saying that there was little risk of transmission in schools. It’s worth also flagging a modelling study published in the Lancet last week, which concluded that while it was feasible to reopen schools that would have to be accompanied by a rigorous and widespread test-track-trace system:
Our modelling results suggest that if schools and society reopened full time or in a part-time rota system on Sept 1, 2020, with sufficiently broad coverage of a test–trace–isolate programme, a second Covid-19 wave could be prevented in the UK...
...however, we also predict that in the absence of sufficiently broad test–trace–isolate coverage, reopening of schools combined with accompanied reopening of society across all scenarios might induce a second Covid-19 wave.
Updated
In contrast, the Welsh first minister, Mark Drakeford, has said that in Wales, some schools could be forced to close in the event of a local outbreak. He told BBC Breakfast: “Every local flare-up is different; in some places not reopening schools would be part of a plan, in other sorts of outbreaks that may not be necessary.
“It’s down to the local circumstances, down to the team on the ground. and they will then advise Welsh ministers.”
Updated
On school reopenings, Whately said that “the risks to children from Covid are very low, so absolutely it’ll be safe for children to be back in schools, and our national priority is to get to children back in school this autumn”.
Asked about the one week on, one week off suggestion, she said: “Our priority is to make sure that children are fully back in school come the autumn.”
Asked if schools should stay open in the event of a local lockdown, she said: “Yes, that is the approach, so, for instance, in places like Leicester and Greater Manchester, and areas where we have local restrictions going on, absolutely schools should be still going back. It is essential that children get back into school this autumn term.”
Updated
In response to the Royal College of Nursing’s comments that the government’s pledge to fund 2,000 new nursing apprenticeships a year falls far short of what’s required and that scrapping tuition fees for nurses who want to study at university (rather than the apprenticeship “earn and learn” route), Helen Whately told the BBC that over 5,000 new places would be created this autumn, in part because of an increased interest in the profession.
She said there would be a grant of “at least £5,000” a year for nursing students plus extra support for child care and travel costs and said “there is a material package of financial support for nursing students”.
She again quotes the government’s goal of “50,000 more nurses” by 2024/25. You can read Full Fact’s examination of that claim here, with a reminder that only 31,000 of the total will be newly trained or recruited.
Updated
Ahead of this week’s A-level results in England, and after hugely controversial results in Scotland already, Dr Martin Steven, chair of governors of an inner city comprehensive and former head of St Paul’s School in London, said he predicted a “furore” over the use of a “standardisation model” which could see some high-achieving pupils have their results downgraded based on their school’s outcomes in previous years.
He told the Today programme that “an army of unemployed examiners” should be sent to look at specific pieces of work by appealing students to help address the problem. And he said there should be selective resits offering examinations on the topics schools had been taught about, as well as more emphasis on standardised tests, mock results, and inspection reports, which are all currently excluded from Ofqual’s inspection process.
Dr Tony Breslin, former chief examiner for GCSEs, said that the system “does risk discriminating against outlying students” - either individuals or cohorts that are unusually high-achieving. But he added: “This kind of standardisation goes on on the same scale every year, but it doesn’t go on in public view.”
But Steven said it had “never been used to this extent” with an “undue emphasis on a school’s historical record” and that results would be decided “far too much on the ‘computer says no’ principle.”
Updated
On BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Prof Russell Viner, president of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health and a member of Sage, said “reopening schools is one of the least risky things we can do”.
He told the BBC: “It’s very clear for them the benefits and risks, the balance is for them to be back at school. For broader society, look, I think it’s also clear that reopening schools is one of the least risky things we can do.
“Anything we do that reopens society will add a small or a larger amount to the overall population reproductive number and for schools we believe that it’s a relatively minor player, it would add little to the overall population R.”
On proposals for a ‘one week on, one week off’ school rota, he said: “It actually appears to make very little difference to the overall risk, the overall population R in fact, if you get the mitigations right … then actually the rota systems appear to make very little difference and make little difference to the risk to teachers.”
Updated
Covid-19 isn’t the only virus that can be combatted by social distancing, and one byproduct of the lockdown has been to reduce the incidence of a variety of other conditions, my colleague Haroon Siddique reports.
Flu, colds, bronchitis and a number of other viruses all appear to be in lower circulation than usual this summer, according to the research by the Royal College of GPs.
Epidemiologist Keith Neal tells Haroon:
Even if we reduce social distancing by only 10% and we have done a lot more than that, then you would expect 10% less transmission of coughs and colds. It’s impossible to say exactly what is going to happen. If people don’t mix as much you will expect less of these coughs and cold type of minor illnesses. We’re already seeing in Australia, which is in their winter, that they are having very little flu compared to previous years.”
You can read his piece below.
Updated
Meanwhile, care minister Helen Whateley is on Sky, Radio 4 and others this morning promoting the government’s £172m plan to fund 2,000 new nursing apprenticeships annually for the next four years.
The pledge reflects the government’s election promise to have “50,000 more nurses” by the end of this parliament. (You might remember some controversy over that claim after Boris Johnson admitted that only 31,000 of the total would actually be new nurses, with much of the rest being accounted for by people who the government thought would have otherwise left the profession.)
The Royal College of Nursing says Monday’s pledge does not go far enough, saying the apprenticeship plan “falls short of the wider investment needed to educate enough registered nurses for the future, ensuring health and care services have the staff needed”.
Asked on Sky whether paying nurses more would be another way to increase the attraction of the job, Whateley said: “Of course I’m aware of this and like everybody in the whole country so grateful to doctors and nurses... at the frontline during the pandemic.” But she said that nurses’ pay would not be up for review until next year because of the pay cycle they were on.
Updated
Williamson insists schools can reopen safely
Good morning, and welcome to the UK coronavirus live blog. I’m Archie Bland, at the helm for the next few hours. You can reach me at archie.bland@theguardian.com or on Twitter.
We begin with education secretary Gavin Williamson, who has said that the government’s plan to accelerate school reopening has been guided by advice that coronavirus is unlikely to spread in the classroom.
In a statement, Williamson said that the “latest research … one of the largest studies on the coronavirus in schools in the world” – believed to be a reference to a Public Health England report looking at 20,000 pupils and teachers in 100 schools across England at the end of the summer term – has shown that makes it clear “there is little evidence that the virus is transmitted at school”.
Despite that claim, my colleague Peter Walker reports that unions have warned that the government has no “plan B” if cases do start rising. He writes:
However, there are concerns from unions that there is no “plan B” for schools if cases do start rising rapidly. Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, told the Telegraph that part-time teaching such as “week-on, week-off” rotas could be needed in some instances.
Anne Longfield, the children’s commissioner, says testing should be available if schools are to reopen:
I’m not an expert in testing, but I would say that regular means weekly. It needs to be as regular as it needs to be to ensure the infection is caught and identified as soon as possible, and then the tracking system can move on from that.
Schools minister Nick Gibb rejected that call, saying there would not be “routine testing without symptoms. The advice that we have is that it’s better to test when people actually show symptoms.”
Boris Johnson will be visiting a classroom this morning to emphasise the message that it’s safe for schools to reopen.
Updated
