Evening summary
-
However, Hancock’s claim that 85% of contacts had been traced is “deeply misleading”, according to the Independent Sage group. The health secretary Matt Hancock said that 85% of contacts given were self-isolating had still ‘beaten his expectations’. But analysis showed that between 28 May and 3 June, 8,117 individuals tested positive and were referred for contact tracing. Of those, 5,407 (67%) were reached and asked for contacts. However, ONS surveillance data suggests there were at least 23,000 new symptomatic cases in that period, meaning that 75% of cases were not found. Jeremy Hunt, who chairs the health select committee, expressed concern that the system won’t be able to do its job if less than a fifth of new infections are being picked up.
- Matt Hancock did not rule out making cooperation with test and trace compulsory.
- Priti Patel was accused of using using her own experiences of prejudice to “gaslight” the “very real racism” faced by black people in the UK. A group of 33 BAME Labour MPs wrote to the home secretary, accusing her of trying to “silence” Florence Eshalomi when she told the Commons of her experiences of racism and said she would “not take lectures” on prejudice. Things then took an odd turn when Matt Hancock accused those MPs of treating Patel as “the wrong type of BAME”.
- Urgent cancer referrals in England fell by 60% in the first month of lockdown. NHS England figures revealed fewer urgent cancer referrals made by GPs in April (60% down from last year) and urgent referrals for breast cancer fell by 78%.
- The UK death toll rose by 151 to 41,279.
That’s it from us today on the UK side. If you would like to continue to follow the Guardian’s coverage of the pandemic, head over to the global live blog for the worldwide picture.
Isle of Man first place in British Isles to lift all social distancing rules
The government of the Isle of Man has announced it will remove social distancing restrictions for individuals and businesses from Monday, the first place in the British Isles to relax the measures.
From 15 June, the two metre rule will no longer apply, businesses won’t have to implement social distancing, and employees will be permitted to return to work as normal in most settings.
Social distancing and PPE will, however, remain a requirement in health and care environments, including residential homes.
It comes as for 22nd consecutive day, no active cases of Covid-19 were recorded on the island.
Other recently announced changes, including the reopening of schools, restaurants, cafes, bars, pubs, gyms and hotels, will be coming into force on 15 June also.
The Isle of Man borders remain closed to non-residents until further notice.
Matt Hancock's press conference
Here are the main points from Matt Hancock’s press conference.
- Hancock, the health secretary for England, said he was not ruling out making cooperation with the new test and trace system compulsory. Asked if he would introduce an enforcement mechanism to ensure people comply with it, he replied:
We’re not ruling it out at the moment but we don’t think we need it.
- He said that, even though today’s figures showed that a third of people testing positive for coronavirus were being missed by test and trace, the system was working better than he expected at this stage. He said:
I think that the system has worked well and to get two-thirds in the first week of operation, it beat my expectations.
Then to have the vast majority - 85% - of the contacts that were given self-isolating, that beat my expectations too.
- He said people had a “civic duty” to cooperate with test and trace.
- He refused to say when the app - which was originally supposed to be an integral part of test and trace - would be rolled out nationwide. Asked when he would introduce it, he said that would happen “when it’s right to do so”. He went on:
As we launched NHS Test and Trace we were clear we want to embed this system and get confidence that people are following the advice that’s given by human beings before introducing the technological element.
- Dido Harding, head of the test and trace system, said that the 15% of contacts who have not agreed to self-isolate, according to the data, were not necessarily refusing. She explained:
A significant proportion of them we haven’t reached yet and spoken to or been able to get a response from them. I don’t think we should leap to the conclusion that all 15% of contacts are actively choosing not to self-isolate.
Some simply won’t have replied to the text message or the email or we had the wrong email or number for them.
- Hancock accused Labour MPs of treating Priti Patel, the home secretary, as “the wrong type of BAME”. Asked about a letter sent to Patel by BAME Labour MPs accusing her of using her heritage to try to stop them speaking out on racism (see 4.55pm), he said he abhorred this sort of “divisive identity politics”. He explained:
Of course Priti Patel was not wrong to talk of her personal experiences of racism. I have seen this letter and I abhor this divisive identity politics that’s being levelled at Priti Patel.
I am incredibly proud to be part of the most diverse government in history.
I am very proud to be part of that with Priti and Rishi [Sunak] and Alok [Sharma] and Nadhim [Zahawi] and Kemi [Badenoch] and Ranil [Jayawardena] and James [Cleverly] and Suella [Braverman] and all the rest.
We don’t think that there’s such a thing as the wrong type of BAME, we think that people are equal.
That’s what we need to see as a society, everybody seeing others as equal.
Police in Bristol are investigating an apparent attack on the statue of a black playwright, poet and actor in which a suspected corrosive substance was poured over it.
Some residents fear that bleach may have been used to attack the statue of Jamaican-born Alfred Fagon in the St Paul’s area of the city.
The incident was reported to the police shortly after the city council retrieved the statue of the slave trader Edward Colston from the harbour in Bristol where it was dumped by Black Lives Matter protesters on Sunday.
A spokesperson for Avon and Somerset police said it was not clear what had happened to the bust and appealed for witnesses.
The spokesperson said:
Police were made aware today, Thursday 11 June, of an incident involving the statue of Alfred Fagon in St Paul’s. The incident seems to have left the statue covered with an unknown substance.
It’s not clear when it happened but officers are recording the incident and making enquiries with Bristol city council to clarify ownership and establish whether the statue has suffered permanent damage.
Bristol radio presenter and DJ Docta Flex said he believed the statue had been violated. “This is criminal damage,” he said.
The St Pauls poet and community activist Lawrence Hoo said:
Someone came and bleached him. Everything didn’t get made better a couple of days ago, and just to show that in this climate, someone still felt to come down and try and deface the one statue we’ve got from one person from the community of culture that had been recognised enough to be adorned on a plinth.
Fagon,a member of the Windrush generation, arrived in England as a teenager in 1955. He worked for British Rail and served in the army before forging a career in the arts in Bristol and London
After Fagon died in 1986, the bust on the corner of Ashley Road and Grosvenor Road was commissioned by a committee chaired by Paul Stephenson, the civil rights activist who led the Bristol bus boycott in 1963.
Updated
The number of prisoners who have tested positive for Covid-19 flatlined in the most recent data released by the Ministry of Justice.
As at 5pm on Wednesday, 490 prisoners were confirmed to have had the virus across 80 prisons, no change in 24 hours, while the number of infected staff rose by three to 964 across 105 prisons.
Figures obtained by the Lord Bishop of Gloucester show that more than 3,500 prisoners have previously displayed symptoms of Covid-19. Of those, 1447 (or 42%) were tested.
There are around 79,800 prisoners across 117 prisons in England and Wales, and around 33,000 staff working in public sector prisons.
At least 23 prisoners and nine staff are known to have died, as well as one prison escort driver and one NHS trust employee working in a secure training centre.
Updated
Independent Sage says it's 'alarming' test and trace system missing 75% of cases
Independent Sage, the group of scientists operating as an alternative to the government’s Sage (Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies) says the test and trace figures out today are “alarming” because they show 75% of cases are being missed.
This is from Sir David King, the former government chief scientific adviser who chairs Independent Sage.
It is of course reasonable to expect that the first week of a new programme like this will have teething problems however these figures are alarming. What is of particular concern is that we are continuing to see the country coming out of lockdown before a fit for purpose – let alone world beating - test, track and trace system is up and running.
And here is an extract from the Independent Sage press release explaining why they think it is missing 75% of cases. It says:
Independent SAGE analysed the figures released today that showed 8,117 individuals testing positive for Covid-19 between May 28 and June 3 were referred for contact tracing. Only 5,407 (67%) were reached and asked to provide details of recent contacts. ONS surveillance data however suggested that there were at least 23,000 new symptomatic cases during that time period, meaning that only about a quarter of symptomatic cases had been found by the test and trace system.
Matt Hancock said today that 85% of contacts had been traced. This is deeply misleading as it relates only to the 5,407 individuals who were reached by contact tracers and ignores the 75% of new cases that were simply not found.
Most people want social distancing measures to remain at two metres, new data suggests.
A snap poll by YouGov found that 58% of people want the rules to be kept at the current distance, while just under a quarter (24%) want it dropped to one metre.
Support for the shorter social limit increased with older generations, with 32% of those over 65 preferring the one metre rule, compared to 17% of 18 to 24-year-olds. Meanwhile, 8% of respondents said the restrictions should be scrapped altogether.
The public are firmly opposed to reducing the social distancing restriction.
— YouGov (@YouGov) June 11, 2020
58% say it should remain at 2 metres, compared to 32% who think it should either be reduced to 1 metre (24%) or scrapped altogether (8%)https://t.co/Wd8qZP2lCl pic.twitter.com/Nt4BAxmLQa
The figures come after suggestions that the prime minister may be considering reducing the restriction in an attempt help schools reopen.
The Daily Telegraph reported that Boris Johnson is looking at following WHO advice and cutting the distance, mirroring guidance already followed by countries including France, Denmark and Singapore.
At PMQs on Wednesday, he promised to “keep that two-metre rule under constant review” and the business secretary Alok Sharma said this week that “for economic reasons, businesses will want to take a look at this two-metre rule”.
When asked whether there was a hard and fast rule on an effective distance to stop the spread of the virus, one scientist said “it is just a matter of reducing risk with increased physical distance.”
Jonathan Reid, professor of physical chemistry at the University of Bristol, explained:
Physical distancing is a way of reducing the exposure of an individual to the large droplets generated when someone sneezes, coughs or even speaks.
He added:
The further you stand away from someone, the fewer droplets you will be exposed to when someone sneezes or coughs in your direction. 1m only prevents you from being exposed to the largest of droplets, two metres reduces your exposure but doesn’t make it zero risk.
Updated
Q: [From the Birmingham Post] Why is the national lockdown being eased before powers are in place to enforce lockdowns locally?
Hancock says those powers are available. If local leaders think they do not have the appropriate powers, they should contact him, he says.
Q: Will you publish regional R figures?
Hancock says there are more than 10 models feeding into Sage. One model had R above 1 in some regions. But that was just one model. He says the overall assessment was different.
And that’s it. The press conference is over.
Q: [From the Daily Express’s Macer Hall] What reasons are people giving for not cooperating?
Harding says test and trace have not been able to contact all these people. So they cannot assume they are refusing to comply.
What’s encouraging is that the “vast majority” of people are complying.
Q: Some Labour MPs have written to Priti Patel criticising the way she spoke about her experience of racism. (see 4.55pm.) Was she wrong?
Hancock says Patel was right to speak out. He says he abhors this attempt to use identity politics. He says he is proud to be part of the most diverse government in history. And it is wrong to suggest that Patel is the wrong sort of minority.
Q: When will antibody tests be rolled out?
Harding says at the moment the science does not tell you whether people with antibodies have immunity.
Hancock says the ONS study showed that 70 to 80% of people testing positive do not have symptoms.
But the more people who self-isolate - whether they are symptomatic or not - the more likely the chain of transmission will be broken, he says.
Harding says testing is now being rolled out to at-risk workers, like taxi drivers and security guards, who don’t have symptoms. She says they need to get better at hunting out the virus.
Hancock says he is not ruling out making complying with test and trace compulsory
Q: Are you ruling out any enforcement mechanism?
Hancock says he is not ruling it out. But he thinks they don’t need that at the moment.
- Hancock says he is not ruling out making complying with test and trace compulsory.
Harding says most people have been not just willing to comply, but enthusiastic.
Q: Why don’t you test the people told to self-isolate?
Hancock says they have looked at this. The virus can incubate for 14 days. And so, even if someone tested negative, they would still have to self-isolate.
He says that is why these people are not being tested; it is not a capacity problem, he says.
Q: [From ITV’s Tom Clarke] This is not yet a world-class system. Isn’t it too early to relax lockdown?
No, says Hancock. He says the PM promised there would be a world-class system, and we will get one.
He says he is confident that the measures announced for this weekend - the social measures at the weekend (support bubbles), retail measures on Sunday - are being introduced safely.
Q: When will you tell us how quickly people are being tested?
Harding says the turnaround time for testing has not yet been published.
She says they are working with the UK Statistics Authority to make sure the data is robust. She says she knows it sounds easy. But she says there are many laboratories. They want to make sure the data is reliable.
Q: [From the BBC’s Hugh Pym] Are you worried that you could not get contract details for a third of people?
Hancock says it’s the first week and he thinks it is working well. He says that getting contact details for two thirds of people beat his expectations.
Harding says she thinks this is a good result for the first week.
Some of it is about learning when it is best to contact people.
They contact people 10 times if needed to get details of their contacts. She says she has been learning when the best time to contact people is.
Q: What is the situation with the app?
Hancock says it will help. They will introduce it when it is right to do so.
Andy from Bromsgrove asks if there will be any more public support for people told to self-isolate by test and trace. And would all workers at a firm have to self-isolate if a colleague tests positive?
Hancock says a support package is in place for people who need to self-isolate.
Businesses can reduce the risk of this by operating in a Covid secure. If they are, then people should not have to self-isolate if a colleague gets coronavirus.
Harding says close contact means being in close contact for 15 minutes or more, or coming into close contact with them. She says this won’t happen if workers are working in a Covid secure way.
Harding is now presenting figures about the test and trace system.
She says NHS test and trace is a service for the public, and it works best with the cooperation of the public.
She says some people did not tell the service they would self-isolate. But it is important they do, she says.
She says if you develop symptoms, you must get a test.
The system is working well at scale, she says. But they will keep learning.
Hancock turns to test and trace. He says it is like the government’s “radar” - it shows where the virus is.
Addressing the public, he says people have a role to play too. They should get a test if they have symptoms, and participate in test and trace. He says it is people’s “civic duty” to comply.
He says the figures out today show why test and trace will be world-class.
Here are the hospital figures.
And here are the death figures. Hancock says that the virus is “in retreat” and that the government’s plan is working.
Updated
Hancock starts with the daily slides.
Here are the latest figures for testing and new cases.
Matt Hancock's press conference
Matt Hancock, the health secretary for England, is taking the government’s afternoon press conference. He will be appearing with Dido Harding, head of the test and trace system. It is starting any minute now.
Priti Patel has clashed with a group of BAME Labour MPs who accused the home secretary of using her Indian heritage to cast doubt on black communities’ experience of racism.
She said she “will not be silenced” by the 33 MPs who wrote to her, accusing her of having used her own experiences of prejudice to “gaslight” the “very real racism” faced by black people in the UK.
Sad to have just received this letter.
— Priti Patel (@pritipatel) June 11, 2020
I will not be silenced by @UKLabour MPs who continue to dismiss the contributions of those who don't conform to their view of how ethnic minorities should behave. pic.twitter.com/gBhLvtKKwt
The exchange came after the home secretary told of the racism she has herself suffered and said she would “not take lectures” on prejudice in the Commons earlier in the week.
But she was accused of having sought to “silence” the black Labour MP Florence Eshalomi, who called for action from the government to tackle discrimination.
In the letter, shadow minister Naz Shah and other Labour MPs, including Eshalomi, Diane Abbott, Tan Dhesi and Rosena Allin-Khan, question Patel’s attitude towards Black Lives Matter protests:
We write to you as black, Asian and ethnic minority Labour MPs to highlight our dismay at the way you used your heritage and experiences of racism to gaslight the very real racism faced by black people and communities across the UK.
Our shared experiences allow us to feel the pain that communities feel, when they face racism, they allow us to show solidarity towards a common cause; they do not allow us to define, silence or impede on the feelings that other minority groups may face.
Being a person of colour does not automatically make you an authority on all forms of racism.
In conclusion, we ask you to reflect on your words and to consider the impact it had towards the black communities in the UK trying to highlight their voices against racism.
During the Commons exchange on Monday, Eshalomi called on Patel to “act now” to resolve “structural inequality, discrimination and racism” as thousands of protesters took to the streets to demand change in the wake of George Floyd’s death in the US.
The Vauxhall MP asked the home secretary if she does “actually understand the anger and frustration” felt, and whether she wants to see action from the government.
Patel replied:
Well, on that basis, it must have been a very different home secretary who as a child was frequently called a P*** in the playground, a very different home secretary who was racially abused in the streets or even advised to drop her surname and use her husband’s in order to advance her career.
So, when it comes to racism, sexism, tolerance for social justice, I will not take lectures from the other side of the House.
Patel received support from fellow BAME Tory MP James Cleverly who tweeted:
BAME Labour MPs tell Priti Patel to stop disagreeing with them. They champion diversity of race in politics but not diversity of option.
When I first read this letter it came across as offensive and crass. But upon rereading it and thinking carefully about the point these MPs are trying to make I now realise that it is indeed deeply offensive and crass.
Updated
Photograph: Toby Melville/Reuters
Hunt says test and trace won't work if it continues to pick up just small proportion of all new infections
And here is more comment from Jeremy Hunt, the Conservative chair of the Commons health committee, on test and trace.
Given how new the system is I think getting these kind of results is an impressive performance by Dido Harding and her team - and I am sure the numbers will continue to improve.
— Jeremy Hunt (@Jeremy_Hunt) June 11, 2020
But 2 concerns: v. worrying there is STILL no data on no of tests completed in 24 hrs. PM target is to complete all except postal tests within 24 hours by end of June (less than 3 weeks). But despite many requests Gov says data still not reliable enough to publish this number.
— Jeremy Hunt (@Jeremy_Hunt) June 11, 2020
This does not bode well. To be clear what matters is NOT whether the target is met (postal votes are around one third of all tests so when you exclude them the target is pretty meaningless). It is whether ALL the tests NHS test and trace needs are done within 24 hours.
— Jeremy Hunt (@Jeremy_Hunt) June 11, 2020
Fine to use postal tests for routine testing in care homes etc but with a potential spreader we must find out fast. In fairness this seems to be the plan: https://t.co/sQwtcxBFbu but no commitment to publish proportion of Test & Trace tests returned within the vital 24 hr period.
— Jeremy Hunt (@Jeremy_Hunt) June 11, 2020
2nd concern is gap between no. picked up by Test & Trace (5,400 in 1st week so 800/day) & the 3-5000 people still likely to be infected across all settings each day. System is doing the right things but won’t be able to do its job if picking up > than 1/5 of new covid infections.
— Jeremy Hunt (@Jeremy_Hunt) June 11, 2020
For strategy to work we urgently need to bridge that gap so everyone with symptoms ends up being investigated by NHS Test & Trace. Mass routine testing of those in care homes, hospitals & other public facing professions is only way I can see of doing this: https://t.co/uk4LMlUkW4
— Jeremy Hunt (@Jeremy_Hunt) June 11, 2020
The Labour leader, Sir Keir Starmer, has called for a broader curriculum to be introduced which better explains Britain’s role in the slave trade.
During a Call Keir online Q&A with people in Barnet, north London, Starmer reiterated his previous comments that the forceful removal of the slave trader Edward Colston’s statue in Bristol was wrong, but argued that more education was needed about the part played by famous Britons in slavery.
BLM demonstrators toppled the statue before sinking it into the city’s harbour on Sunday. It has since been recovered by Bristol city council, with plans to place it in a museum.
Asked about what his party would do to develop a “relevant and appropriate curriculum” in the light of George Floyd’s death, Starmer said there had been a “narrowing” of the school curriculum “over recent years”, and called for it be given a wider scope, focusing on information beyond that needed to pass exams. He added:
Obviously there has been a lot discussion in the last few days about our history in the slave trade, probably more discussion in the last few days than there has been in the last few years.
While I think pulling down the Colston statute in Bristol in the way it was done was wrong, I do think that statue should have been brought down a long time ago.
That was a man who made his money from trading people, a hundred thousand people from Africa to the Caribbean, including women and children, and he branded them on their chests with the initials of his company to show they were his property.
That bit of history ought to be something we know about from school, it shouldn’t be something we are learning because something happened last weekend - it should be something that we all know about as part of the curriculum.
So I would be in favour of broadening the curriculum.
His comments come after a cross-party group of more than 30 politicians, led by Liberal Democrat leadership contender Layla Moran MP, wrote to the education secretary, Gavin Williamson, calling for a re-evaluation of the history syllabus in light of the global Black Lives Matter movement.
Updated
Sky’s Kate McCann has spotted another quirk in the test and trace figures, which makes the “85% success” figure (see 4.16pm) even more selective. She explains why here.
Have been looking into this chart in the test and trace data because I am confused by it. I think I have an answer. pic.twitter.com/FEyB1ecBS3
— Kate McCann (@KateEMcCann) June 11, 2020
When you add up the numbers in this table you get 5,278. Having spoken to experts in the Department of Health, that is a chunk of the 26,985 contacts who were reached as a result of tracing.
— Kate McCann (@KateEMcCann) June 11, 2020
So when you look at this table, which suggests 85% of contacts were asked to isolate within 24 hours, that only applies to 5,278 of those 27k people. The rest were managed by “local public health teams”.
— Kate McCann (@KateEMcCann) June 11, 2020
According to the expert the other 22k ish people are counted as “complex” or were in a care home, hospital, prison etc. And we don’t have stats for them.
— Kate McCann (@KateEMcCann) June 11, 2020
Ultimately that means when you say 85% of contacts were asked to isolate within 24 hours that’s only the case (as per this chart) for just over 5k people out of 27k contacts.
— Kate McCann (@KateEMcCann) June 11, 2020
Updated
The Department of Health in Northern Ireland has published its latest estimate of the R number in the region. It is between 0.5 and 0.9. That is an improvement on last week, when it was between 0.7 and 0.9.
How successful is test and trace? - Analysis
Matt Hancock, the health secretary, has released a video welcoming the test and trace figures. (See 1.13pm.) In it he says:
These figures show that in its first week of operation 27,000 people were asked to isolate because they are at risk and that’s 85% of all those who needed to be contacted. It’s a testament to the effectiveness of the NHS test and trace system.
Our first week of NHS Test & Trace has been hugely effective - with 26,985 people asked to isolate
— Matt Hancock (@MattHancock) June 11, 2020
I’m so proud of everyone involved.
Full details: https://t.co/3vCMYb2lzx pic.twitter.com/GlCHcvaG21
Put like that, 85% sounds like a very good result. When the government’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies discussed contact tracing in early May, according to the minutes (pdf) “it agreed that at least 80% of contacts of an index case would need to be contacted for a system to be effective.”
But these figures don’t tell the story. There are at least four potential drawbacks.
1 - Positive cases never referred to the service
The statistical bulletin (pdf) from the Department of Health and Social Care says 8,117 people who tested positive between 28 May and 3 June were referred to the test and trace service for England. But these were probably only a small proportion of the new cases that week. According to an ONS survey, there were an estimated 39,000 new cases in England every week during May. Towards the end of the month the infection rate was falling, but these figures suggest thousands of cases are being missed by test and trace, largely because people are getting infected but not getting a test.
2 - People who don’t cooperate
In his video message (in which he also says the system will get better over time), Hancock says that 85% “of all those who needed to be contacted” were contacted. That’s misleading. Some 85% of the contacts who were actually identified - ie, people named as having been in close contact with someone who tested positive - were reached by the service and told to self-isolate.
But only 67% of those who tested positive and whose names were passed on to the service provided names of their contacts. For the 33% who did not provide any names, for obvious reasons 0% of their contacts were contacted.
If 5,407 people testing positive provided the names of 31,794 contacts, then on average each Covid-positive person had 5.88 contacts who might be at risk. That means if there were 8,117 people testing positive being referred to the service, there were around 47,700 people in total who needed to be reached and told to self-isolate. In the event 31,794 people were contacted - a ‘success rate’ of 67%.
Arguably that’s still quite reasonable for the first week, but it is well short of Sage’s target of 80%.
3 - People who don’t cooperate on time
The figure quoted above is based on the 67% of Covid-positive people referred to the service who did provide details of their contacts. But, as the statistical bulletin shows, only 79% of people provided details of their contacts within 24 hours. Jeremy Hunt, the chair of the Commons health committee, says that if you ignore the other 25% who took longer, you get a different success rate.
On the face of it these are encouraging no.s. A high proportion of people with positive tests being contacted within 24 hrs (79%) of which 2/3 are successfully sharing the names of close contacts. Of those 85% are being asked to isolate within 24 hrs with vast majority complying.
— Jeremy Hunt (@Jeremy_Hunt) June 11, 2020
But 85% of 67% of 79%…is just 45% of close contacts of those with covid being asked to isolate within 48 hours of a positive test. But the real no will be higher as many close contacts live within the same household & they’re already asked to isolate when someone tests positive.
— Jeremy Hunt (@Jeremy_Hunt) June 11, 2020
Hunt’s argument is based on the assumption that, if people who have been in contact with a coronavirus-positive person are not told to self-isolate quickly, then self-isolation becomes much less valuable because they may have passed the infection on.
4 - People not complying with self-isolation
Those involved in test and trace say most people asked to self-isolate have been happy to comply. But there are no figures to back this up. As Sage concluded at its meeting on 1 May, “a high level of adherence to requests to isolate is required for the system to be effective”.
UPDATE: See 4.34pm, 4.43pm, and 5.55pm for more on what today’s figures say about potential problems with the test and trace scheme.
Updated
London Zoo’s website is crashing as a result of the number of people trying to buy tickets ahead of its reopening next week.
Responding to customers who were receiving error messages on Thursday afternoon when trying to organise a visit, the zoo tweeted that the site is “struggling to keep up with the number of bookings”.
In another message it said:
Please bear with us if you're trying to book tickets today, our poor website hasn't seen this volume of visitors in a long time!
— ZSL London Zoo (@zsllondonzoo) June 11, 2020
It comes as zoos and safari parks prepare to reopen in England from Monday. Some, including London Zoo, Chester Zoo and Bristol Zoo have reported financial struggles during the pandemic and worried they would not survive the crisis.
If you’re still trying to wrap your head around the new rules surrounding “support bubbles” in England, Amelia Hill has answered some of the more pertinent questions here:
The government has been accused of rushing to announce “headline-grabbing policies” without properly engaging with school leaders first.
Boris Johnson announced plans on Wednesday night for a “massive catch-up operation over the summer” for pupils, adding details will come next week.
Paul Whiteman, general secretary of school leaders’ union NAHT, warned the scheme was “the latest in a long line of eye-catching announcements that will suffer from a lack of input from the profession”. He said:
As with the announcement that all children would return to primary school before the summer, the government has rushed to announce headline-grabbing policies without properly engaging with the profession first.
The language of summer catch-up completely underplays the scale and the nature of the challenges likely to be faced because of prolonged absence from school. There is no quick fix.
The former Ukip leader Nigel Farage is leaving the broadcaster LBC with immediate effect, it has been announced.
It follows widespread anger over comments made by Farage comparing Black Lives Matter protestors to the Taliban.
Nigel Farage’s contract with LBC is up very shortly and, following discussions with him, Nigel is stepping down from LBC with immediate effect. We thank Nigel for the enormous contribution he has made to LBC and wish him well.
— LBC (@LBC) June 11, 2020
Here is the full story from our colleague Jim Waterson
Updated
The British Council is in line for a £60m bailout to save it from collapse after being “heavily hit” by the financial impact of the coronavirus pandemic.
The Foreign Office said the council, which promotes cultural relations and educational opportunities overseas, is at “risk of insolvency”. The loan would “stabilise” the British Council’s finances until mid-August, Foreign Office minister Nigel Adams told MPs.
The council has already taken measures to reduce its deficit and cut costs, including furloughing staff using the government scheme and similar mechanisms in other countries. But Adams said:
Without additional support from Government, the British Council will shortly become insolvent.
The FCO is therefore seeking a contingencies fund advance to provide an initial loan of up to 60 million to the British Council, drawn down in tranches depending upon need and contingent on the approval of FCO and HM Treasury, to stabilise their financial situation until mid-August 2020.
The terms of the loan will be agreed with HM Treasury.
A further 83 people who tested positive for Covid-19 have died, bringing the total number of confirmed reported deaths in hospitals in England to 27,790.
The number of deaths of patients with Covid-19 by region are as follows:
East of England 8
London 3
Midlands 26
North East & Yorkshire 18
North West 10
South East 16
South West 2
Total 83
Updated
One further person with coronavirus has died in Northern Ireland, taking the death toll reported by the Department of Health to 538.
There have been four new confirmed cases of the virus, bring the total since the outbreak began to 4,822.
UK death toll rises by 151 to 41,279
The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) said 41,279 people had died in hospitals, care homes and the wider community after testing positive for coronavirus in the UK as of 5pm on Wednesday. That is a rise of 151 from 41,128 the day before.
The government’s figures do not include all deaths involving Covid-19 across the UK, which is thought to have passed 52,000.
The DHSC also said in the 24-hour period up to 9am on Thursday, 197,007 tests were carried out or dispatched, with 1,266 positive results.
Overall, a total of 6,240,801 tests have been carried out and 291,409 cases have been confirmed positive.
The figure for the number of people tested has been “temporarily paused to ensure consistent reporting” across all methods of testing.
As of 9am 11 June, there have been 6,240,801 tests, with 197,007 tests on 10 June.
— Department of Health and Social Care (@DHSCgovuk) June 11, 2020
291,409 people have tested positive.
As of 5pm on 10 June, of those tested positive for coronavirus, across all settings, 41,279 have sadly died.
More info:
▶️ https://t.co/xXnL3FU15k pic.twitter.com/Cj7lhQIk8N
Travel firm Tui has extended the suspension of holidays for customers from the UK and Ireland due to coronavirus travel restrictions.
The firm said in a statement:
Tui UK and Ireland today confirms that due to the ongoing travel restrictions all beach holidays up to and including 10 July will be cancelled.
With so much uncertainty around when travel will be able to recommence, customers due to travel before the end of August have the opportunity to amend their holiday for free, so they don’t have to pay until closer to their new departure date.
We are constantly monitoring the situation and will start taking people on holiday again as soon as we are able to do so.
Cambridge University has announced a £1m bursary programme targeted at helping UK adults whose careers have been hit by the coronavirus pandemic.
The university’s Institute of Continuing Education is offering 1,000 bursaries, each worth £1,000, to go towards tuition fees on one of more than 30 part-time courses.
Those eligible to apply for the bursaries include UK residents who have been furloughed and those who have been made redundant on or after 1 April.
Courses included in the scheme include coaching, cognitive psychology and genetics.
Dr James Gazzard, director of the Institute of Continuing Education, said:
The full economic impact of the current pandemic has yet to be fully understood, but there is a risk that the crisis creates a ‘missed generation’ of adults left without jobs and unable to afford the time and cost of full-time retraining.
Our hope is that they will use these open-access Cambridge undergraduate qualifications to improve their employability and incorporate lifelong learning into their broader approach to wellbeing.
The Cambridge Thousand Futures Bursary will mean access to a range of part-time remote qualifications will be available from £1,150.
The typical cost of an equivalent number of undergraduate credits at most UK universities ranges from £3,000 to £4,600, the institute said.
The programme is also open to key workers as defined by the government’s list, those who have received an NHS letter to say they are in the “most at risk” category, and people who were aged 70 before 1 April.
Virtual open days will take place on Friday and Saturday, with applications to be considered on a first-come first-served basis.
The closing date for applications is 31 July.
Public Health Wales said a further six people had died after testing positive for Covid-19, taking the total number of deaths there to 1,425, while the total cases increased by 63 to 14,581.
The latest number of confirmed cases of Coronavirus in Wales has been updated.
— Public Health Wales (@PublicHealthW) June 11, 2020
Data dashboard:
💻 https://t.co/zpWRYSUbfh
📱 https://t.co/HSclxpZjBh
Find out how we are responding to the spread of the virus in our daily statement here: https://t.co/u6SKHz0zsG pic.twitter.com/d8FlgKwO5C
Nearly a fifth of people in some areas of the UK have been furloughed from their jobs, PA Media reports.
Analysis of new data shows that 25,400 people have been furloughed in Tottenham, north London, making it the worst-hit parliamentary constituency in the country, as just under 18% of people pick up a government-supported pay cheque.
Meanwhile, Crawley, close to Gatwick airport in West Sussex, is the worst-hit local authority by proportion of population. The figures show that 20,000 people, or 17.8% of the local population, including children and pensioners, have been furloughed there.
The government launched its jobs retention scheme in March, allowing companies to send workers home, with the Treasury paying up to 80% of their salaries.
In England, 6.5m jobs had been furloughed by 31 May, dominated by London and the south-east, at more than 1m each.
Around 628,000 workers have been furloughed in Scotland, 317,000 in Wales, and 212,000 in Northern Ireland, the figures show.
The government is soon set to ease the support for businesses using the furlough scheme to keep their employees on the books.
The data shows that around 1.1m businesses have claimed cash to help support their staff. Wholesale and retail businesses were the worst hit, claiming £3.3bn for 1.6 million workers.
It also further reveals the destruction wrought on the hospitality sector, with accommodation and food services companies furloughing 1.4 million people, and claiming £2.6bn in furlough cash.
Updated
Tim Montgomerie, the journalist who founded the influential ConservativeHome website, used to be an enthusiastic supporter of Boris Johnson. But, in an article for the New Statesman, he says he has lost faith in the prime minister because he now thinks the PM has given up listening to a wide range of voices and is now intolerant of criticism. Here’s an extract.
It took six years for Margaret Thatcher’s governments to begin to stop listening to alternative voices. The same patterns had emerged within six months of Johnson becoming prime minister, and within six weeks of his general election victory last December. In her early years the Iron Lady relished argument and intellectual debate – and those internal jousts strengthened her for the public battles with her true opponents. In the starkest of contrasts, the team inside today’s No 10 has often preferred to greet internal dissent with retribution – much of it pre-briefed to favoured journalists. Throughout the Westminster village every Tory had quickly learned the score: do, say and tweet as you are told – or else. In February’s reshuffle we learned that earning the disfavour of key prime ministerial adviser Dominic Cummings was fatal, even if you were chancellor of the Exchequer. Everyone was dispensable. Except Dom.
In an interview on the World at One, Montgomerie, who is particularly close to Sajid Javid, the former chancellor who was effectively sacked because he would not let No 10 choose his advisers, said he was especially worried about the influence of Cummings, Johnson’s chief adviser.
What I worry about is that [Cummings] is a brilliant figure, but half of his ideas are crazy, and half of his ideas are good. He shouldn’t be in a leadership position, he shouldn’t be in a dominant position. And I’m afraid that is what has happened inside Downing Street ... The Vote Leave operation that Dominic Cummings ran during the EU referendum has essentially been transplanted into Downing Street, and there is a lack of diversity in thought and personnel as a result.
Updated
Probation services in England and Wales to be brought back into public ownership
Probation services in England and Wales will be fully restored to public ownership and control, the justice secretary has announced, marking the final nail in the coffin of Chris Grayling’s disastrous privatisation reforms.
Under Grayling’s widely derided shake-up in 2014, the probation sector was separated into a public sector organisation, the National Probation Service (NPS) managing high-risk criminals and 21 private companies responsible for the supervision of 150,000 low- to medium-risk offenders.
The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) previously announced that all offender management, around 80% of all probation work, would be brought under the state-run National Probation Service (NPS).
The remaining services, such as rehabilitation and the provision of unpaid work, will no longer be offered up for private tender, the justice secretary said, marking the complete return of probation services to the public sector.
Around 2,000 workers at the private providers, known as community rehabilitation companies (CRCs), are to be brought over to HM Prison and Probation Service.
Robert Buckland told the Commons:
The delivery of unpaid work, behavioural change programmes will be brought under control of the NPS alongside offender supervision when current CRC contracts end in June next year.
This will give us a critical measure of control, resilience and flexibility with these services which we would not have had were they delivered under 12 contracts with an umber of organisations.
Updated
Much of the Downing Street lobby briefing was taken up with a discussion of the test and trace figures. But here are some other lines from the briefing.
- The prime minister’s spokesman said the government had not ruled out the need for the Nightingale hospitals having to reactivated. The emergency hospitals, built within days when it was feared the NHS would be overwhelmed by coronavirus cases, were largely unused. But the spokesman said the government “may still need” them in the months ahead.
- The spokesman said Boris Johnson was urging people not to take part in mass Black Lives Matters demonstrations, in breach of social distancing guidelines. He said:
[The PM] has been very clear that any gatherings of more than six people would be illegal and would urge people not to take part in protests if they can’t be conducted in a lawful way.
- Matt Hancock, the health secretary, will take the daily press conference at 5pm. He will be appearing with Dido Harding, who is in charge of the test and trace programme.
Test and trace scheme 'not gold standard' yet, but will improve, says its boss, Dido Harding
Dido Harding, the Tory peer who runs the test and trace programme, has admitted that the system needs to improve.
Commenting on the first set of performance statistics for it published today (see 1.13pm), she told journalists:
We are not at the gold standard yet that we want to be, of isolating all contacts within 48 hours of someone requesting a test. But you can absolutely see the path of how we are going to get there.
She said the programme was “fit for purpose”. But it would improve, she said.
Just as the infection rate is coming down in the country, so is our capability to test and trace growing.
We have got real scale - this is a national-level service that has stood up in extraordinary time.
Is it completely perfect? No, of course it isn’t. Is there stuff that we all need to do better? Yes there is.
But I think it’s fit for purpose as we stand today and will get better through the summer.
Updated
One-third of people testing positive for coronavirus missed by test and trace system, figures reveal
The Department of Health and Social Care has now published its first set of statistics (pdf) about the operation of the new test and trace system.
Here are the key points flagged up by PA Media.
- Some 5,407 (67%) out of 8,117 people who tested positive for Covid-19 between May 28 and June 3 provided details of recent contacts. The other 2,710 (33%) were not reached.
- Of those people who were reached and asked to provide information about their contacts, just over three-quarters (79%) were contacted within 24 hours of their case being transferred to the test and trace system. Some 14% were contacted between 24 and 48 hours, 3% between 48 and 72 hours, and 4% were contacted after 72 hours.
- From 31,794 contacts who were identified over the period, 26,985 (85%) were reached and advised to self-isolate, NHS figures reveal.
It is worth stressing, of course, that the system only went live on 28 May, and so these numbers may change over time.
Updated
Nicola Sturgeon has said the latest scientific estimates are the R rate, the rate at which Covid-19 infections are spreading in the community, has fallen in Scotland to between 0.6 to 0.8, confirming a steep decline in the number of people in hospital and deaths.
The first minister told the daily coronavirus briefing that “under that estimate we expect that the virus will continue to decline”. She cautioned that there was still a risk of a resurgence in infections, but added: “We should continue to celebrate the progress.”
As a result, she announced that workers would be allowed now to return to construction sites, while observing social distancing, but added that “we still have some way to go” before seeing building at full capacity.
In her daily summary, she announced there were five deaths of those with confirmed Covid-19, with 909 people in hospital, 78 fewer than on Wednesday. Many of the key data have fallen in Scotland to the levels of mid- to late-March, leading Sturgeon to confirm the lockdown may be eased in Scotland more quickly.
The R number in Scotland had been between 0.7 and 0.9.
And the number of infected people in Scotland last week is judged to have been 4,500.
There are more details in this Scottish government report (pdf). This chart shows the R number.
And here are the estimates for the number of people infected.
Updated
A total of 2,439 patients have died in Scotland after testing positive for coronavirus, up by five from 2,434 on Wednesday, Nicola Sturgeon has said at the Scottish government’s daily briefing.
The first minister said 15,682 people have tested positive for the virus in Scotland, up by 17 from 15,665 the previous day.
There are 909 people in hospital with confirmed or suspected Covid-19, a fall of 78 in 24 hours.
Of these patients, 21 were in intensive care, up three.
Updated
In the Commons earlier the housing minister Chris Pincher answered an urgent question tabled by Labour about Robert Jenrick’s intervention in a planning decision that helped the Tory donor Richard Desmond. Jenrick, the communities secretary, did not appear to answer the UQ himself.
Labour’s Steve Reed said that it was “astonishing” that two weeks after Jenrick took a decision that potentially saved Richard Desmond millions of pounds, Desmond donated £12,000 to the Conservative party. Reed went on:
This sequence of events raises grave concerns about cash for favours.
If he wants to restore trust, the secretary of state must immediately publish all documents and all correspondence related to this decision.
The public needs reassurance that the integrity of the planning process cannot be auctioned off at Conservative party fundraising dinners.
Pincher said Jenrick acted “properly and with propriety” in relation to this decision. Referring to the donation to the Conservative party, Pincher said:
The applicant, I think, has paid for tickets to a Conservative party event, that is apparently where the funds came from. Ministers have no knowledge of funds which are provided to political parties through donations or through payment for tickets - these are spendings made by donors which go to parties of all persuasions. They are declared in the proper and usual way.
None of this is known to ministers, none of it is discussed by ministers, it certainly wasn’t discussed on this occasion.
Scottish government says universal basic income 'desirable' - but only possible with UK government's support
As our colleague John Harris explained in a column last month, the coronavirus crisis has renewed interest in the merits of introducing a universal basis income. The SNP has actively been exploring the idea - Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland’s first minister recently described it as an idea whose time has come - and the Scottish government had funded a modest pilot to examine the feasibility of the idea.
Its final report is now out. And the Scottish government has concluded that, although the idea is “desirable”, it would be impossible to introduce one without the support of the UK government because of the way so much welfare and tax policy is still decided in London.
Aileen Campbell, the Scottish government’s communities secretary, said:
The coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic has exposed the shortcomings of the UK social security system and strengthened calls to further explore how a universal basic income could provide support to people and reduce poverty. We now have the perfect opportunity to take that forward.
The Scottish government agree with the report’s conclusion that while introducing a basic income pilot is desirable, it can only be done with the full cooperation and collaboration of all relevant parties, particularly the UK government. That is why I have written to UK ministers urging them to engage constructively with us on this matter and discuss next steps towards a universal basic income pilot.
This is now the time to seriously consider a basic income pilot as part of a UK-wide Covid-19 programme of support to ensure a strong and fair economic and social recovery.
The SNP’s appeal to the UK government for help implementing a universal basic income is almost certainly doomed to failure. Rishi Sunak, the chancellor, has repeatedly said he is not in favour (eg here).
Updated
After Boris Johnson yesterday said that all pupils would return to school in England after the summer holidays, one of the UK’s main teachers’ unions has issued what it calls a “national education recovery plan”.
The prime minister said that Gavin Williamson, the education secretary, will next week issue details of what he called “a huge amount of catch-up for pupils over the summer months”. But the National Education Union (NEU) has quickly issued its own version that looks beyond summer and the effects on English schools when the restart in September.
The NEU’s 10-point plan recommends:
- Local authorities organising summer schools for pupils, with places for those eligible for free school meals paid for by the government;
- Next year’s GCSE and A-level exam content should be reduced and more teacher assessment used to account for the amount of time lost by pupils this year;
- A plan for “blended learning” - combining face to face and online teaching - should be developed for next year, along the lines of that proposed in Scotland;
- Children and young people living in poverty and low- income homes must be given the resources they need to learn at home.
Mary Bousted and Kevin Courtney, the joint general secretaries of the NEU said in a statement:
Schools and pupils have had to adapt quickly to extraordinary circumstances. They have done this remarkably well, often with little or unclear guidance from government. This cannot happen again.
We need a clear national plan. The government must demonstrate leadership and the capacity to work with local authorities and education unions so that plans are implemented in all the regions. The NEUs 10-point plan addresses significant issues that have to be considered. These issues will need funding and planning.
We look forward to speaking to government alongside other education unions and education professionals about how we get this right, and in good time, for both the summer holidays and September. Government cannot let schools struggle through this on their own.
Updated
Airline passengers are being “strongly encouraged” not to take any hand luggage on flights as part of measures to slow the spread of Covid-19.
Travellers should check in all baggage before boarding flights, according to new Department for Transport (DfT) guidance published today.
The government urged airlines - which generally charge additional fees for putting luggage in the hold - to use “incentive policies” to minimise hand baggage.
The DfT guidance states:
You are strongly encouraged to check in baggage to the aircraft hold and minimise any hand baggage.
This will speed up boarding and disembarking, and minimise the risk of transmission.
Other advice for passengers includes wearing face coverings in airports and remaining seated as much as possible during flights.
Airlines are being encouraged to extensively clean aircraft, increase the availability of hand-washing and hand sanitiser, and reduce face-to-face interactions between staff and passengers.
The transport secretary, Grant Shapps, said:
The government’s advice currently remains to avoid all non-essential travel, but today we are taking the necessary steps to ensure a framework is in place for the aviation industry to bounce back when it is safe for restrictions on travel to be lifted.
Tim Alderslade, chief executive of Airlines UK, which represents UK-registered carriers, said its members welcomed the new guidelines. He said:
The guidelines pave the way for the introduction of air bridges, and there is no reason we shouldn’t be getting clarity from government on when and how these will be established over the coming days.
Tim Hawkins, chief strategy officer at Manchester Airports Group, which owns and operates Manchester, London Stansted and East Midlands airports, said:
With similar protocols being adopted in other countries, and a targeted approach to reopening travel to low-risk countries, we will have the elements in place to get our economy moving again and protect jobs throughout the whole aviation supply chain.
Updated
Michael Gove, the Cabinet Office minister, has suggested that the CBI is backing the government’s decision not to ask for an extension to the transition period.
Answering questions on Brexit talks in the House of Commons, Gove said:
I know that businesses … want uncertainty to be removed. That’s why we’re clear that we will end the transition period on the 31st of December, and it is a position that I also understand now the CBI or in favour of.
His remarks come just hours after the outgoing CBI boss Carolyn Fairbairn, whose relations with the government were severely tested over Brexit, warned that British firms could not cope with a no deal Brexit.
“The resilience of British business is absolutely on the floor,” because of Covid she told the BBC’s Simon Jack.
Explaining why the CBI has not called for an extension of the transition period, Fairbairn said on BBC’s Newsnight last week that ”business does not have any interest in delaying that because that is uncertainty magnified”.
Updated
Data from the Covid Symptom Tracker app suggests the number of new coronavirus cases in Britain has halved in a week, with fewer than 5,000 people being infected each day.
Last week, the estimate was 9,400 new infections per day, but this has been revised by scientists at King’s College London in light of the new data.
However, the data does not include figures from Northern Ireland or care homes, where the virus is still thought to be spreading, so the true rate is likely much higher.
The figures were based on close to 13,000 swabs taken between 26 May and 6 June and then extrapolated to the wider population.
MailOnline has the story.
Updated
Good morning. I’m Lucy Campbell, joining the blog for the rest of the day. Please feel free to get in touch to share news tips and stories we should be covering. Your thoughts are always welcome.
Email: lucy.campbell@theguardian.com
Twitter: @lucy_campbell_
Duncan Smith attacks credibility of professor who said lockdown delay doubled death rate
At his press conference yesterday Boris Johnson did not try to contest the claim from Prof Neil Ferguson that he could have halved the coronavirus death toll by launching the lockdown a week earlier. Johnson just said that trying to make that assessment now was “premature”.
But this morning, in an interview with Sky News, the former Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith strongly challenged Ferguson’s claim. He said:
The truth is that we has actually peaked in infection rates before we went into lockdown, and that was therefore coming already down.
And he went on to allege that Ferguson and his epidemiological modelling was discredited. Duncan Smith said:
I think this piece of information comes from the man who ran the Imperial College model which has been now roundly trashed by almost every single scientist, particularly in Oxford and Edinburgh. And so my point is, be very careful: you get scientists and they disagree with each other about these.
The government acted on the advice of the science at the time.
The Imperial College model has its critics, but the idea that it has been “roundly trashed” is just wrong. Ferguson is no longer a member of the government’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (he resigned over a lockdown breach), but in its minutes Sage said he had made “an important contribution” and the modelling produced by his team is still being used by Sage as it advises government.
Duncan Smith’s argument about the epidemic peaking before the lockdown was announced seems to have been lifted an article by the Spectator editor Fraser Nelson that he posted on Twitter yesterday.
Neil Ferguson's claim that infections were surging in the week before lockdown is being challenged by studies using observed (rather than modelled) data. Here's one Bristol uni study:- https://t.co/ZNF9zPR2dk
— Fraser Nelson (@FraserNelson) June 11, 2020
In his article Nelson claims: “Infections peaked about five days before lockdown and were in fast decline by the time it was introduced.” His source for this is a paper (pdf) by the Bristol University statistician Prof Simon Wood. Wood used death figures to work backwards and infer the fatal infection rate in early March.
But Nelson’s argument been contested. Last night, after I posted the Nelson tweet in the blog, Dr David Shaw from the Care and Public Health Research Institute at Maastricht University got in touch to say that Nelson was wrong to refer to the infection rate peaking before lockdown was announced. “It’s not the infection rate, but the DEATH from infection rate, and there are all sorts of reasons why the death rate might start coming down before the infection rate, not least the massive ramping up of ICU capacity,” Shaw pointed out.
Updated
The UK government is making great play of its spending in Scotland to help companies furlough staff and fund business bail-out programmes, as deep strains emerge between the Tories and Nicola Sturgeon’s government.
Rishi Sunak, the chancellor, said the data showed the Treasury’s “unprecedented” package of support has allowed 628,200 jobs in Scotland to be furloughed, including 58,000 people in Edinburgh and 74,000 in Glasgow. Another 146,000 people were given self-employed income support.
Alister Jack, the Scottish secretary, said billions of pounds were being spentment, including an additional £3.5bn in direct funding to the Scottish government through the Barnett formula. “The UK government is doing whatever it takes to get Scotland, and the whole of the UK, through the coronavirus pandemic and ensure our economy can get back on track,” Jack said.
The announcement comes against a backdrop of open conflict between the Scottish Tories and Sturgeon over her handling of the pandemic, which is coming under increasing attack from opposition parties at Holyrood, including the normally friendly Scottish Greens.
While Sturgeon and her health secretary, Jeane Freeman, have faced heavy criticism for mishandling care home and community Covid-19 testing, Sturgeon’s popularity has soared during the pandemic, largely due to her assured daily coronavirus briefings. A Panelbase poll earlier in June found 59% of voters were now more confident about how an independent Scotland would be governed, thanks to her leadership during the crisis.
Updated
Patients are missing out on vital treatments, diagnostic tests and outpatient appointments due to the coronavirus pandemic, new data shows, as waiting times soar across NHS England.
The full extent of the monumental pressure the NHS came under at the height of the Covid-19 crisis and the effect the crisis has had on patients is laid bare in the latest data.
Cancer
The number of people entering treatment for cancer has dropped significantly meaning many patients who would have ordinarily been tested for cancer were not seen. In April 2019 almost 200,000 people were referred to a consultant for suspected cancer by their GPs. This April that figure fell to just 79,573.
MacMillan says approximately 210,000 people should have entered the system in April. That means roughly 130,000 people who would ordinarily be referred to a consultant have not been. Around 7% of these patients would usually require cancer treatment meaning around 9,000 people might not have had their cancer diagnosed in April.
Diagnostics
Patients requiring certain diagnostic tests - such as MRI scans, echocardiograms and colonoscopies - for six weeks or more soared to 468,622 making April the worst month on record. On average in the year to January 5,741 patients were waiting more than six weeks for an MRI scan. That figure stood at almost 79,000 in April.
Referrals to treatment
The median length of time patients are waiting on the referral for treatment stood at 12.2 weeks in April, the longest they have been in well over a decade. More than a million patients are now waiting for more than 18 weeks for treatment.
The number of patients waiting over a year for a test jumped from 1,613 in February to 11,042 in April, a seven-fold increase in just two months.
A&E
Having fallen to an all time low in April the number of people attending major A&E departments rose again in May, from 689,720 to 924,215. In the year prior to the crisis hitting A&E attendances averaged at 1.3m.
When other A&E attendances are included (single specialty and minor injury units) 1.3m people attended A&E departments in May, the second lowest number since records began.
Updated
Urgent cancer referrals in England fell by 60% in first month of lockdown, figures reveal
NHS England figures also show that a total of 79,573 urgent cancer referrals were made by GPs in England in April 2020, down from 199,217 in April 2019 - a fall of 60%.
This is the number of people seen by a cancer doctor within two weeks of being referred. Urgent breast cancer referrals showed an even bigger drop: down from 16,753 in April 2019 to 3,759 in April 2020, a fall of 78%.
Updated
The charity Pregnant Then Screwed, which campaigns to end discrimination against mothers, is threatening legal action against the government over its self-employment income support scheme (SEISS), which funds those affected by the pandemic.
The scheme - introduced in April by Rishi Sunak, the chancellor of the exchequer - initially provided a payment of 80% of average earnings over three years, capped at £7,500. It has since been extended to the end of August at a slightly lower rate.
The charity claims the eligibility conditions and calculation methods chosen by Sunak have a discriminatory effect on women since they do not exempt periods of maternity leave. Pregnant Then Screwed believes almost 70,000 women may be affected. It is asking the chancellor to take immediate steps to change SEISS so that time out for maternity leave is discounted when average earnings are calculated.
Joeli Brearley, founder of Pregnant Then Screwed, said:
The chancellor has failed to consider the disproportionately negative impact on vulnerable new mothers when setting up this scheme. Rishi Sunak has been questioned on this in parliament, but he continues to ignore the problem.
We have spoken to so many women about this topic, they are angry, they are in financial hardship and they are struggling to understand why they aren’t being listened to. The government is not fulfilling [its] public sector equality duty. It is important that they are held to account for this. It is imperative these new mothers are given a voice.
Anna Dews of Leigh Day Solicitors, which is advising the charity, said:
The Covid-19 pandemic is a public health crisis that affects everyone. Its impact, however, is not equal. Our existing health and socio-economic inequalities mean women in particular are bearing the brunt of this health emergency in many different ways. The financial support package put in place by the government must not add to this negative impact. Our client is calling for its immediate reform and for its current discriminatory approach to be removed.”
Updated
The Queen has taken part in a video call with the Princess Royal and carers supported by the Carers Trust.
The monarch chatted with four carers and the trust’s chief executive, Gareth Howells, on 4 June from Windsor Castle.
To mark #CarersWeek2020, The Queen and The Princess Royal spoke to a group of carers who are supported by The @CarersTrust to find out more about the challenges they face. pic.twitter.com/ieMyPWlNeV
— The Royal Family (@RoyalFamily) June 11, 2020
In a video released on the monarchy’s Twitter account, the Queen could be heard saying:
Interesting listening to all your tales and stories.
I’m very impressed by what you have achieved already. I’m very glad to have been able to join you today.
Updated
According to the Daily Mail’s John Stevens, Robert Jenrick, the communities secretary, is sending a junior minister to answer the Commons urgent questions about his intervention in a planning decision that helped the Tory donor Richard Desmond.
Understand that Robert Jenrick is refusing to answer Urgent Question in the Commons this morning on this
— John Stevens (@johnestevens) June 11, 2020
Junior minister Chris Pincher is being sent in his place https://t.co/bdIjs7AiDe
Photograph: Lee Smith/Reuters
The lockdown appears to have had a disproportionate negative impact on disabled people, a report from the Office for National Statistics out this morning says.
On the basis of a survey, it found that in May disabled people were more likely to be worried about a range of issues than their non-disabled counterparts. It said:
A higher proportion of disabled people than non-disabled people were worried about the effect of the coronavirus pandemic on their well-being (62.4% for disabled people compared with 49.6% of non-disabled people); their access to groceries, medication and essentials (44.9% compared with 21.9%); their access to health care and treatment for non-coronavirus-related issues (40.6% compared with 21.2%); and their health (20.2% compared with 7.3%) in May 2020.
As this chart shows, disabled people were also more likely to be feeling stressed or anxious, and feeling lonely.
David Ainslie, from the disability analysis branch at the ONS, said:
An ongoing part of ONS’s work is looking at inequalities in society. This is reflected in the way the pandemic is impacting on different groups. Disabled people are becoming more concerned about their mental health and experiencing feelings of loneliness as time goes on, whereas among non-disabled adults these concerns remain stable.
A&E attendances at hospitals in England were down 42% last month compared with a year ago, new figures show. A total of 1.3m attendances were recorded in May 2020, down from 2.2m in May 2019.
NHS England, which published the figures, said the fall was “likely to be a result of the Covid-19 response” - an indication that people have continued to stay away from A&E departments because of the coronavirus outbreak.
The year-on-year drop in A&E attendances of 42% in May compares with a fall of 57% recorded in April.
Updated
More than a fifth of usual household spending has not been possible during the lockdown, Office for National Statistics (ONS) analysis has found.
In the financial year ending March 2019, UK households spent an average of £182 per week on activities that have since been largely prevented by government guidelines - such as travel, holidays and meals out.
This is equivalent to 22% of a usual weekly budget of £831, money that households could be saving, spending in other areas or using to cover any loss of income, the ONS said.
Updated
Sir Simon Rattle has said orchestras need “clarity” from the government on their future - or they “may not survive”.
The music director of the London Symphony Orchestra said orchestras could face a “devastated landscape on the other side” of the pandemic.
In a joint letter to the Guardian with Sir Mark Elder, music director of the Halle Orchestra, he said musicians feel “out in the wilderness”.
They wrote: “There’s a real possibility of a devastated landscape on the other side of this - orchestras may not survive, and if they do, they may face insuperable obstacles to remain solvent in our new reality.”
They added: “We must find a way to play together soon, even without an audience, if we are to maintain anything like our normal standards, and we badly need clarity from government, a timeline of when that might be and how it can be implemented.
“We understand that we cannot expect to revert to everything as it was before - we will be creative and tireless in making contingency plans and solving problems.”
They went on: “We refuse to believe that live music will die, but it will not survive merely on energy and optimism.”
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Agenda for the day
Good morning. I’m Andrew Sparrow, joining the blog for the day.
Here is the agenda showing what’s coming up.
9.30am: The Office for National Statitics publishes new coronavirus data, including a report on household spending and a report on the impact of the pandemic on people with disabilities.
9.30am: HMRC publishes figures on the take-up of the coronavirus job retention scheme.
10.30am: Robert Jenrick, the communities secretary, answers a Commons urgent question about his intervention in a planning decision that helped the Tory donor Richard Desmond.
11.30am: Robert Buckland, the justice secretary, makes a statement to MPs about reforms to the probation service.
12pm: Downing Street lobby briefing.
12.30pm: The Scottish and Welsh governments hold their daily briefings.
2pm: The Department of Health and Social Care is due to publish figures about the number of people being contacted through test and trace.
5pm: Matt Hancock, the health secretary, is due to take the UK government’s daily press conference.
Updated
Asked if he believed the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) got it wrong about lockdown timings, Prof Mark Woolhouse, of Edinburgh University, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme:
No, I don’t. I’m not on Sage, so I can’t speak for the processes that led to that advice.
The timing of an intervention for an epidemic like this is extremely complicated. Lockdown is a very drastic measure, so it is no surprise that governments around the world have been very reluctant to implement it.
He added: “The problem is, from my point of view, the scientific advice - and this comes all the way back to the World Health Organization - is the only option we are giving our governments in lockdown.
“That is an extremely crude way to deal with an epidemic of this nature.”
Updated
Please do get in touch today as my colleague Andrew Sparrow and I live blog. We are keen to hear any news tips, insights or useful bits of information.
Twitter: @sloumarsh
Instagram: sarah_marsh_journalist
Email: sarah.marsh@theguardian.com
Updated
Boris Johnson is considering reducing the 2-metre physical-distancing restriction to allow schools in England to reopen fully by September, the Daily Telegraph reports.
The Labour leader, Sir Keir Starmer, criticised the government’s efforts to get pupils back in class, using an article in the paper to claim “mismanagement” was putting at risk the welfare and education of children.
The newspaper reports that Johnson is looking at following World Health Organization advice and reducing physical distancing to 1 metre - guidance already followed by countries including France, Denmark and Singapore.
At prime minister’s questions on Wednesday, he promised to “keep that 2-metre rule under constant review”.
Updated
Asked about opposition criticism that the government did not act fast enough, the local government minister Simon Clarke told the BBC:
I think what we did was that we acted in good faith to try to save both lives and livelihoods. I think that’s been the consistent theme of our approach to this crisis. So, there is a lot of being wise after the fact.
I do think that for Labour to try to politicise it in that way, on that issue, feels in poor taste. I don’t recall, frankly, the opposition adopting a hard and fast line that we should be entering full lockdown.
Updated
Is the worst of the pandemic behind us? Here’s what scientists know so far. Interesting article this morning from Prof Devi Sridhar, chair of global public health at the University of Edinburgh.
She said:
My own view is that we can avoid a second wave if governments aggressively contain the virus through testing, tracing and isolating carriers, and by encouraging good hygiene, such as handwashing and environmental disinfection, supported by physical distancing where it’s needed. The goal is to drive down numbers of cases to a low level so that transmission is limited to discrete, containable outbreaks with the ultimate goal of elimination.
Read the full article here.
Updated
Hello everyone and welcome to the Guardian’s live feed on coronavirus. Please do share any news tips, insights or useful bits of information with me this morning while I blog.
Twitter: @sloumarsh
Instagram: sarah_marsh_journalist
Email: sarah.marsh@theguardian.com
Updated
'Limiting' two-metre rule under review, says minister
On 19 March, just a few days before he self-isolated with Covid-19, Boris Johnson told the daily Downing Street briefing that in 12 weeks “we can turn the tide”. “I am absolutely confident that we can send coronavirus packing,” he said.
So has this happened? This is the question asked of local government minister Simon Clarke on the BBC Radio 4 Today programme this morning.
“I think the tide has been turned ... the government has tried to make its own assessment based on the best available science,” he said. “We have made decisions in good faith based on available evidence.”
He was asked about possibly reducing the 2m social distancing rules, as the government comes under growing pressure from backbench MPs to do so, amid concerns about how this will affect the reopening of schools and the economy.
He said that the government knew how “limiting” it was and that it was under review.
Minister Simon Clarke repeats that the 2 metre social distancing rule is “under review”, but it does sound as if the government is simply waiting for the right time to drop it.
— Paul Brand (@PaulBrandITV) June 11, 2020
“We all recognise how limiting two metres is, we’re not blind to the challenge”. @BBCr4today
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Centrica, which owns British Gas, has said it will cut 5,000 jobs due to the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on an already declining business.
Updated
Rory Stewart, who called for stronger action on Covid-19 in March, on #r4today now saying the Government & scientists opted to allow the virus to spread, aiming for ‘herd immunity’ - which Sir Patrick Vallance said at the time but Govt denies it now. pic.twitter.com/Z20yOKAnXi
— David Conn (@david_conn) June 11, 2020
Ofsted’s Amanda Spielman said:
Many schools are already showing that within the public health guidance that sets the expectation for these bubbles of 15 children there’s a great deal that can be done.
It is also important to remember that within the bubbles social distancing is an aspiration, not an absolute expectation.
Updated
Ofsted chief calls for 'can to' approach to school opening
There needs to be a more “can do” approach to reopening schools, according to Ofsted.
Chief inspector of schools Amanda Spielman told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme:
I would like to hear a much more optimistic approach.
I think it should be about what we can do, not about what we can’t do.
Updated
Patients could be left facing delays in receiving tests and treatment as health services restart due to hospitals not being properly equipped to handle the surge in screenings, it has been reported.
According to an investigation by The Independent, a mix of workforce shortages and Covid-19 precautions could see the number of people awaiting diagnosis on a range of medical issues reach 10 million this year.
President of the Royal College of Pathologists Prof Jo Martin told the paper 97% of NHS labs do not have the number of pathologists required to meet demand.
“We don’t have the capacity to keep up even under normal circumstances. But with the additional catch-up work we will be even further behind,” she said.
The Royal College of Radiologists warned that precautions to prevent the spread of coronavirus were contributing to a backlog in requested scans.
Vice president for clinical radiology Dr Caroline Rubin told the newspaper that radiology departments were running at about 60% capacity.
“In some places patients are being told to wait in their cars until we call them in,” she said.
“We have to clean between each patient but if it’s a Covid patient it needs a deep clean which can take half an hour or more.
“We stopped virtually all non-urgent imaging at the start of lockdown. Everything has been put on a waiting list and deferred so we have a significant backlog going forward.”
Updated
The NHS has fast-tracked the rollout of a new type of radiotherapy for cancer patients amid the coronavirus pandemic.
NHS England has announced it is accelerating the use of stereotactic ablative radiotherapy (SABR) which requires fewer doses than standard radiotherapy, cutting the number of hospital visits that potentially vulnerable cancer patients need to make.
Where conventional radiotherapy requires 20-30 treatments, SABR is a very precise method using a high dose of radiations and only requiring about five outpatient visits, according to the NHS.
Summary of the key bits of news today
- The number of coronavirus deaths in the UK could have been halved if the government had introduced the lockdown a week earlier, according to damning testimony from one of the scientists who was advising the government at the time. The stark claim by Prof Neil Ferguson that thousands of lives could have been saved intensified the pressure on the government over its handling of the outbreak, leaving Boris Johnson facing repeated questions at the daily Downing Street press conference.The prime minister insisted it was “premature” to make judgments about the government’s approach, and said he had taken the steps “that we thought were right for this country”, on the basis of scientific advice.
- About 11 million people living alone or as single parents will be allowed to combine with another household to form a “support bubble” in England, Boris Johnson has said.
- Mayors in some of England’s biggest cities are warning that local authorities are at risk of going bust with potentially devastating consequences for communities unless the government takes immediate action.
- Britain’s housing market remains depressed despite a pick-up in enquiries from people looking to buy, but estate agents are expecting a sharp increase in demand for homes with gardens over the next two years because of the Covid-19 pandemic.
- The UK coronavirus death toll rose by 245 yesterday, according to the latest government figures, taking the death toll to 41,128 in hospitals, care homes and the community.
- The UK will experience the worst economic contraction among developed countries due to the coronavirus pandemic, according to a new forecast. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) predicts the British economy will shrink by 11.5% in 2020 due to the lockdown imposed since the first wave of the coronavirus pandemic.
Updated
Heathrow Airport has launched a voluntary redundancy scheme and warned it cannot rule out further job cuts as it battles to recover from the coronavirus crisis.
The company said it had agreed the scheme with unions, which comes just days after it cautioned around 25,000 jobs could be at risk.
Chief executive John Holland-Kaye said:
Throughout this crisis we have tried to protect frontline jobs but this is no longer sustainable, and we have now agreed a voluntary severance scheme with our union partners.
While we cannot rule out further job reductions, we will continue to explore options to minimise the number of job losses.
Updated
Pressure mounts to ease 2m social distancing rule
The government is facing increasing pressure to drop the 2m social distancing rule in England.
Tory backbenchers, including former cabinet ministers Sir Iain Duncan Smith and Damian Green, say it is essential for the economy. The government has said it is constantly reviewing its coronavirus lockdown guidance.
It comes after prime minister Boris Johnson said single adults could be able to stay at one other household from Saturday. No 10 said the plans were in place to help combat loneliness. It does not apply to those who are shielding, or other UK nations.
Updated
Hello everyone and welcome to the Guardian’s live feed on coronavirus. Please do share any news tips, insights or useful bits of information with me this morning while I blog. Thanks in advance.
Twitter: @sloumarsh
Instagram: sarah_marsh_journalist
Email: sarah.marsh@theguardian.com
