We are now closing this blog. If you want to read more coronavirus news from around the world, you can head over to our global blog. Thanks for following along.
Afternoon summary
Here’s a summary of the day’s key developments.
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The R value across the UK remained unchanged from last week and was still above 1. Data released by the government’s advisory group Sage showed the whole-UK estimate for R, which represents the average number of people each Covid-19 positive person infects, was between 1.1 and 1.3.
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A further 355 people died within 28 days of testing positive for Covid-19 as of Friday, according to official figures. That brought the UK total to 48,475.
- The increase in coronavirus infections across England and Wales is slowing, official data suggests. While the infection rate has increased in recent weeks, “the rate of increase is less steep compared with previous weeks”, the Office for National Statistics said.
- A major English hospital has been forced to postpone all planned procedures due to a “significant” rise in very sick patients. The University Hospitals Birmingham NHS foundation trust (UHB) said there had been a sharp rise in Covid-19 and non-Covid-19 emergency cases at the Queen Elizabeth hospital.
- Mass testing has begun in Liverpool. It is part of Operation Moonshot, the government’s ambitious plan to deploy new technologies to test the entire population for coronavirus infection. Yet, even as the army arrived and testing sites were set up, questions were being asked about the accuracy of the tests and the information people will be given about their results.
- The Welsh health minister has insisted it is right to end the firebreak lockdown on Monday. Despite worrying infection rates in some south Wales valleys, Vaughan Gething said it would be a “massive breach of trust” if Wales did not end the firebreak as promised.
- The ban on religious services will “probably change before too long”, the Archbishop of Canterbury has said. Justin Welby is among a host of faith leaders who have written to Boris Johnson to ask that the decision to bar communal worship is reversed.
Updated
Further 355 Covid deaths within 24 hours; 23,287 new cases
A further 355 people died within 28 days of testing positive for Covid-19 as of Friday, according to official figures. This brings the UK total to 48,475.
Separate figures published by the UK’s statistics agencies for deaths where Covid-19 has been mentioned on the death certificate, together with additional data on deaths that have occurred in recent days, show there have now been 64,000 deaths involving Covid-19 in the UK.
The government said that, as of 9am on Friday, there had been a further 23,287 lab-confirmed cases in the UK. This brings the total number to 1,146,484.
Updated
Handing back to Kevin now. Thanks for your time.
Strict campus lockdowns and a worsening mental health crisis are creating a “perfect storm”, student leaders have said. Their warning came after tensions boiled over in Manchester, where fencing erected around accommodation was pulled down, Rachel Hall and Ben Quinn report.
Students at other campuses are organising rent strikes and complaining of a lack of mental health support against the backdrop of England’s new national coronavirus lockdown, under which they have been told not to return to their family homes during term time.
In cities such as Nottingham and Lincoln, there has also been a backlash among students and staff towards universities, which are insisting that students and lecturers travel to campuses for face-to-face teaching.
Student leaders in Leeds have levelled accusations of heavy-handedness against security guards on campuses elsewhere, including the use of dogs to patrol halls of residences.
Read the full story here:
Updated
Health experts said plans to screen the population of Liverpool for coronavirus were not fit for purpose.
A group of academics said plans to test asymptomatic people in Liverpool went against advice from Sage to prioritise testing for those who were displaying symptoms, PA Media reports.
In a letter sent to the city’s MPs, they said: “Searching for symptomless yet infectious people is like searching for needles that appear transiently in haystacks.
“The potential for harmful diversion of resources and public money is vast.
“Also of concern are the potential vested interests of commercial companies supplying new and as yet inadequately evaluated tests.”
The letter to the MPs was signed by Prof Allyson Pollock, professor of public health at Newcastle University, Dr Angela Raffle, a consultant in public health based in Bristol, as well as Anthony Brooks, professor of genomics and bioinformatics at Leicester University; Louisa Harding-Edgar, GP and academic fellow in general practice at Glasgow University and Stuart Hogarth, sociology lecturer at Cambridge University.
Updated
Hi. Caroline Davies here, taking over from Kevin for a short while. You can get in touch on caroline.davies@theguardian.com.
Updated
A coronavirus passport app promoted by the Olympian Zara Tindall has been reported to a health regulator over concerns it is mis-selling antibody tests.
The V-Health Passport was touted as a “game changer” to get sports fans back into stadiums and major events. It involves spectators getting a rapid antibody test prior to attending an event, with results uploaded on a health passport on an app.
But the app was reported to the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) by Jon Deeks, a professor of biostatistics at the University of Birmingham. He said that, while he did not take issue with the app itself, the advert promoting the passport was “mis-selling an antibody test”.
Government guidelines say an antibody test can show whether a person has had coronavirus but cannot detect if someone currently has it, while the NHS says the tests do not work for everyone as some people who have contracted the virus do not have antibodies. Prof Deeks told the Press Association:
In the advert, Zara and Mike Tindall were being told they don’t have the virus – you can’t say that. This could do harm, with people getting into sporting events with negative results while they are infectious.
I have no problem with the app, it’s the use of the app. A lot of health professionals have seen it with their head in their hands.
Updated
Some schools may be sending children home “too readily” amid the pandemic, the chief inspector of Ofsted has said.
Parents of pupils with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) have been told that schools cannot accommodate their children due to Covid-19 risk assessments, according to Amanda Spielman.
Speaking at the online National Children and Adult Services Conference (NCASC), the chief inspector called for a “simplification of government advice” for schools to help parents and teachers as winter begins.
Spielman highlighted a rise in the number of parents opting to home school their children this term – and “quite a proportion” of those children have special educational needs.
And here, many parents haven’t made an active decision to keep their child at home – they’ve been told that schools can’t accommodate them. Because it’s too difficult, because Covid risk assessments won’t allow it. It’s deeply concerning and, understandably, many parents feel cut adrift.
For the children with SEND that have been able to get back into education, it hasn’t been plain sailing either. We’re hearing that many have suffered setbacks in their communication skills – probably down to having reduced social interaction for such a long time.
And, although some people are working really creatively to help families, this is an ongoing concern.
We’ll be looking at this more in the next report from our autumn visits.
Updated
Downing Street has conceded there was a mistake, after it emerged that official projections were quietly revised to no longer suggest Covid-19 deaths could overtake those at the peak of the first wave.
Graphs shown at a No 10 press conference last weekend indicated there could be up to 1,500 deaths a day in England by early next month; far beyond the numbers seen in the first wave. But the Daily Telegraph reported that documents released by the government show the figures were too high and have now been “amended, after an error was found” – the revised forecast reduced the upper limit to 1,000 deaths a day by 8 December; on par with April’s peak.
On Friday, Downing Street acknowledged there had been an “error” in the way the data was presented, but said the underlying analysis was unchanged. A No 10 spokesman said:
We want to make the data as clear and transparent as we can. There was no error in the underlying analysis. The consensus is that without action we will breach the first wave [peak] in terms of hospital admissions.
We have acknowledged the mistake which we have corrected and we will continue to try and provide data in the clearest possible way.
Updated
Returning to the latest estimates of the spread of the virus, the Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group on Modelling (SPI-M) – a sub-group of Sage – believes the growth rate is between plus 2% and plus 4% for the UK as a whole.
That means the number of new infections is increasing by between 2% and 4% every day.
The most likely value for R and growth rate is towards the middle of that range, according to the experts. Sage said it is confident the epidemic has continued to grow in England over recent weeks, adding:
Although there is some evidence that the rate of growth in some parts of the country may be slowing, levels of disease are very high in these areas and significant levels of healthcare demand and mortality will persist until R is reduced to, and remains well below, 1 for an extended period of time.
Updated
Asked about this morning’s virtual British-Irish Council meeting, Nicola Sturgeon has said:
We didn’t go into the detail of what exactly that might look like but there is a recognition that a key part of what all countries have to do to stop this virus spreading is to limit travel and to mitigate where there is travel opportunities for the virus to spread.
Clearly those discussions will always be both particularly important but also particularly difficult and sensitive when it’s your closest neighbours.
Updated
R still above 1 across UK, say government advisers
The reproduction number, or R value, of coronavirus transmission across the UK remains unchanged from last week and is still above 1. Data released on Friday by the government’s advisory group Sage shows the estimate for R for the whole of the UK is between 1.1 and 1.3.
R represents the average number of people each Covid-19 positive person goes on to infect. When the figure is above 1, an outbreak can grow exponentially. An R number between 1.1 and 1.3 means that on average every 10 people infected will infect between 11 and 13 other people.
Lunchtime summary
Here’s a summary of recent developments.
- The increase in coronavirus infections across England and Wales appears to be slowing down, official data suggests. While the infection rate has increased in recent weeks, “the rate of increase is less steep compared with previous weeks”, the Office for National Statistics said.
- A major English hospital has been forced to postpone all planned procedures due to a “significant” rise in very sick patients. The University Hospitals Birmingham NHS foundation trust (UHB) said there had been a sharp rise in Covid-19 and non-Covid-19 emergency cases at the Queen Elizabeth hospital.
- Mass testing has begun in Liverpool. It is part of Operation Moonshot, the government’s ambitious plan to deploy new technologies to test the entire population for coronavirus infection. Yet, even as the army arrived and testing sites were set up, questions were being asked about the accuracy of the tests and the information people will be given about their results.
- The Welsh health minister has insisted it is right to end the firebreak lockdown on Monday. Despite worrying infection rates in some south Wales valleys, Vaughan Gething said it would be a “massive breach of trust” if Wales did not end the firebreak as promised.
- The ban on religious services will “probably change before too long”, the Archbishop of Canterbury has said. Justin Welby is among a host of faith leaders who have written to Boris Johnson to ask that the decision to bar communal worship is reversed.
Updated
Rate of growth in infections in England and Wales has stabilised – ONS
Rounding up those ONS figures, statisticians have said the rate of infections across England and Wales appears to be slowing down.
The ONS said an estimated 618,700 people in England – one in 90 – had Covid-19 between 25 and 31 October; up from 568,100 the week before. But, while the infection rate has increased in recent weeks, the “rate of increase is less steep compared with previous weeks”, the ONS said. Ruth Studley, the head of analysis for the Covid-19 infection survey, has said:
At a national level we are seeing infections slow across England and Wales but they are still increasing. Within England, every region apart from the north-east has shown increased levels of infection.
The level of infection in young adults and older teenagers appears to have levelled off recently. However, they continue to be the most likely to be infected despite increases in all other age groups.
When looking at new daily infections, the ONS said the rate across England appears to have stabilised.
The figures do not include people staying in hospitals or care homes and are based on more than 689,000 swab tests gathered from across the UK from people with and without symptoms.
More than 64,000 deaths involving Covid-19 have now occurred in the UK, according to figures produced by statistical agencies.
Updated
In Northern Ireland, an estimated 24,900 people in private households had Covid-19 between 25 and 31 October; the equivalent of 1.36% of the population.
The ONS said its modelling suggests positivity rates in Northern Ireland have increased in recent weeks, but “it is too early to say that they have levelled off”.
Because of the relatively small number of tests and low number of positives in its Northern Ireland sample, the ONS said results should be interpreted with caution.
Here’s an update on the meeting between leaders from around the British Isles. Northern Ireland’s first minister Arlene Foster said the summit had agreed that the virus “was going to be with us for some considerable time”.
We have to move through this in a way where we bring everybody with us and protect the National Health Service, I think that’s imperative.
Northern Ireland’s deputy first minister Michele O’Neill said the issue of travel was “crucially important as we move forward and move out of wave two”,.
The taoiseach was asked about trade following Brexit, with Martin saying he recognised that negotiations between the EU and UK had “intensified” recently. He said: “I remain hopeful that an agreement can be reached.”
There were more patients with suspected and confirmed cases of coronavirus in Welsh hospitals on Wednesday than at the peak in April, Gething has said.
The numbers have fallen slightly as a result of discharges and sadly some deaths.
He said there were now 1,365 people with coronavirus-related symptoms in Welsh hospitals, which is 169 higher than at the same point last week.
I want to be clear, this does not mean that our NHS has become overwhelmed. The NHS has capacity to respond to winter and pandemic pressures, including using field hospitals, but this was a significant milestone to reach.
He said the rate of Covid-19 in Wales is now 252.8 cases per 100,000 people. In the over-60s, the rate is 179.6 per 100,000 people.
In Wales, an estimated 27,100 people in private households had Covid-19 between 25 and 31 October; the equivalent of 0.89% of the population. This is up slightly from an estimated 26,100 people for the period 17 to 23 October, or 0.86% of the population.
The ONS said that its modelling suggests the number of Covid-19 cases in Wales has “increased in recent weeks, but the rate of increase is now less steep compared with previous weeks”.
Welsh health minister insists firebreak lockdown ends despite high infection rates in some areas
The Welsh health minister Vaughan Gething has insisted it is right that the country’s 17-day firebreak lockdown ends on Monday despite worrying infection rates in some south Wales valleys.
Merthyr Tydfil county borough has the highest number of cases per 100,000 people in the whole of the UK and rates are also high in Blaenau Gwent and Rhondda Cynon Taf.
But Gething said it would be a “massive breach of trust” if Wales did not end the firebreak as promised. He said a new set of national restrictions would come into place rather than local ones.
The firebreak will end for all parts of Wales. We need to change the way we live our lives.
Speaking at the Welsh government’s press conference in Cardiff, Gething spelled out that the effects of the firebreak would not be seen for several weeks. He said that on Wednesday this week there were more Covid patients in Welsh hospitals than at the peak in April – but the hospitals were not overwhelmed.
Updated
Leaders from around the British Isles have agreed to continue “close co-operation” on travel to avoid the spread of coronavirus.
Sturgeon hosted a virtual meeting of the British-Irish Council on Friday morning, which includes the UK’s other first ministers, the Irish taoiseach Micheál Martin and the chancellor of the duchy of Lancaster Michael Gove.
At a press conference following the summit, the first ministers were asked about travel agreements as Christmas approaches. Sturgeon has said:
We agreed at this morning’s summit to continue very close cooperation across the islands and in particular to look at issues around travel within the common travel area and more generally.
To make sure that as we hopefully in the not too distant future, emerge from a second wave of Covid, that we are all collectively taking care not to re-seed the virus.
Nicola Sturgeon thanked Scotland’s fire crews for their “incredible response” after a difficult bonfire night that saw the fire service receiving 1100 emergency calls and attending 520 bonfires between 3.30pm and 11.30pm last night.
There were also 12 instances of attacks on fire crews, with bricks and fireworks reportedly thrown at vehicles and crew, which Sturgeon condemned as “completely unacceptable”. Two homes in Motherwell were also accidentally set on fire after being hit by fireworks.
Sturgeon reminded the public that the Scottish government earlier this week pledged to change the nation’s approach to fireworks, with firework-free zones and restrictions on sales recommended as part of a “cultural shift” to tackle their antisocial use.
She urged people to display common sense and a sense of responsibility when gathering together but also warned against stereotyping those who were involved in last night’s trouble, after one questioner suggested that it had mainly occurred in lower income areas.
At her daily press briefing, Scotland’s first minister Nicola Sturgeon has confirmed 1,072 new cases of coronavirus in the past 24 hours, with 1,237 patients in hospital down by 15 from yesterday, 98 in ICU, up 3 from yesterday and a further 31 deaths from the virus.
When modelling the level of infection among different age groups, the ONS said older teenagers and young adults continue to have the highest positivity rates, though rates “now appear to be levelling off” in this group.
All other age groups have seen an increase in rates over recent weeks, the ONS added.
The highest regional infection rates remain in north-west England and Yorkshire and the Humber, the ONS said.
The rates are estimated to have increased in all regions over recent weeks, except north-east England where they “appear to have levelled off”.
The lowest rates continue to be in south-east England, south-west England and eastern England.
Estimated 618,700 people in England had Covid last week
An estimated 618,700 people in private households in England had Covid-19 between 25 and 31 October, the ONS said. This is the equivalent of around 1.13% of the population.
The figures represent a jump from 568,100 people, or 1.04% of the population, who were estimated to have Covid-19 in the period 17 to 23 October.
The ONS said that, while the infection rate has increased in recent weeks, the rate is “less steep compared with previous weeks”.
Updated
There were an average of 45,700 new cases per day of Covid-19 in private households in England between 25 and 31 October, according to the latest estimates from the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
This is down from an estimated 51,900 new cases per day for the period from 17 to 23 October. The ONS said the rate of new infections “appears to have stabilised in recent weeks at around 50,000 new infections per day”.
The figures do not include people staying in hospitals, care homes or other institutional settings.
Responding to the news, the shadow justice secretary David Lammy said:
The government’s failure to act fast enough or decisively enough to control this pandemic has made further restrictions in prisons inevitable.
Locking prisoners in their cells for 23 hours per day for many months, without access to rehabilitation or family visits, is not only damaging for mental health, it is dangerous. The less opportunity prisoners get to turn their lives around inside, the more likely they will reoffend when they are let out.
The government must learn from its mistakes by using the extra time the second lockdown buys to finally get control of the pandemic.
Social visits for adult prisoners in England and Wales have been suspended once again as the country enters national lockdown, the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) has announced.
Visits for compassionate reasons, to children in custody and official or legal visits will continue in prisons, the department said.
In March, prisons were placed under a restrictive regime which saw inmates spending less than an hour a day out of their cells, to protect the estate from the pandemic.
The regime was heavily criticised by campaigners as having devastating impacts on the wellbeing on prisoners, which could ultimately lead to reoffending in the future. But ministers hailed the approach as a success as cases of coronavirus and deaths in prisons were much lower than expected. The regime was slowly unwound over the summer, but not fully, although social visits were reinstated at all prisons with new social distancing conditions attached.
The MoJ said prisoners will still be able to see friends and family via secure video calls in place at more 100 of the 121 jails in England and Wales. The department said more than 1,200 mobile handsets have been distributed to inmates as well as extra phone credit.
The department said staff will continue to provide rehabilitation work, such as access to education and exercise, although there have been serious concerns about the lack of such provision throughout the pandemic. The prisons Minister Lucy Frazer has said:
Our priority is to limit the spread of the virus and to protect the lives and wellbeing of those who live and work in our prisons and in youth custody.
The significant challenge continues but we now have more tools at our disposal – we have learned lessons and taken every opportunity to refine our strategy -and will continue to do so.
Major hospital cancels all planned procedures amid rise in very sick patients
England’s biggest hospital trust has said its largest hospital has been forced to postpone all planned procedures due to a “significant” rise in very sick patients.
The University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust (UHB) said the Queen Elizabeth Hospital had seen a sharp rise in Covid-19 and non-Covid-19 emergency cases.
UHB said the Good Hope Hospital in Sutton Coldfield had also been forced to postpone gynaecology procedures. All non-emergency surgery at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital scheduled up until the end of November will have to be rearranged but the trust said this would be reviewed on an ongoing basis.
All planned procedures at Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham have been postponed due the significant increase in the number of very sick patients (Covid and non-Covid) admitted to our hospitals as an emergency.
Gynaecology procedures at Good Hope Hospital have also been paused.
This is an extremely difficult decision and has not been taken lightly. We know that affected patients will be distressed and upset with this decision, and for this we can only apologise.
However, we must ensure that all those needing urgent care are able to access treatment safely.
Cancer treatment and life-saving care will remain our priority. All patients affected by this announcement will be contacted individually to rearrange their postponed surgery.
Updated
Ministers have been told they “must not repeat the mistakes of March, in being too slow to act” in tackling domestic abuse during the second national lockdown across England.
As the coronavirus pandemic first took hold of the UK in early spring, and the country was locked down for the first time, domestic abuse charities saw the number of calls to their helplines increase by up to 50%.
Experts have warned that abusers and their partners having to self-isolate together at home may lead to an increase in abusive behaviour and violence because of the pressure-cooker effect of being trapped indoors.
The shadow home secretary, Nick Thomas-Symonds, and Jess Phillips, the shadow minister for domestic abuse and safeguarding, have written to Priti Patel, the home secretary, urging her to bring forward a package of support for organisations working with victims and survivors of domestic abuse.
Hello, I’m taking over from Nazia Parveen for the next few hours. I’ll try to keep an eye out BTL but, if you’d like to draw my attention to anything, your best bet’s probably Twitter, where I’m KevinJRawlinson.
EasyJet cuts more flights and sells planes after new Covid controls. The airline expects to fly no more than 20% of planned capacity for rest of 2020.
Read more here:
The Scottish Secretary has denied furlough was only extended because of the second national lockdown in England.
Alister Jack reiterated furlough is intended for the whole country, despite a backlash from politicians in Scotland and Wales who had previously been denied requests for an extension in the weeks and months before it had initially been planned to close on 31 October.
Furlough was first extended for the period of England’s lockdown until 2 December, but on Thursday Chancellor Rishi Sunak announced a further extension until the end of March due to a rise in coronavirus cases and prevalence of the virus.
Asked on BBC Radio Scotland’s Good Morning Scotland programme about the timing of the initial extension to cover the English lockdown - as Scotland entered new levels of restriction and Wales neared the end of a firebreak - he said: “No, I don’t accept that it has changed because of England - the Job Support Scheme is for the whole country.
“The scheme was moving into the Job Retention Scheme... and at that point when we saw us getting back into more difficult, harsher economic conditions through the lockdown, the Chancellor adapted the scheme.
“This is a fast-moving health crisis, an evolving position, and we have to evolve our approach to respond.
“With England going into lockdown there was a need to reset the Job Support Scheme which as you know was designed when there was a lower prevalence of the virus during the summer.
“On Saturday October 31 that was the last day of the initial scheme, and then the initial scheme has been rolled forward and throughout Wales’s circuit-breaker it was a receiving the full support.”
Jack also confirmed if someone was employed on 23 September and made redundant subsequently, “your employer could reemploy you now and put you back on to furlough so we have addressed that problem”.
Denmark has been removed from the Government’s list of travel corridors due to widespread outbreaks of Covid-19 in its mink farms, the Transport Secretary said.
Travellers arriving in the UK from the country after 4am on Friday must self-isolate for 14 days.
Grant Shapps said in a statement the decision came as Danish health authorities had reported “widespread” outbreaks at mink farms and a “variant strain” of the virus spreading to local communities.
He said: “I understand that this will be concerning for both people currently in Denmark and the wider UK public, which is why we have moved quickly to protect our country and prevent the spread of the virus to the UK.”
“While new lockdown rules mean leaving home in order to travel for holidays is no longer permitted, the government’s travel corridor policy remains a critical part of the Government’s Covid-19 response as it mitigates the risk of importing infections from abroad.”
The Danish government said a mutation of the virus had been found in 12 people infected by minks, which farmers have been ordered to cull en masse, but experts said the significance of any variant strain and its effect on humans was unclear because it was yet to be studied.
Denmark was only added to the quarantine-free list on October 25.
The move comes just hours after Germany and Sweden were removed from the list, with people travelling to the UK from those destinations to quarantine for two weeks if they arrive after 4am on Saturday.
The organiser of a birthday party attended by up to 60 people has been handed a £10,000 fine after allegedly flouting lockdown rules.
West Midlands Police released body-worn video footage filmed by officers attending a function room in Dale Street, Bilston, Wolverhampton, showing dozens of revellers filing out the exit.
Inside the venue were balloon arches, food and drinks left scattered on tables, and a kitchen piled high with soft drinks and hard liquor, despite the premises having no alcohol licence.
In the footage, officers could be seen examining a card reader machine and pulling out a drawer stuffed with bank notes, during the call-out on October 30.
Superintendent Simon Inglis, of West Midlands Police, said: “This was a blatant breach of coronavirus law.”
He added the fine was “necessary” given it was a “critical time for the health of the city”.
The latest NHS statistics showed 761 people in the city had tested positive for Covid-19 in the week to Thursday.
There are 289 cases per 100,000 people, in Wolverhampton.
The most recent bed occupancy figures showed the Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust was treating 43 Covid-19 patients on Tuesday, about 10% of whom were on ventilators.
Updated
Our social affairs correspondent, Robert Booth, reports on charities urging the return of homelessness scheme in English lockdown
Campaigners and London mayor want ‘everyone in’ policy brought back after extra £15m of funding promised.
More than 64,000 deaths involving Covid-19 have now occurred in the UK, new figures show.
A total of 61,498 deaths have so far been registered in the UK where Covid-19 was mentioned on the death certificate, according to the latest reports from the UK’s statistics agencies.
This includes 1,053 deaths in Northern Ireland up to October 30 (and registered up to November 4), which were confirmed by the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency on Friday.
Since these statistics were compiled, a further 2,442 deaths are known to have occurred in England, plus 24 in Scotland, 163 in Wales and 43 in Northern Ireland, according to additional data published on the Government’s coronavirus dashboard.
Together, these totals mean that so far 64,170 deaths involving Covid-19 have taken place in the UK.
Face masks and gloves found on 30% of UK beaches in clean-up.
Conservation volunteers find PPE items in nearly a third of areas targeted in annual drive.
Archbishop of Cantebury: church services ban will probably change.
The Archbishop of Canterbury has said he thinks the ban on religious services will “probably change before too long”.
Churches in England can remain open during the four-week lockdown which began on Thursday, but only for private prayer and small funerals.
Justin Welby is among a host of faith leaders who have written to Boris Johnson to ask that the decision to bar all other services is reversed.
Downing Street has said there is “no change” planned for the lockdown regulations relating to religious services.
But on Friday the Archbishop insisted churches are “the safest places you go to”, with people wearing masks and well spread out.
He told Good Morning Britain: “They come together, they worship, they get the strength to serve and love their neighbours, and the church is doing phenomenal stuff in the country in service of Jesus Christ, to show the love that God has for us and, ahead of Christmas, it’s needed even more.
“So we all wrote to the Government - we’re not going to have a great big row with them - and said we disagree with you about the need to close churches.
“This is one of the things that holds people together. It gives them a real sense of purpose and changes the world. So, I think that’ll probably change before too long.
“The Government’s been very good, they’re listening very carefully.”
His words echo those of Cardinal Vincent Nichols, the leader of the Catholic Church in England and Wales, who has said churches are “among the safest places” people can visit.
He said the ban on religious services during lockdown is “not supported” by scientific evidence, and has predicted a U-turn.
Senior clergy members say they were not consulted about the restrictions.
A rapid coronavirus test at the heart of Boris Johnson’s mass-testing strategy missed more than 50% of positive cases in an Operation Moonshot pilot in Greater Manchester, the Guardian can reveal.
The 20-minute tests, on which the government has spent £323m for use with hospital and care home staff with no symptoms, identified only 46.7% of infections during a crucial trial in Manchester and Salford last month.
Read this exclusive from our northern correspondent, Josh Halliday, and health editor, Sarah Boseley.
The Zoe Covid Symptom Study app, run by King’s College London, suggests there were 42,049 daily new symptomatic cases of Covid-19 in the UK on average over the two weeks to November 1 (excluding care homes).
Researchers behind the study said the UK reproductive value - the R rate - is currently 1.0, and 1.0 in England.
Tim Spector, professor of genetic epidemiology at King’s, said daily cases are falling in the North of England and Scotland, and cases overall are moving in the “right direction”.
He said they are a “positive sign that we have passed the peak of this second wave”, adding: “We urge everyone to respect the restrictions and help get the number of cases down as soon as possible to help the NHS, end the lockdown and get us in good shape for December.”
Mass testing begins in Liverpool as the army arrive in the city
This from our health editor, Sarah Boseley, and northern correspondent, Josh Halliday, on the launch of mass testing in Liverpool today.
Operation Moonshot, the government’s ambitious plan to deploy exciting new technologies to test the entire population for coronavirus infection.
Liverpool is the pilot project for ministers’ big vision of weekly testing of the entire population – covering up to 10 million people across England a day. Many people support mass testing, which could allow a return to workplaces, socialising and going to the theatre and football matches without the fear of spreading infection.
Updated
SNP Westminster leader Ian Blackford has said that Scottish secretary Alistair Jack “should listen to what people in Scotland are saying” after Jack rejected a second referendum on independence for “25 to 40 years”.
As the latest of ten opinion polls since June suggested a majority now favour independence, Alistair Jack told the BBC the UK government intends to refuse another independence referendum “for a generation”. Asked to define a generation, he said: “Is it 25 years or is it 40 years? You tell me. But it’s certainly not six years, nor 10”.
But speaking on BBC Radio Scotland’s Good Morning Scotland, Blackford said: “We can’t have a tin-eared secretary of state or Westminster government. If I may say so I think the government in London may be saying something today but they’ll be saying something very different after the election next year. I’m asking people to recognise that through that public support, through the demonstration at the ballot box, we will have that second referendum.”
This comes as the Herald reports that Boris Johnson will be told to stay away from Scotland by senior Tories in the run-up to May’s Holyrood election in order not to damage the party’s chances under new leader Douglas Ross.
Morning, I will be updating the UK coronavirus blog for the next couple of hours. Please do send any stories and tips to nazia.parveen@theguardian.com or follow me on Twitter to DM me.
Updated
