Anger is growing over England’s looming lockdown after an expert said the data used at Boris Johnson’s weekend press conference was out of date.
Professor Carl Heneghan made the comments as chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance and chief medical officer for England Professor Chris Whitty prepared to face questions from MPs on Tuesday afternoon over the science behind the second national shutdown.
Meanwhile, mass testing could be rolled out in London if a trial scheme in Liverpool proves to be a “game changer”. Citizens in the northern city are to be offered free instant tests this week and next, in the first test of a system that could identify carriers without symptoms and liberate others from having to self-isolate unnecessarily.
It comes as the number of people dying with Covid-19 in the UK increased by 48 per cent in the last week to 1,126. The Office for National Statistics said this was an increase of 365 deaths on the 761 registered the previous week.
