Closing summary
Here’s a summary of the day’s main news:
- Aberdeen was placed under renewed lockdown conditions after a cluster emerged. The Scottish first minister said pubs, cafes and other indoor and outdoor hospitality venues must close down by 5pm on Wednesday, while people have been told not to travel into the city. Its residents must not enter each other’s houses.
- The lockdown will be backed by a greater police presence on Aberdeen’s streets. Police Scotland said most people had complied with restrictions so far and that its officers preferred to explain the rules in the first instance. But it warned they would not hesitate to “take enforcement action” if necessary.
- Another 65 people in the UK died after testing positive on Tuesday, according to official figures. The UK government’s latest data release took the cumulative total of those who have died in hospitals, care homes and the wider community to 46,364. Separate figures published by the UK’s statistics agencies show there have been 56,600 deaths registered in the UK where Covid-19 was mentioned on the death certificate.
- Contact tracers in England say they are making only a handful of calls every month. Some of those who spoke to the Guardian said they were occupying their time with barbecues and quizzes.
- The UK government cannot “decree” that keeping schools open must be prioritised over pubs during local lockdowns, the schools minister has said. Nick Gibb insisted all children would return to school in England in September, but said decisions to enforce closures to prevent new outbreaks would be made locally.
- Two-thirds of clinically extremely vulnerable people are comfortable returning to work, an official analysis suggested. The Office for National Statistics found that proportion of people would be happy to go back, provided there were protective measures in place. But that still left a significant minority unwilling to say they would be happy to return.
- Luton’s mayor stepped down after breaking coronavirus guidelines at a large garden gathering. Tahir Malik said he regretted his actions and that resignation was the best thing he could do for the town.
That’s all from me for today. Thanks for reading and commenting. If you’d like to read yet more, my colleague Severin Carrell has put together a detailed story on Aberdeen’s lockdown:
And Jessica Murray will be following worldwide developments related to the pandemic for the rest of the evening on our global coronavirus live blog:
Updated
Luton mayor resigns over lockdown breach
The mayor of Luton has stepped down after breaking coronavirus guidelines at a large garden gathering. Tahir Malik said he regretted his actions and that resignation was the best thing he could do for the town.
Pictures circulating on social media last month showed him at a gathering at a house in Luton, along with councillors Asif Masood and Waheed Akbar – leading them all to apologise. Malik was seen chatting with guests less than two metres apart with a mask hanging below his face.
The gathering occurred just days before Luton was named an area of intervention by Public Health England because of concern over the number of cases. Malik has said:
Once again, I regret my actions which were below the standard of my position and would like to sincerely apologise to the people of Luton for attending this gathering which was in breach of Covid-19 lockdown restrictions.
There is no excuse for what I did - I should have known better and I accept full responsibility for my actions.
A disciplinary process was launched by both the Labour party and Luton borough council after complaints were made about his attendance. Malik said:
I felt it was important for the disciplinary process – both at the council and within the Labour party – to determine the outcome and the punishment for my actions. But, after reflecting with my family over the last few days, we agreed that the best thing I could do for the town was resign from my position with immediate effect.
I have learnt a valuable lesson from this, but I hope the consequence of my actions serves as a reminder to the people of Luton of the importance of following the Covid-19 guidelines as it remains a real and serious threat.
In Aberdeen, businesses have been complying with the requirement to close up in a bid to contain what is thought to be a localised outbreak. The first minister Nicola Sturgeon told pubs, cafés and restaurants in the city to shut their doors by 5pm.
Civic leaders from across Greater Manchester, Lancashire and West Yorkshire are concerned about a rise in community tension following the introduction of new lockdown measures, announced on the eve of Eid al-Adha last Thursday, which many say prompted a surge in online anti-Muslim sentiment.
My colleagues Helen Pidd, Josh Halliday, Amy Walker and Nazia Parveen report:
The prime minister Boris Johnson must meet with the grieving relatives of people who have died from Covid-19, according to the chair of parliamentary group that heard their complaints on Wednesday. Layla Moran, who leads the All-Party Parliamentary Group on coronavirus, has said:
It is unacceptable that bereaved families have been met with such a wall of indifference from No 10. The prime minister must agree to listen to families who have lost loved ones to coronavirus and take their concerns on board.
We also need greater support for bereaved families and those living with long-term symptoms of Covid. This cross-party inquiry will continue to hear from those impacted by this terrible disease, so we can put pressure on the government, learn lessons and save lives.
The bereaved families told MPs they have written to the prime minister asking to meet and share their experiences on three occasions, but were told that officials were unable to arrange a meeting “due to the current pandemic”.
Weekend car use has returned to pre-pandemic levels but demand for public transport remains low, official figures suggest.
The number of cars on Britain’s roads compared with equivalent days in early February was 97% on Saturday and 100% on Sunday, according to Department for Transport (DfT) data. Car use on Monday – the latest day for which data is available – was at 88%, partly due to many people continuing to work from home.
Passenger numbers on buses outside London were at 37% of pre-pandemic levels on Monday, while the latest confirmed figures for train use show it is at 28%. Cycling is the mode of transport that has seen the biggest increase, at 126% of what it was before the crisis began.
Stephen Joseph, a visiting professor at the University of Hertfordshire, said the figures highlight the need for “a bigger focus” on alternatives to car use for leisure travel. He said potential solutions include establishing more park and ride schemes in rural areas and creating more hubs where people can transition from cars to walking, cycling and bus services.
Otherwise, the places that people come to – the seaside, national parks – will be destroyed by the traffic that’s bringing people there. Leisure car use was congesting a lot of places pre-Covid. It’s going to be even worse now when there’s less public transport available.
Different coronavirus vaccines could be used on different parts of the population if laboratories succeed in developing a range of successful types, the business secretary has said.
Alok Sharma visited a high-security factory in Livingston, near Edinburgh, where the French firm Valneva is developing a new vaccine using a deactivated Covid-19 virus, one of up to a dozen the UK government has said it may invest in.
The UK government has ordered at least 60m doses of the Valneva vaccine, with an option to increase that to 100m doses; 100m doses of another type made by AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford; and 30m doses of a further type from BioNTech and Pfizer, if their trials succeed.
During Wednesday’s visit, Sharma said the vaccine being developed by Astra Zeneca and Oxford university was “ahead of the pack in terms of trials” but he said many of those under development could be used; some may be more beneficial for different people.
We’re, of course, investing in a range of vaccine candidates which have different underlying and technical properties. At the end of the day, what we hope in an ideal world, is that all the vaccines we’re investing in are successful.
However, it’s also the case it will depend very much on the individual properties of individual vaccines, in terms of what part of the population they could be deployed into. So it is entirely possible to imagine that you have a number of successful vaccines but they’re deployed in different parts of the population.
Sharma added that some caution was needed; it was possible these trials may fail to get approval. The Valneva vaccine is not likely to win regulatory approval before the second half of 2021. “I hope we will be successful but there are no guarantees,” Sharma said.
Updated
UK records 65 more deaths – official figures
The latest official figures show 46,364 people have died in hospitals, care homes and the wider UK community after testing positive for coronavirus as of 5pm on Tuesday; up by 65 from the day before.
Separate figures published by the UK’s statistics agencies show there have now been 56,600 deaths registered in the UK where Covid-19 was mentioned on the death certificate.
The government also said that in the 24-hour period up to 9am on Wednesday, there had been a further 892 lab-confirmed cases. Overall, a total of 307,184 cases have been confirmed.
Updated
NHS test and trace has only managed to trace 53% of the contacts identified in Greater Manchester, amid increasing coronavirus cases in the area.
Figures published by Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) on Wednesday showed the rate of positive Covid-19 tests per 100,000 people had increased to 27.6 in the week ending 1 August, from 23.5 the week before. Oldham, Manchester and Trafford currently have the highest rates of infection in the area.
The authority’s 10 boroughs have been subject to reimposed lockdown measures – meaning residents are not allowed to visit different households at home, or go to indoor venues with people outside their own household – since Friday 31 July.
However, data on tracing contacts of those infected shows that as of Tuesday, the national system had managed to make contact with only 6,350 of the 12,075 contacts it had identified.
GMCA’s local tracing team on the other hand had identified 10,547 contacts, and had managed to engage with 99%, or 10,482.
During a regional coronavirus briefing on Wednesday afternoon, the Greater Manchester mayor, Andy Burnham, called for greater access to national track-and-trace information.
He argued that NHS test and trace should pass on the contact details of the people they cannot reach to the local authority within 48 hours, allowing local contact tracers to reach people on their doorsteps.
Updated
Hello, this is Kevin Rawlinson back with you for the rest of the afternoon.
Again, I’ll try to keep an eye on the comments below the line but the most reliable way to alert my attention to something is via Twitter: KevinJRawlinson. I look forward to hearing from you.
Updated
The grieving relatives of people who have died from Covid-19 have accused the government of ignoring them, with one saying she feels their concerns are being “swept under the carpet” by ministers, MPs have heard.
Grieving family members said they had written three times to the prime minister asking to meet and share their experiences. But they told the all-party parliamentary group (APPG) on coronavirus that officials merely told them they were unable to meet with them “due to the current pandemic”, the PA news agency reports.
Jo Goodman from the Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice, who lost her father, Stuart, after he was diagnosed with Covid-19 aged 72, said:
We wrote to the prime minister three times beginning on 11 June, asking him to meet with bereaved families and also to Matt Hancock, calling for a public inquiry and calling for them to meet with us and hear our experiences.
At first we only received a two-line acknowledgement and eventually a letter saying they are unable to meet with us due to the current pandemic. The fact that they’re able to meet with cycling groups and other groups, it feels as though we are being swept under the carpet.
We really do want to ensure that other people don’t go through this and we think it is really important that bereaved families’ voices are heard.
Charlie Williams, another member the group, which represents 1,450 families, told MPs:
I last saw my father via video.
We have so many traumatic stories within our group and none of us are getting support from the government as bereaved families whatsoever. We are trying to help and support each other.
We reached out to the government several times by writing letters. He has pretty much ignored us. We haven’t even received a condolence from our government. We received a two-line reply acknowledging our letter with no condolences. We find this shocking.
We have got so much information to give that could save lives before the second wave and we hope the government will listen to us.
The virtual meeting of the APPG also heard from people who are still struggling with symptoms from so-called “long Covid”. Dr Jake Suett, a staff grade doctor in anaesthetics and intensive care medicine, said:
I was doing 12-hour shifts in ICU. It’s a high-pressure situation, you have to be able to be active. I was going to the gym three times a week regularly.
And now a flight of stairs or the food shop is about what I can manage before I have to stop ... if I’m on my feet then shortness of breath comes back, chest pain comes back.
Updated
Arsenal have announced they are to make 55 redundancies due to the effects of the coronavirus pandemic on the club’s finances.
In a statement issued by the club’s head of football, Raul Sanllehi, and managing director, Vinai Venkatesham, the club pointed to severe drops in broadcast revenue as the main reason for the plan.
They also moved to assure supporters that investment in the team would continue, despite the job losses – with it understood the cuts will come across some football departments as well as commercial and administrative roles. This comes after players, senior football staff and the executive team took voluntary pay cuts.
“Throughout the Covid-19 pandemic we have been working hard to ensure that Arsenal football club emerges in a robust and strong position for the future,” the statement read.
Updated
As ministers and teachers wrestle with the challenge of safely opening schools in England in September, a former government adviser, Neil Ferguson, threw another spanner in the works by suggesting older teenagers could transmit the virus just as well as adults, writes Guardian national news reporter Haroon Siddique.
Ferguson told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme:
The risk then is that big schools, comprehensives, universities, FE [further education] colleges link lots of households together, reconnect the social network, which social distancing measures have deliberately disconnected. And that poses a real risk of amplification of transmission, of case numbers going up quite sharply.
A South Korean study published in a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention journal last month found Covid infection rates among household contacts to be highest where they resided with someone with the virus in the 10- to 19-year-old age group. By contrast they were lowest in the age group 0-10 years. Dr Simon Clarke, associate professor of cellular microbiology at the University of Reading, said of the study:
It’s the best we’ve got. Children get the virus at all sorts of ages. Because people haven’t been at school, there’s no real epidemiological evidence for whether it’s a problem or not.
Updated
Health officials tracing contacts in the Covid-19 outbreak in Aberdeen have released the names of 32 pubs, restaurants and golf courses scattered around the city and Aberdeenshire visited by infected people, writes Severin Carrell, the Guardian’s Scotland editor.
The list includes the Cock and Bull, a gastropub in Balmedie close to Donald Trump’s Aberdeenshire golf course and used in the past by President Trump on his visits to Scotland, as well as a golf club in Aboyne, about 30 miles from Aberdeen.
NHS Grampian also named a restaurant at Bridge of Don on the outskirts of Aberdeen, the Buckie Farm Carvery, and the Dyce Carvery close to Aberdeen airport.
It names two of the bars at the centre of the scare, the Hawthorn bar where the first cluster of cases emerged last week, and the Soul bar on Union Street, which featured in social media complaints about significant queues at the weekend.
We are aware that a number of detected cases linked to this cluster have visited other venues across Aberdeen and as of 12 noon today, these venues are as follows:
— NHS Grampian (@NHSGrampian) August 5, 2020
1. Bieldside Inn
2. Bobbin
3. Brewdog
In a series of tweets, NHS Grampian added that its contact tracing teams had identified 191 close contacts as well as 54 infected people.
Dr Emmanuel Okpo, a consultant in public health medicine for NHS Grampian, said: “I know people in the city will be concerned by this news. I want to stress that our health protection and test and protect teams are working extremely hard to speak to all the detected cases and identify their close contacts. We will be in contact with everyone.
“[If] you are identified as a close contact of a detected case you will have to self-isolate for 14 days. Please do not seek a test if you do not have symptoms; getting tested and receiving a ‘not detected’ result will not remove the requirement to self-isolate.”
Updated
This is Damien Gayle covering the next hour or so, while Kevin takes a break. If you have any comments, tips or suggestions for things to cover on the blog please drop me a line, either via email to damien.gayle@theguardian.com, or via Twitter DM to @damiengayle.
The new leader of the Scottish Conservatives has said his party must earn the trust of people “looking for a positive and credible alternative for Scotland” in his first comments since his uncontested appointment.
Douglas Ross described becoming leader of the Scottish Tories as an “honour and privilege of a lifetime” after his appointment was confirmed at noon on Wednesday.
The Moray MP will take over from Jackson Carlaw, who resigned on Thursday just six months after his election as leader.
Becoming leader of the Scottish Conservatives today is the honour and privilege of a lifetime. Now our focus must turn to earning the trust of people looking for a positive and credible alternative for Scotland, and who want a fresh start for our country. I hope you'll join us. pic.twitter.com/Uxc27advpn
— Douglas Ross MP (@Douglas4Moray) August 5, 2020
The SNP’s depute leader, Keith Brown, said:
Douglas Ross is Boris Johnson’s man in Scotland. Westminster has launched a total takeover of the Scottish Tories and installed a Brexit-backing MP to act as a puppet for Downing Street.
The Scottish Greens co-leader Patrick Harvie said:
Just months ago, the Scottish Tories were maintaining the pretence that they were something different from the extremist no-deal Brexiteers of the Boris Johnson camp. Today, the instalment of Douglas Ross as their part-time, absentee leader without even asking their members confirms that there isn’t a hint of difference between them.
Updated
Two more die in Wales
Public Health Wales has said a further two people have died after testing positive for Covid-19, taking the total number of deaths in the country to 1,568. The number of cases in Wales increased by 14, bringing the total number confirmed to 17,374.
Updated
Summary
Here’s a summary of the latest developments:
- Aberdeen has been placed under lockdown conditions after a cluster emerged. The Scottish first minister said pubs, cafes and other indoor and outdoor hospitality venues must close down by 5pm on Wednesday, while people have been told not to travel into the city. Its residents must not enter each other’s houses.
- The lockdown will be backed by a greater police presence on Aberdeen’s streets. Police Scotland said most people had complied with restrictions so far and that its officers preferred to explain the rules in the first instance. But it warned they would not hesitate to “take enforcement action” if necessary.
- There were seven more Covid-linked deaths in Scotland last week, according to official data. The National Records of Scotland said the figures between Monday 27 July and Sunday 2 August displayed the second lowest weekly total for deaths since the first death was recorded in early March.
- A further 13 people who tested positive for Covid-19 died in hospital in England, NHS England said. Another three deaths were reported with no positive Covid-19 test result.
- Contact tracers in England say they are making only a handful of calls every month. Some of those who spoke to the Guardian said they were occupying their time with barbecues and quizzes.
- The UK government cannot “decree” that keeping schools open must be prioritised over pubs during local lockdowns, the schools minister has said. Nick Gibb insisted all children would return to school in England in September, but said decisions to enforce closures to prevent new outbreaks would be made locally.
- Two-thirds of clinically extremely vulnerable people are comfortable returning to work, an official analysis suggested. The Office for National Statistics found that proportion of people would be happy to go back, provided there were protective measures in place. But that still left a significant minority unwilling to say they would be happy to return.
Updated
13 more confirmed Covid patients die in England
A further 13 people who tested positive for Covid-19 have died in hospital in England, bringing the total number of confirmed reported deaths in hospitals to 29,371, NHS England has said.
The patients were aged between 52 and 92 years old and all had known underlying health conditions. Another three deaths were reported with no positive Covid-19 test result.
Updated
Police Scotland will run extra patrols around Aberdeen, the force has said, as it seeks to enforce the local lockdown conditions. Its deputy chief constable Will Kerr has said:
Our approach to these local restrictions will reflect the consistent approach taken by Police Scotland since the outset of this pandemic, and our officers will continue to engage, educate and encourage people to comply, as we all support the public health efforts to stop the spread of the virus.
As a national service, Police Scotland is able to quickly flex capacity to support local communities across the country, and we will provide whatever additional resources are necessary to protect and support the communities affected.
The chief constable has made it consistently clear that we all should take personal responsibility to do the right thing and remember the purpose of these measures is to aid the collective effort to stay safe, protect others and save lives by preventing the virus from spreading.
Throughout the response to the pandemic, the majority of the public followed the law and Scottish government advice. I realise that this situation will be frustrating for people in the affected area but it’s really important that we all continue to do so. Our officers will continue to explain the legislation and guidance but, for the minority who may choose to breach the regulations and risk the health of others, we will not hesitate to take enforcement action where appropriate.
Most UK holidaymakers would cancel a holiday if they had to wear a mask in public on a trip, according to a new report. A YouGov survey released this week found that two-thirds of people (65%) would cancel if masks were mandatory at all times, 43% would still cancel if only compulsory inside, while 70% would scrap the holiday if they had to quarantine on return.
The results come as the industry continues to face cancellations and redundancies, after Spain was removed from the UK government’s travel corridor list on 26 July. The World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) has forecast 3 million job losses across the UK tourism sector with “uncoordinated” restrictions deterring travellers.
Referring to the ONS analysis of the shielding population, the shadow disabilities minister Vicky Foxcroft has said:
Sadly, these statistics confirm what Labour has been warning for some time, issuing back to work notices for the clinical vulnerable with no support has left many facing an impossible choice between their health and their livelihood.
The government must publish the scientific advice it has received confirming it is safe for disabled and clinically vulnerable people to stop shielding. They must urgently confirm how those who cannot return to their workplace will be supported, how many people this affects and what steps they are taking to communicate this to the shielding community.
The analysis suggested that approximately two-thirds of clinically extremely vulnerable (CEV) people who normally worked prior to receiving shielding advice were comfortable going back to work outside the home if protective measures are in place. In addition, 6% of CEV people are planning not to return to work in the next four months.
The Scottish Tourism Alliance and UK Hospitality groups have responded to the first minister’s announcement on new restrictions in Aberdeen. A spokeswoman has said:
Today’s announcement that restrictions will be imposed in Aberdeen from 5pm today for at least the next seven days will come as a devastating blow to the many hospitality businesses who have invested significant amounts of money in reopening and providing a safe experience to their staff and the public. Aberdeen serves as an example of how quickly the virus can reignite and illustrates the immediate impact that this has on a local economy and public health.
It is absolutely critical that all businesses and customers follow the government guidelines and safety protocols stringently and that we safeguard as best as we can to prevent this situation happening elsewhere in the country.
Today’s news comes as a shock and should serve as a reminder that disregarding these guidelines has almost immediate consequences, however we must also recognise that many people and businesses are enjoying the easing of restrictions in a safe way that poses little threat to public safety.
Further sector specific support will be required in the short to medium to enable hospitality businesses to continue to trade beyond this period of instability and retain jobs in our local economies.
Reacting to the news of the Aberdeen lockdown, Tracy Black, the director of the business organisation CBI Scotland, has said:
Aberdeen won’t be the last local area that faces renewed restrictions in the coming months, so the Scottish government must do everything it can to provide clear, timely advice and appropriate support to firms and individuals. That’s a must to maintain public confidence.
This will be a particular blow to the local hospitality sector, which has now faced a double-whammy of lockdowns, and emphasises the need for government support to evolve in-line with the trajectory of the virus.
Jackie Baillie, Scottish Labour’s deputy leader, said the Scottish government and city council had made the right decision but she questioned why John Swinney, the deputy first minister blamed for overseeing controversial school exam results on Tuesday, was being put in charge of the Aberdeen outbreak.
There are numerous other ministers capable of leading this response and the choice of Mr Swinney cannot be used to escape scrutiny of the exam results fiasco. He had one job to do and he has spectacularly failed at that, so I wouldn’t put him in charge of anything else.
Sturgeon raises the prospect of banning pub crawls across Scotland if the evidence shows they are posing a problem. Referring to the fact that more than 20 places are now thought to be linked to the Aberdeen outbreak, she said:
It could be that what we see here is a pattern that has involved people going from one pub to another on the same night. Now, it may be that we have to look at some of those lessons to think about whether we need to tighten up some of the restrictions about how hospitality is operating across the wider country.
The first minister says the Scottish government is looking at measures beyond the furlough scheme it can put in place to help businesses and workers. She says she will speak to the UK government about its plans as well.
Sturgeon has told the briefing in Edinburgh that she’s aware the changes are unwelcome news.
The last thing we want to do is to reimpose these restrictions but this outbreak is reminding us just how highly infectious Covid is.
Our precautionary and careful judgment is that we need to take decisive action now, difficult as that undoubtedly is, in order to try to contain this outbreak and prevent further harm later on.
As I said earlier, this is about doing all we can to ensure our children can return to schools next week. Acting now, we judge, gives us the time and the space to protect the ability of our young people to return to education.
Updated
The first minister warns people not to be complacent and says Scotland’s testing and contact-tracing system is not a get-out-of-jail-free card. She asks all people to abide by the government guidelines on social distancing in order to stop the virus from spreading in the first place.
Updated
Sturgeon says no one in Scotland who has tested positive within the past 28 days died on Tuesday – the 20th such day in a row.
This measurement differs to the NRS data, she says, because the latter counts cases where the virus is noted on the death certificate as a contributory factor, meaning its scope is wider.
She says a total of 2,491 patients have died in Scotland after testing positive for Covid-19. Sturgeon says 18,781 people have tested positive for the virus, up by 64 from 18,717 the day before.
There were 267 people in hospital with confirmed Covid-19, down by three. Of these, three were in intensive care, which was no change.
Updated
Sturgeon says staff who have been brought back to work from furlough can be furloughed again. She says she’s “very sorry” she’s having to reimpose restrictions on the city, but insists “decisive action” is necessary to stop the outbreak getting out of hand.
Lockdown imposed in Aberdeen
The Scottish first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, has said 54 cases have now been confirmed in the Aberdeen Covid-19 cluster, while 191 close contacts have been traced, though she expects that number to increase. Across Scotland, 64 new cases have been recorded; with 36 thought to be in Grampian.
Sturgeon says there may be some community transmission and, while the outbreak may be centred on one city centre bar, it is not the only source and many more are being looked at.
Sturgeon says that, as a result, restrictions will be reimposed in the Aberdeen city council area.
People are being told not to travel to Aberdeen if they are not already there. A five-mile travel rule has been put in place and residents are also being told not to enter each other’s houses. All indoor and outdoor hospitality has also been told to close by 5pm on Wednesday.
The closure will be backed by governmental regulations, the first minister says, and will be enforced if the rules are not followed.
Sturgeon adds that the changes will be reviewed next Wednesday, when she hoped that they could be removed if they could, either in entirety or in part. However, if necessary, Sturgeon has said they could be extended beyond that seven-day period.
Updated
Seven more people die in Scotland
According to the National Records of Scotland (NRS), seven deaths were registered that mentioned Covid-19 on the death certificate between Monday 27 July and Sunday 2 August; a decrease of one from the previous week.
The NRS said that was the second lowest weekly total for deaths since the first death was recorded in early March.
A total of 4,208 deaths have been registered in Scotland, as of 2 August, of which 46% were related to deaths in care homes, 46% in hospitals and 7% at home or in non-institutional settings, the NRS said.
To place these figures in context, the latest yearly totals show that, in 2018 24% of all deaths occurred in care homes, 49% in hospitals and 27% in home or non-institutional settings.
Pete Whitehouse, the NRS’s director of statistical services, said:
Loss of life from this virus is tragic and every death represents loss and heartbreak for families throughout the country.
Today’s figures show seven more deaths due to Covid-19, showing a similar level for three consecutive weeks. These figures are significantly lower than the peak week in mid-April when 661 Covid-19 related deaths were registered.
Monitoring the progress of this virus is important and National Records of Scotland will continue to work with Scottish government and Health Protection Scotland (HPS) to understand its impact in Scotland.
Updated
The GMB union also called on ministers to allow school staff to wear face masks if they want to when they return in September. Rehana Azam, GMB’s national secretary, said:
Our members tell us they are scared of what’s to come in September and they feel it’s strange the government tells them to wear masks on the way to work, and if they go to get lunch, but not when they are in school.
The Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL) is calling for greater clarity on whether schools can permit face masks if pupils or staff want them. Its general secretary, Geoff Barton, said the guidance left key questions unanswered.
One, how should schools respond if pupils and staff want to wear face coverings? Two, do they have the flexibility to introduce the use of face coverings in constricted spaces where there is more mixing, for example in narrow corridors? We are seeking answers from the government to these questions.
Government guidance warns the misuse of face coverings may “inadvertently increase the risk of transmission” in schools and there could be “negative effects” on communication and education.
Updated
Among those putting pressure on ministers to change their approach is the teachers’ union, NASUWT. It has called on the Department for Education (DfE) to revise its guidance on face coverings “as a matter of urgency” to help staff return to school in the autumn with “confidence”.
The union said the government should encourage school and college staff to wear clear facial visors if there are concerns that teaching and learning may be impeded by the use of face masks.
Its general secretary, Patrick Roach, said the position in schools was “out of step” with public health guidance that suggests face masks should be worn when physical distancing cannot be assured. In a letter to the education secretary, Gavin Williamson, Roach said:
Strategies for minimising contact between pupils and staff (ie ‘bubbles’) are unlikely to be effective given constraints of building design, limitations of space within schools, and the inability of schools to control for wider social interactions involving children and adults within and outside their perimeters.
We strongly suggest that your guidance for schools should now be brought into line with changes to the government’s guidance for other sectors, public transport, shops and supermarkets.
Updated
Face coverings for older schoolchildren should be considered, the shadow health secretary, Jonathan Ashworth, has said.
Earlier, the schools minister, Nick Gibb, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that secondary school pupils will not be forced to wear face coverings when they return in the autumn.
But Ashworth said Labour would accept “tough decisions” to make sure all children can get back to class after months of partial closures.
According to the government guidance, face coverings are not required as pupils and staff are mixing in consistent groups – and the guidance says they should be removed on arrival at the school gates.
Updated
Hello, this is Kevin Rawlinson taking over from Lucy Campbell for much of the rest of the day.
I’ll try to keep an eye on the comments below the line but the most reliable way to alert my attention to something is via Twitter: KevinJRawlinson. I look forward to hearing from you.
In the first part of our Politics Weekly series, Jonathan Freedland speaks to Peter Mandelson, the former Labour cabinet minister and EU commissioner. The pair discuss Britain’s future relationship with Europe and the battle Sir Keir Starmer faces to get Labour back into power.
You can listen to the full episode of the podcast here:
Updated
A County Antrim restaurant which only reopened a month ago has shut down again after one of its customers said they had been diagnosed with coronavirus.
The Crooked Glen in Crumlin, a village outside Belfast, issued a statement on Wednesday confirming that as of the previous evening it has had to close.
We have been informed by a customer who visited our establishment on Saturday 1st August that they have been tested positive for Covid-19.
It is understood to be connected to another separate positive case in a local sports team.
The restaurant’s management said it had taken all the necessary precautions since reopening in July. It added that it would close over the next two days to get all its staff members tested and have a specialist cleaning company provide a deep clean/risk assessment of its premises.
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England's contact tracers 'making handful of calls' a month
It was hailed as a “world-beating” service by Boris Johnson at its launch, but three months on contract tracers hired to work on England’s test-and-trace system say they are making only a handful of calls every month and are occupying their time with barbecues and quizzes, my colleagues Sarah Marsh and Molly Blackall report.
Agents told the Guardian they were often calling people who had already been spoken to by another contact tracer, and making calls to numbers that did not exist or that went straight through to voicemail.
Employees at Sitel – one of the companies contracted to provide the service – said they were being given quizzes by team leaders to keep them occupied in the day and that prizes were even being offered to those making the highest number of calls to keep up morale. One contact tracer said that in one instance £50 was awarded to the highest ranking caller in each team, who was then put in a draw at the end of the month to win a TV.
The details come amid growing frustration among local health officials about the national test-and-trace system, which was launched in May and was seen as vital to easing England out of lockdown.
One contact tracer said they had made just a few calls in two months of work, two of which had been fake numbers. “I’ve heard of tracers claiming to be sat in the garden having a barbecue so that they can stay logged in and clock up the hours,” he added. “They aren’t alone – there’s hundreds, if not thousands, of similar stories.”
Another agent said they were sent daily icebreakers which included questions such as “what’s your favourite flower?”, and that they had to do pub quiz-style questions as a part of the team “to pass the time and keep people active”.
Read the full report here:
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Government says it can't order schools to stay open during local lockdowns
The government cannot “decree” that keeping schools open must be prioritised over pubs during local lockdowns to combat spikes in coronavirus cases, the schools minister has said.
Nick Gibb insisted on Wednesday that all children will return to school in England in September but said the decisions to enforce closures to prevent new outbreaks will be made locally.
Experts have made it increasingly clear that some restrictions will need to return in order to fulfil the government’s commitment on schools while preventing a resumption of the rapid spread of Covid-19.
The children’s commissioner for England, Anne Longfield, has said the reopening of schools “should be prioritised”, insisting they must be first to reopen and last to close during any local lockdowns.
Asked about her comments, Gibb told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme:
It’s a more nuanced response. It does have to depend on the facts of the case and that’s why the local director of public health will be responsible for the response to that spike.
Pressed on whether schools should be the last to close, he said:
What I’m saying is that all children will be returning to school in September, including in those areas that are currently subject to a local lockdown – Manchester, Greater Manchester, Leicester and so on – because it is important children are back in school.
But you can’t decree this for every single case and it will depend on the circumstances of a local increase in the infection rate, and that is why it is being led by the director of public health in localities. But we want all children back in school.
Prof Neil Ferguson, whose modelling led to the decision to impose the lockdown, suggested ministers would need to “row back on the relaxation of restrictions”, such as in social and leisure venues and with increased working from home, to allow a full-time return to schools.
He told Today:
I mean that really is a policy decision, but I’m just saying, in my view, it is likely that some form of those measures will be necessary to maintain control of transmission.
Ferguson, whose advice continues to inform the government’s response despite his resignation from the Sage advisory group, said there was some evidence that older teenagers transmit the virus just as effectively as adults.
The risk then is that big schools, comprehensives, universities, FE (further education) colleges, link lots of households together, reconnect the social network which social distancing measures have deliberately disconnected. And that poses a real risk of amplification of transmission, of case numbers going up quite sharply.
Longfield had previously accused the government of treating children “as an afterthought” during the Covid-19 crisis.
In a briefing paper, she said keeping schools open should be the “absolute priority”, adding:
Education should be prioritised over other sectors: first to open, last to close.
When only a limited amount of social interaction is feasible, the amount accounted for by education must be protected – at the expense of other sectors/activities.
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ForgottenPAYE, which represents the estimated 1.7 million freelance workers unable to access any financial support through the government’s schemes, has launched a charity fundraising initiative Mind the Gaps in association with other campaign groups on the ExcludedUK APPG.
The Mind the Gaps campaign aims to raise £1m for Samaritans in a bid to help support those struggling with their mental health as a result of falling through the gaps in the government’s coronavirus support schemes.
Ellie Phillips, a spokesperson for the initiative and campaigner on this issue throughout lockdown, said:
We have seen rapidly increasing numbers of excluded taxpayers experiencing a steep decline in mental health.
The same themes run through their cries for help: severe financial worries, worthlessness, confusion, hopelessness and feelings of being a burden on those around them.
While the ExcludedUK APPG has brought together record numbers of MPs, who are working to help find a solution to the financial exclusion, we felt it imperative that support be readily available now to help those whose mental health has already been affected.
Jamie Stone MP – who chairs the ExcludedUK APPG , which has more than 240 MPs – added:
The mental toll that being excluded from support has taken on millions of people across the UK is unfathomable. Nobody should have to deal with an unprecedented global pandemic followed immediately by a loss of income.
This Mind the Gaps fundraising appeal for Samaritans is absolutely crucial to helping people find a way out of what is, for so many, an extremely difficult period.
I will keep working on the political side with the ExcludedUK APPG, but campaigns like this are invaluable to finding solutions on the human side of this huge issue.
You can donate to the campaign via the JustGiving page.
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WH Smith has said it could axe up to 1,500 jobs after the pandemic pushed down the number of customers going into its stores.
The restructuring plans will result in the loss of 1,500 jobs, with proposals expected to cost the company between £15m and £19m.
All of its 575 high-street stores have opened, the business said, but footfall is strongly down compared with last year. The retailer said group revenues were down 57% in July compared with the same month last year, after its travel arm was particularly badly hit.
The company said it needed to reduce costs as its shops in airports and train stations are hit by low passenger numbers and its high street stores also suffer from low footfall. It said it now expects to make a loss of between £70m and £75m for the year to August.
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If you put on a few lockdown pounds is it possible you spent much of the first months of the pandemic sitting on your bottom watching telly?
My colleague Mark Sweeney reports that Britons spent 40% of their waking hours watching TV during the height of the coronavirus pandemic, with 12 million new sign-ups to services such as Netflix.
The typical person spent six hours and 25 minutes each day keeping informed and entertained at the height of the lockdown in April – almost a third more, about 90 minutes each day – than during the same month last year.
Most clinically extremely vulnerable people plan to return to work: ONS
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) has just released its latest findings on coronavirus and shielding of clinically extremely vulnerable people in England. The statistics relate to the week of 9 to 16 July.
Main points
- Approximately two-thirds (68%) of clinically extremely vulnerable (CEV) people who normally worked (prior to receiving shielding advice) are comfortable going back to work outside the home if protective measures are in place.
- 6% of CEV people who normally worked are planning not to return to work in the next four months.
- Between 9 and 16 July, 65% of CEV people reported receiving no visitors except for support with personal care; this is a statistically significant decrease from 77% between 24 and 30 June, reflecting the guidance which advises CEV people that they can form a support bubble with another household.
- An estimated 328,000 CEV people (15%) live in a household with children aged under 16 years; 3% (68,000 CEV people) reported that living in this type of household has had an impact on their ability to shield.
Tim Gibbs from the ONS public services analysis team, said:
As the advice for clinically extremely vulnerable (CEV) people to shield was paused from 1 August, those who previously worked are planning what happens next. Before being advised to shield, almost a third of CEV people worked. Most are planning on returning to work or continuing to work from home in the next four months but around 1 in 20 are planning not to return to work. Of those who said they would return to work outside the home, 68% reported they felt comfortable doing so, if either they or their employer put protective measures in place.
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Residents of the Lake District have been grumbling for several months about the litter visitors have left behind since lockdown restrictions were eased at the end of May.
There was much mithering about a “new kind of visitor” who didn’t know how to behave – though can there really be anyone who doesn’t know it’s not cool to schlepp a tent, camping chairs, a cool box and crates of beer up to a beautiful tarn and then abandon the lot the following morning? You don’t have to have read the Countryside Code to know you should really take your own rubbish home, surely.
Alas, the poor behaviour continues. This from the head of press at the Lake District national park:
Another morning of our teams cleaning up after the tiny and inconsisterate minority who are abandoning entire campsites and leaving great damage behind. Please only camp in official campsites and make sure you leave no trace. Thanks to the vast majority who are visiting kindly. pic.twitter.com/f0AfMBEnQd
— TheLakesTony 🌳🌲 (@TheLakesTony) August 5, 2020
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Local leaders have lined up throughout the pandemic to say they need much better communication from the government. This morning Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London, said he did not want to be palmed off with chats with uninformed ministers but needed to talk to the prime minister.
On Good Morning Britain Khan said he had not spoken to Boris Johnson since 10 May. It is “not good enough” to be left to talk to individual ministers who only know what is happening in their portfolio, he said. “The prime minister knows what is going on in all the departments and must be in charge of the detail.”
Khan added that he and local leaders needed information on a range of issues, including the health, economic and social consequences of any measures, and “what the plan is if the virus rises in our city”.
He urged the government to “work with us” and with local leaders, adding: “By the way, scrutiny is a good thing. If you are challenged and the tyres are kicked, it leads to better decision-making and a safer car.”
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Secondary school pupils will not be forced to wear face coverings when they return to class in autumn, the education minister has said.
Nick Gibb was asked by Radio 4’s Today programme why over-11s must wear face coverings in shops and on public transport but not in schools. “Well, that is what the science tells us,” he said.
He added:
Within a school, of course, you’re not with people that you don’t meet normally, you see these same children every day, so there are different circumstances – when you’re on public transport for example, when you’re encountering people you’ve not come across or met before.
And that is why you have different rules and things like face coverings for public transport and being in shops from where you are with the same people in the same bubble day in and day out. And that is why the rules are different.
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A cross-party group of MPs have said that failures on border measures in March increased the scale and pace of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Conservative MP Tim Loughton, a member of the home affairs select committee, told Times Radio:
At a time when other countries were imposing all sorts of border controls and quarantining and testing ... we were doing nothing ... On the 13th March all self-isolation guidance for travellers arriving in the UK was actually dropped. So people were freely coming into the UK through airports and ports ... without any guidance on precautions they should take, without any testing. And it’s clear in retrospect certainly that a lot of those coming in from Europe and particularly from Spain and Italy were carriers of Covid and allowed to go about their business in the general population and clearly in retrospect that was a mistake.
He said his committee struggled to get answers from the government.
What was the guidance that led to the government to say there was not going to be any checks from the 13th March? ... We just didn’t get to the bottom of who was it who advised that ... There is this sort of black hole period from about the 13th March till about 10 days later when lockdown came in ... In those 10 days probably something like a million people came into this country of which a number probably had the infection.
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On the subject of schools reopening, a survey of economists for the Centre for Macroeconomics and the Centre for Economic Policy Research found that UK school closures cause “minor” to “moderate” damage to the country’s economic growth but would increase inequality both across socioeconomic and gender lines.
Martin Ellison from the University of Oxford said research showed that a year of schooling causes a 1% increase in economic growth and therefore further closures would not necessarily hit the economy:
The current UK workforce is about 30 million and just short of 9 million children are in UK schools, so even if all pupils lost a whole year of education the effect on GDP and growth would be limited.
But the experts largely agreed that keeping schools closed was bad for women.
Dawn Holland from the National Institute of Economic and Social Research said:
The additional childcare burden associated with school closures is likely to have fallen more heavily on women, and may lead to labour force withdrawal or extended periods of unemployment.
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Laws enforcing lockdown restrictions in areas of the north of England including Greater Manchester, parts of east Lancashire and West Yorkshire have come into force today.
As a resident of Stockport in Greater Manchester I was keen to read what I can and can’t do – and, crucially, when the restrictions will be lifted. The new law is not the lightest read, though it did introduce me to a new word: appurtenance (a possession or piece of property that is considered to be a typical feature of a particular way of living).
My MP, Conservative William Wragg, has been telling residents the measures will be reviewed every week.
But the legislation only commits the government to do so by 19 August, more than two weeks from now. That’s not to say they won’t lift them before that, but they don’t have to.
Now, it seems, I cannot meet others from different households in areas outside the lockdown zone, such as at homes in nearby towns not subject to the rules. Yes, it’s the return of the so-called “lockdown sex ban”, because the law prohibits encounters between people from different households in their homes or other “private dwellings” and defines a gathering as “when two or more people are present together in the same place in order to engage in any form of social interaction with each other, or to undertake any other activity with each other”.
The new guidelines impose restrictions on Bolton, Bury, Manchester, Oldham, Rochdale, Salford, Stockport, Tameside, Trafford, Wigan, Burnley, Hyndburn, Pendle, Rossendale, Calderdale and Kirklees.
Anyone found flouting the rules could be fined £100, up to a maximum of £3,200 for repeat offences.
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The schools minister, Nick Gibb, has confirmed the government’s position that all children will return to school in September.
He told Sky News: “We’re very clear that all children will be returning to school in September, including in areas of local lockdown such as Greater Manchester.
“It is hugely important for children’s education, for their wellbeing, that they do return to school and schools are working enormously hard in preparation for September to make sure that the risk of transmitting the virus within the school environment is kept to an absolute minimum.
“We have issued very detailed guidance to schools about hygiene, about keeping children in these bubbles – class-sized bubbles in primary schools, year-group bubbles in secondary schools – making sure children aren’t unnecessarily mixing with other children in the school, staggered lunch breaks, staggered play times, doing everything that we can to minimise contact – one-way systems through schools and so on – so that children are safe in school.”
Asked whether the government would consider closing pubs and restaurants to ensure all children can return to school safely in September, Gibb replied: “Our priority is to make sure that children are back in school with their friends.”
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Ferguson said things “could get quite difficult” in winter, adding:
I’m reasonably confident that as long as there’s the political will in place to maintain control of transmission we can do it. We have good enough surveillance now to know what’s going on. But it will be challenging and there will be no going back to anything close to normal social interactions, at least not until we get through to next spring with potentially the availability of a vaccine.
Neil Ferguson, the epidemiologist who resigned from the government’s expert advisory panel mid-crisis, has been on the Today programme warning that reopening high schools and further education (FE) colleges posed a “real risk” of a sharp rise in positive cases:
We have a lot of evidence that primary schools, young children pose relatively little risk of transmission. The concern is with secondary schools, teenagers and further education colleges and universities, where the evidence is still not certain but it looks like older teenagers can transmit just as well as adults. The risk then is that big schools, comprehensives and universities and FE colleges link lots of households together, reconnect the social network, which social distancing have deliberately disconnected. That poses a real risk of amplification of transmission, of case numbers going up quite sharply.
Asked to quantify that claim, he said the reopening of high schools could increase the contested “R value” by “as much as a half but by as little as 0.2 or 0.3, but it will go up and given we are at R equals 1 at the moment, if it went up to 1.5 that would lead to rapid growth of the epidemic.”
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An increasing number of councils are so fed up with the national contact tracing system that they have set up their own.
Josh Halliday and I report in today’s Guardian how Blackburn in Lancashire and Calderdale in West Yorkshire will soon have workers knocking on doors to track down people the national call centre has failed to reach.
Ben Leaman, a consultant in public health at Calderdale, told me the council would use native speakers of Urdu, Czech and Slovak to knock on doors of people the national system had been unable to reach, particularly in multicultural areas of central Halifax. “We want to have a conversation with people and see what support we can offer to them while they are self-isolating,” he said.
All positive cases would be sent a text message from the council with a local number to call, said Leaman – a recognition of the fact many people were unwilling to call an 0300 number, often believing it to be a hoax. If they don’t reply within 24 hours they will get a knock on the door.
Kirklees and Bradford in West Yorkshire are also planning to follow suit.
Susan Hinchcliffe, the leader of Bradford council, said it needed more cooperation from the government before starting its own track-and-trace service: “We are setting our own up but in order to do it we need access to the government’s database so their permission and facilitation is vital. We’re in conversation about this with them,” she said.
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Jonathan Ashworth, the shadow health secretary, is doing the media rounds this morning. On ITV’s Good Morning Britain he has urged the government to use the four weeks in August to prevent a second wave of coronavirus in winter.
“We’ve seen infection rates beginning to increase again, we’ve also seen hotspots across England, here in Leicester or in Greater Manchester, we’re seeing the virus on the increase in parts of Europe as well,” he said.
“And yesterday there was a bunch of scientists who came out and said ‘Look, if you don’t get test and trace fixed, if you don’t sort it, we could be facing a devastating second wave by December’.
“What we’re saying to the government here is let’s use these four weeks now to urgently fix it, let’s expand testing and let’s make sure, if you’ve had a test, you get those results back in 24 hours – that is still not happening often enough.
On Radio 4’s Today programme he said Labour would accept “tough decisions” to make sure children can get back to school in England in September.
He said: “We think that getting children back into school has to be an absolute national priority, they have to be back into school safely and we need to use these next four weeks of August to get really on top of these infections, to drive them down by improving testing and tracing.”
He continued: “I can’t get ahead of the advice from Sage or the chief medical officer, but quite clearly Chris Whitty said we are at the limits now of what restrictions can be eased and if tough decisions have to be made, if restrictions have to be reimposed in order to get children back into school, then of course we would accept that.”
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Schools should be last to close and first to reopen in the event of a second wave of Covid-19, the children’s commissioner for England has insisted, as the Guardian’s education correspondent, Sally Weale, reports this morning.
Anne Longfield said children had too often been “an afterthought” during the crisis, but from now on they should be at the heart of planning for future coronavirus lockdowns, and she insisted pubs, restaurants and non-essential shops should be shut ahead of schools in the case of emergency restrictions.
Good morning from not-so-sunny Stockport. I’m Helen Pidd, the Guardian’s north of England editor, and I will be steering the good ship Live Blog for a few hours this morning before Kevin Rawlinson takes over later.
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