Summary
Here’s a round up of the key developments from today:
- Transport secretary Grant Shapps has said there is “no sign” people are deleting the NHS Covid app to avoid being told to isolate. He told Sky News “that’s not actually the evidence” and that the government is “still seeing lots of people downloading the app”.
- Shapps has said the government is “actively working” on plans to accept vaccination certificates from travellers who receive a coronavirus jab in other countries.
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Covid-19 vaccines offer high levels of protection for most people with underlying health conditions or who are immunosuppressed, Public Health England (PHE) has said.
- Reducing the sensitivity of the NHS Covid app to cut the number of people self-isolating is like “taking the batteries out of the smoke alarm”, Keir Starmer has said as he raised questions about the decision to press ahead with reopening on 19 July.
- Downing Street has urged people to continue using the NHS Covid app and to isolate when advised to do so. Boris Johnson’s official spokesman said the app was an “important tool”.
- During the first year of the pandemic 25 children and teenagers died as a direct result of Covid-19 in England and about 6,000 were admitted to hospital, according to the most complete analysis of national data on the age group to date.
- The World Health Organization has said that it is not clear whether Covid-19 booster vaccines would be useful to maintain protection against the virus, as Pfizer-BioNTech said people’s immunity starts to wane six months after they have been vaccinated with their jab.
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A total of 216,249 confirmed and probable cases of the Covid-19 Delta variant have now been identified in the UK, according to the latest figures from Public Health England.
- As of June 21, there had been 257 deaths in England of people who were confirmed as having the Delta variant and who died within 28 days of a positive test, Public Health England said.
- The percentage of people testing positive for Covid-19 is estimated to have increased in all regions of England, the ONS said.
- In Scotland, around one in 100 people are estimated to have had Covid-19 in the week to July 3 - up from one in 150 in the previous week, and the highest level since the week to January 16.
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The coronavirus reproduction number, or R value, in England has increased slightly and is between 1.2 to 1.5, according to the latest Government figures.
- Downing Street has defended Boris Johnson after he was seen leaving England’s Euro 2020 semi-final in his official car without wearing a face covering.
- There had been a further 35,707 lab-confirmed Covid-19 cases in the UK, the government said. This is the highest daily increase since 22 January.
- Face coverings will not be routinely recommended in classrooms across Wales from September, the Welsh government has announced. Contact groups will also not be required for school pupils or full-time learners in colleges.
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Face coverings will not be routinely recommended in classrooms across Wales from September, the Welsh government has announced.
Currently, guidelines state that face coverings should be worn anywhere on the school estate - including in the classroom - by secondary school pupils if social distancing cannot be maintained.
Education minister Jeremy Miles announced the change in a letter to headteachers in Wales on Friday, PA news reports.
Miles said he had written to “provide more clarity” on how schools and colleges could continue to operate safely when they return in September. He detailed three main changes that were being proposed to “bring some normality back to education”.
The first is that face coverings will no longer be routinely recommended in classrooms. Contact groups will also not be required for school pupils or full-time learners in colleges. Instead, Wales’ Test, Trace, Protect programme will identify close contacts of students who test positive for Covid-19. Normal session times will also resume, Miles confirmed.
He said:
By the end of September all adults in Wales will have been offered both vaccinations, providing greater protection for our education workforce.
A growing body of evidence also shows that children and young people are more at harm from missing school than from Covid.
The Welsh government published guidance on Friday on the key changes to schools from September. Guidance for further education is expected to be published next week.
Miles said the local Covid-19 infection control decision framework would also be made available at the start of the autumn term to enable schools to “embed new systems during the weeks that follow”.
He added:
The framework will enable schools and colleges to tailor some of the interventions to reflect the level of risk identified locally.
They will be supported by public health officials and local authorities to ensure measures are appropriate to their circumstances.
The minister added that further updates would be issued during the summer holidays if there were any “significant developments”.
Laura Anne Jones, shadow education minister for the Welsh Conservatives, said it was important for schools and colleges to return to “some sort of normality” as soon as possible.
She said:
The removal of masks, bubbles and staggered starts is a welcomed part of the statement, and I am pleased that the minister now recognises the need for these decisions to be made by Welsh government, which is the right thing to do.
However, I remain concerned that the Welsh Labour government’s much-maligned Covid-19 infection control decision framework will not be ready until the start of the autumn term.
Schools need more clarity about their level of responsibility as soon as possible and this important detail must be expedited by Labour ministers.
People have been urged not to ignore the NHS Covid app if they are advised to self-isolate, with coronavirus infections in three of the four UK nations at the highest levels since winter.
Downing Street has asked that people keep using the app, with the prime minister’s official spokesperson saying Boris Johnson is doing so.
The No 10 spokesperson said the app had been an “important tool” in breaking the chain of transmission of coronavirus.
“The prime minister has been clear that he continues to use it,” the spokesperson said. “We continue to ask people to isolate if they are asked to through the app.”
The plea was echoed by the transport secretary, Grant Shapps, who stressed the app’s importance, against a backdrop of concerns about the increasing numbers being “pinged” as restrictions are rolled back.
Rules governing travel for people in England are due to be eased on 19 July, but measures on self-isolation for the fully vaccinated will remain in place until 16 August, raising fears that people will delete the app rather than risk having to cancel a holiday.
Shapps told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme:
You shouldn’t ignore this (the app) because it is vital information. People should want to know if they have been in contact with somebody with coronavirus.
You don’t want to be spreading it around. It can still harm people.
The number of exposure alerts sent to users of the app in England soared by more than 60% in a week, according to the latest contact-tracing figures.
The head of the UK Health Security Agency, Dr Jenny Harries, told the Commons public accounts committee on Thursday that work was being done to “tune” the app to work within an increasingly vaccinated population to ensure it is there “for a purpose, not for annoyance”.
Shapps reiterated this on Friday, saying the sensitivity of the app was being kept under constant review and that it could possibly be tweaked “to be suitable to the circumstances of the time”. He said he had spoken to the health secretary, Sajid Javid, about it.
“He is very aware of this and we will keep it under constant review because we want the app to be a useful tool in our armoury,” Shapps told Sky News.
Prof Henry Potts, a member of the Spi-B group of behavioural experts advising the government, said that if ministers wanted people to self-isolate they needed to make it easier to do so.
He told the Today programme:
The problem of people deleting the app or simply turning the app off or ignoring what it says has been a problem for many months. We have seen steadily rising numbers of people deleting the app.
The best way of improving isolation is more support – financial support, it can also be practical support.
Updated
UK sees highest daily increase in Covid cases since 22 January
There had been a further 35,707 lab-confirmed Covid-19 cases in the UK, the government said.
This is the highest daily increase since 22 January.
A further 29 people had died within 28 days of testing positive for Covid-19 as of Friday, bringing the UK total to 128,365.
Separate figures published by the Office for National Statistics show there have been 153,000 deaths registered in the UK where Covid-19 was mentioned on the death certificate.
Updated
Covid-19 vaccines offer high levels of protection for those with underlying conditions
Covid-19 vaccines offer high levels of protection for most people with underlying health conditions or who are immunosuppressed, Public Health England (PHE) has said.
New data from more than one million people in at-risk groups found that overall vaccine effectiveness against symptomatic disease was around 60% after one dose of either the AstraZeneca or Pfizer/BioNTech jabs, and did not fall substantially with age, PA news reports.
After two doses for those aged 16 to 64, Pfizer/BioNTech offered 93% protection, while AstraZeneca offered 78%. For those aged 65 and over, two doses of Pfizer/BioNTech offered 87% protection while AstraZeneca offered 76%.
For people who are immunosuppressed, vaccine effectiveness after a second dose was 74%, with similar protection to those who are not in an at-risk group.
This rises from 4% after a first dose, showing the importance of a second dose.
Some health conditions are linked to an increased risk of hospital admission and death from Covid-19, including diabetes, severe asthma, chronic heart, kidney or liver disease, neurological disease, and illnesses or therapies that weaken the immune system, such as blood cancer, HIV or chemotherapy.
PHE said that protection for these people against hospital admission and death is expected to be even higher than for symptomatic Covid illness.
Dr Mary Ramsay, head of immunisation at PHE, said: “This real-world data shows for the first time that most people who are clinically vulnerable to Covid-19 still receive high levels of protection after two doses of vaccine.
She said:
It is vital that anyone with an underlying condition gets both doses, especially people with weakened immune systems as they gain so much more benefit from the second dose.
It comes after 16 health charities joined forces to urge the Government to support around 500,000 people who are immunocompromised or immunosuppressed.
The charities included Anthony Nolan, Blood Cancer UK, Bowel Cancer UK, Cystic Fibrosis Trust and the MS Society.
Advice from the government for the vulnerable to shield was paused on April 1 and there are currently no plans to advise people to shield again.
The charities said they wanted better communication from the government and the NHS to inform patients, the wider public and employers about the continued risks that Covid-19 poses to immunocompromised people.
They also want employment protection and access to workplace adjustments for immunocompromised people, including the duty to consider working from home wherever possible and flexibility in start and finish times so as to avoid peak-time travel.
Updated
Downing Street has said Boris Johnson followed official guidance when he was photographed without a mask inside a car taking him home from England’s semi-final on Wednesday, even though this is not the official guidance.
Asked why the prime minister was not wearing a mask in the government Range Rover at Wembley, his spokesperson said: “The PM was getting into the car, and in line with guidance, he put his mask on very shortly afterwards.”
The photographs, first printed in the Mirror, show Johnson in the car as it drives away after he watched England beat Denmark 2-1 in the Euro 2020 semi-final. Others in the vehicle, including security staff and his wife, Carrie, were wearing masks.
Asked why Johnson had not initially worn a mask, his spokesperson said: “I haven’t asked him that question specifically, but the important point is, he put his mask on very shortly after getting into the car.”
Under Covid restrictions still in force, people are obliged to wear a mask inside a taxi and can be fined if they do not. While government cars fall outside this requirement, the guidance for ministers is to wear a mask whenever they are inside a vehicle.
Read more here:
Updated
Scotland has reported 3,216 new Covid cases and six new deaths.
2,332,177 people in Scotland have been tested for #coronavirus
— Scottish Government (@scotgov) July 9, 2021
The total confirmed as positive has risen by 3,216 to 309,665
Sadly 6 more patients who tested positive have died (7,750 in total)
Latest update ➡️ https://t.co/bZPbrCoQux
Health advice ➡️ https://t.co/l7rqArB6Qu pic.twitter.com/88Nma5e272
Northern Ireland reported 605 new cases and no new deaths.
NI #COVID19 data has been updated:
— Department of Health (@healthdpt) July 9, 2021
📊605 positive cases and no deaths reported in past 24 hours.
💉2,107,863 vaccines administered in total.
Dashboard➡️https://t.co/YN16dmGzhv
Vaccines➡️https://t.co/Yfa0hHVmRL pic.twitter.com/D4Up7eJfas
The latest figures for England, Wales and the whole of the UK will be published later.
Updated
MPs have launched an inquiry into how asbestos in buildings is managed amid serious concerns about how the material is being dealt with, PA Media reports.
The work and pensions committee said that despite the importation, supply and use of asbestos being banned in the UK since 1999, it remains the largest single cause of work-related fatalities, with more than 5,000 deaths each year from diseases including mesothelioma, lung cancer and asbestosis.
The committee’s inquiry will examine the risks posed by asbestos in the workplace, the actions taken by the Health and Safety Executive to mitigate them and how its approach compares with those taken in other countries.
Committee chairman Stephen Timms said:
Despite being banned for more than 20 years, the impact of asbestos is still devastating lives. Thousands of people die from asbestos-related illness every year.
With the UK death rate from asbestos-related illness the highest in the world, there are serious concerns about how the material is being dealt with compared with how it is managed in other countries, such as France.
The HSE is rightly looking into how asbestos can be handled more safely and the committee’s inquiry will help to make sure monitoring and regulations are as effective and safe as they can possibly be.
Updated
Updated
Downing Street has defended Boris Johnson after he was seen leaving England’s Euro 2020 semi-final in his official car without wearing a face covering.
A No 10 spokesman confirmed that ministers were supposed to wear a mask while travelling in their government cars.
However, the spokesman insisted the prime minister had put his mask on “shortly after” he got in the vehicle.
Johnson had been at Wembley with his wife, Carrie, to cheer on England in their 2-1 victory over Denmark on Wednesday evening.
Photographs of their departure in Johnson’s ministerial Range Rover showed that while Carrie, his driver and his security detail were all masked, the prime minister’s face was uncovered.
The spokesman said:
He was getting into the car and, in line with the guidance, put his mask on very shortly afterwards.
Asked if ministers were supposed to wear masks in their official vehicles, the spokesman said: “That is the guidance, yes.”
R value increases slightly from 1.1-1.3 to 1.2-1.5
The coronavirus reproduction number, or R value, in England has increased slightly and is between 1.2 to 1.5, according to the latest Government figures.
Last week, it was between 1.1 and 1.3.
For those who need a refresher on what the R number means, it is a measure of the average number of people one infected person will go on to infect.
If R is above 1, an outbreak can grow exponentially, but if it is below 1, the outbreak shrinks.
An R number between 1.2 and 1.5 means that, on average, every 10 people infected will infect between 12 and 15 other people.
The growth rate is between 3% and 7%, which means the number of new infections is growing by between 3% and 7% every day.
Updated
Downing Street has urged people to continue using the NHS Covid app and to isolate when advised to do so.
Boris Johnson’s official spokesman said the app had been an “important tool” in breaking the chain of transmission of coronavirus.
The spokesman said:
The prime minister has been clear that he continues to use it.
A large number of the population continues to use the app and it has been an important tool in getting people to isolate and break the chain of transmission.
It is important that people continue to isolate if they are asked to do so. We continue to ask people to isolate if they are asked to through the app.
Evidence on usefulness of Covid booster shot is 'limited', says WHO
The World Health Organization has said that it is not clear whether Covid-19 booster vaccines would be useful to maintain protection against the virus, as Pfizer-BioNTech said people’s immunity starts to wane six months after they have been vaccinated with their jab.
Pfizer plans to ask US regulators to authorise a booster dose of its Covid-19 vaccine within the next month, the drugmaker’s top scientist said today, based on emerging evidence of greater risk of reinfection six months after inoculation and the spread of the highly contagious Delta variant.
The WHO said in a reply to a Reuters query:
We don’t know whether booster vaccines will be needed to maintain protection against Covid-19 until additional data is collected, but the question is under consideration by researchers.
There is limited data available on how long protection from current COVID-19 vaccine doses lasts and whether an additional booster dose would be beneficial and for whom.
Pfizer’s chief scientific officer, Mikael Dolsten, said early data from the company’s own studies shows that a third booster dose generates antibody levels that are five to 10-fold higher than after the second dose, suggesting that a third dose will offer promising protection.
In a statement emailed to CNN, Pfizer-BioNTech said evidence was building that people’s immunity starts to wane six months after they have been vaccinated.
Pfizer said:
As seen in real world data released from the Israel Ministry of Health, vaccine efficacy in preventing both infection and symptomatic disease has declined six months post-vaccination, although efficacy in preventing serious illnesses remains high.
The absence of long term data, as is usually customary with vaccines, means that only now are Pfizer learning about these issues with their two-shot vaccine.
In a joint statement the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) pushed back against the Pfizer announcement and said Americans who have been fully vaccinated do not need a booster shot.
FDA, CDC, and NIH (the National Institutes of Health) are engaged in a science-based, rigorous process to consider whether or when a booster might be necessary. This process takes into account laboratory data, clinical trial data, and cohort data -- which can include data from specific pharmaceutical companies, but does not rely on those data exclusively ... We are prepared for booster doses if and when the science demonstrates that they are needed.
Children’s risk of dying from Covid, or severe illness, is extremely low, according to three of the most comprehensive studies to date which suggest the threat may be lower than initially thought.
One study found that 99.995% of the 469,982 children in England who contracted Covid during the first 12 months of the pandemic survived, the Wall Street Journal reports, with 25 under-18s dying in that time.
Of the 61 child deaths linked to a positive Covid-19 test in England, 25 were actually caused by the illness, it said. Fifteen had serious underlying illnesses, while four had chronic underlying conditions. The other six did not appear to have an underlying health condition.
Researchers estimate that with a population of some 12 million children in England, there was an overall mortality rate of 2 per million children during the year studied, the BBC reports.
Ministers are to pave the way for an overhaul of university funding, with tuition-fee cuts, a cap on student numbers for certain courses and minimum qualifications among the options being considered in a soon-to-be-published consultation.
The long-awaited consultation document, intended as a response to the Augar review of tertiary funding, is to list potential policies designed to lower the cost to the government of financing England’s student loan system, after ministers and advisers failed to settle on a central option.
Divisions between No 10, the Department for Education and the Treasury over alternative policies means the consultation is to include what one sector leader called “a menu of unpalatable options” that have been argued over behind the scenes for several months.
The options include a return to student-number controls, abandoned in 2015, as well as setting minimum entry requirements such as barring school-leavers without GCSE passes in maths or English from accessing student loans.
The cut in undergraduate tuition fees recommended by the review conducted by Philip Augar in 2017 – from £9,250 down to £7,500 – is also among the options, including differential fees for certain courses such as nursing, sciences and maths, to encourage greater uptake.
Another option is freezing fees at their current level and letting inflation erode their value. When tuition fees were set at £9,000 in 2012 the intention was for increases to keep pace with inflation. But since being raised to £9,250 in 2016 ministers have refused to go further, meaning their real value has declined by 12%.
The Treasury in particular is keen to lower its exposure to student loans by directly cutting fees and increasing repayments, while No 10 and the DfE appear to favour more indirect means such as minimum entry requirements and course caps.
Read more here:
Reducing the sensitivity of the NHS Covid app to cut the number of people self-isolating is like “taking the batteries out of the smoke alarm”, Keir Starmer has said as he raised questions about the decision to press ahead with reopening on 19 July.
Speaking as he completed a three-day visit to Northern Ireland, the Labour leader said he had been alarmed by reports that ministers have decided to “tune” the app.
He said:
It’s like taking the batteries out of the smoke alarm: it is so obviously to weaken the defences that we have – and if the consequence of the prime minister’s decision is that people are deleting the NHS app, or the app is being weakened, then that’s a pretty good indicator that the decision of the prime minister is wrong.
The decision to tune the app to cut its sensitivity was made amid reports that people were removing it from their phones because of fears about being repeatedly asked to self-isolate.
Dr Jenny Harries, the head of the UK Health Security Agency, told MPs on Thursday: “We have a piece of work ongoing at the moment because it is entirely possible to tune the app to ensure that it is appropriate to the risk.
“When the app came into action, we know it has been hugely successful, but it has been utilised in a world where we did not have vaccinations. So working through what a vaccinated population using the app means is something that we are actively doing at the moment.”
Ministers are expected to make a final decision on Monday about whether to go ahead with lifting almost all restrictions on daily life on “freedom day”, 19 July.
They will do so on the basis of new modelling from experts on the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) about the likely impact on hospitalisations and deaths of allowing infections to rise sharply.
Starmer said he did not want to pre-empt the data, which is expected to be published on Monday, but underlined his concerns about the risks of the government’s no-holds-barred plan.
He said:
The prime minister’s approach, as he indicated earlier this week, it’s lifting protections in one go at the same time, notwithstanding that infection rates are rising at a pretty alarming rate, that is going to lead to a summer of chaos.
Read the full story here:
In Scotland, around one in 100 people are estimated to have had Covid-19 in the week to July 3 - up from one in 150 in the previous week, and the highest level since the week to January 16.
For Wales, the latest estimate is one in 340 people, up from one in 450 in the previous week and the highest level since the week to February 27.
In Northern Ireland the latest estimate is one in 300 people, up from one in 670 and the highest since the week to April 3.
All figures are for people in private households.
The percentage of people testing positive for Covid-19 is estimated to have increased in all regions of England, the ONS said.
North-east England and north-west England had the highest proportion of people of any region likely to test positive for coronavirus in the week to July 3: around one in 80.
Eastern England had the lowest estimate: around one in 350, PA news reports.
When modelling the level of infection among different age ranges in England, the ONS said rates have increased for all groups.
Around one in 45 people from school year 12 to age 24 are estimated to have had Covid-19 in the week to July 3, the highest positivity rate for any age group.
Updated
Around one in 160 people in private households in England had Covid-19 in the week to July 3, up from one in 260 in the previous week, according to the latest estimates from the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
This is the highest level since the week to February 19, PA news reports.
Here’s transport secretary Grant Shapps saying he would be keeping a ‘close eye’ on the app as it remained an ‘important tool’ in monitoring Covid-19 amid concerns people are deleting it to avoid self-isolation after close contact with coronavirus cases.
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has urged against an amnesty being offered over events in Northern Ireland’s troubled past.
The UK and Irish governments recently announced “intensive engagement” to take place on legacy matters.
It was reported earlier this year that London is considering a statute of limitations which would ban all prosecutions for Troubles-era offences.
Starmer urged the prime minister to talk to victims.
He told the PA news agency during a visit to Londonderry:
I don’t agree with it (an amnesty), I don’t think that it is the right plan and I think any discussion about legacy has to start here in Northern Ireland, sitting down with victims and those most affected, and I would urge the Prime Minister to take that approach rather than the one he is taking.
Starmer has been undertaking two days of official engagements in Northern Ireland.
On Thursday he met a number of victims of the Troubles at the Wave Trauma Centre in north Belfast.
He said:
It’s a very difficult issue. We spoke to people yesterday at Wave, I have spoken to many victims over the years, and on legacy we have to start with them and work through what they’re feeling now.
Many of them expressed to me yesterday that the impact that it still has on them if they lost a loved one, on their families, their siblings, their children, and of course those that were injured.
Any discussion about legacy has to start with them. Promises have been made, promises haven’t been kept, and I think that’s where the conversation has to start.
We have to find a way forward but they very strongly feel that you can’t sit in London and draw a line, it has to start here, with them, conversations about how we move forward.
Starmer and shadow secretary of state Louise Haigh met with Sara Canning, the partner of journalist Lyra McKee who was killed by dissidents in the city in 2019.
After walking across the peace bridge he was greeted by SDLP leader and Foyle MP Colum Eastwood before visiting the Guildhall.
He told the PA news agency it had been very special to meet Canning and talk to her about her fight for justice for McKee.
Updated
Public Health England’s latest data bulletin shows that numbers of the Delta variant in the UK have risen by 54,268 since last week.
This represents a 32% increase in total cases, and a slight rise on the number of new cases recorded the previous week.
Dr Jenny Harries, chief executive of the UK health security agency, said:
The data continues to show that the sharp increase in cases that we are seeing is not being followed by a similar increase in hospitalisation and death. This is because 2 doses of the available vaccines offer a high level of protection against the Delta variant. Getting both jabs is the best way to ensure you and the people you love remain safe, so we once again urge everyone to come forward as soon as they are eligible.
As of June 21, there had been 257 deaths in England of people who were confirmed as having the Delta variant and who died within 28 days of a positive test, Public Health England said.
Of this number, 26 were under the age of 50 and 231 were aged 50 or over, PA news reports.
Of the 231 aged 50 or over, 71 were unvaccinated, one was within 21 days of a first dose of vaccine, 41 at least 21 days after one dose of vaccine and 116 had received both doses.
Of the 26 under 50, three were at least 21 days after a first dose of vaccine, two had received both doses and 21 were unvaccinated.
The home office paid £30,000 towards the legal fees incurred by a senior civil servant who made a bullying claim against the home secretary, Priti Patel, bringing the total bill for the settlement to £370,000, it has emerged.
The department’s annual accounts show it made the contribution towards Sir Philip Rutnam’s legal costs on top of a £340,000 settlement after he threatened to take Patel to an employment tribunal last year.
He claimed he had been hounded out of his job for defending his staff, and was suing the government under whistleblowing laws.
Patel has consistently rejected Rutnam’s claims.
After the allegations at the home office surfaced, it then emerged that Patel had also been accused of bullying in two other government departments – the department for international development and the department for work and pensions.
An aide in the DWP received a £25,000 government payout after a threatened lawsuit in which Patel was named.
Under pressure from claims, Boris Johnson ordered a cabinet office inquiry last year, which was conducted by Sir Alex Allan. He wrote a report sent to the prime minister that said Patel’s behaviour amounted to bullying and was therefore a breach of the ministerial code.
As the sole arbiter of the rules, the prime minister stood by Patel, concluding in his view that she had not broken the ministerial code.
Nick Thomas-Symonds, the shadow home secretary , said:
Taxpayers will be appalled at having to pick up the bill for the home secretary’s unacceptable behaviour with £370,000 having been used to settle the case - this money could have been used on extra police officers, or tackling anti-social behaviour.
It was wrong that when Priti Patel broke the ministerial code, it was the prime minister’s independent adviser who resigned.
As usual with this government it is one rule for them, another for everyone else.
A total of 1,904 people had been admitted to hospital in England with the Delta variant of Covid-19 as of June 21, Public Health England said.
Some 1,283 of the 1,904 people were under the age of 50 while 615 were 50 or over, PA news reports.
Of the 1,283 under 50, 987 (77%) were unvaccinated, 106 (8%) were less than 21 days after their first dose of vaccine, 118 (9%) 21 or more days after their first dose of vaccine and 48 (4%) were fully vaccinated.
Of the 615 aged 50 or over, 195 (32%) were unvaccinated, 11 (2%) less than 21 days after their first dose of vaccine, 140 (23%) 21 or more days after their first dose of vaccine and 265 (43%) were fully vaccinated.
A total of 216,249 confirmed and probable cases of the Covid-19 Delta variant have now been identified in the UK, according to the latest figures from Public Health England.
This is up by 54,268 from 161,981 cases in the previous week, a rise of 34%.
Of the 216,249 cases, 180,643 have been in England, 28,559 in Scotland, 3,666 in Wales and 3,381 in Northern Ireland, PA news reports.
The Delta variant currently accounts for approximately 99% of confirmed cases of coronavirus across the UK.
Dr David Strain, senior clinical lecturer at the University of Exeter, who has participated in the NHS long Covid taskforce, said allowing younger people to get infected through rising cases could have a “devastating long-term effect”, in terms of long Covid.
He told LBC radio that between 10% and 15% of all people with Covid develop long Covid and what was currently happening was a “dangerous experiment with the next generation.”
He added:
It is a fact that the more Covid, the more long Covid, and the big worry is this is affecting the younger generation that the entire country is dependent on to get the country moving again.
Grant Shapps has warned that holidaymakers should expect additional queues when they check in for their flights home due to the need for coronavirus checks.
The transport secretary told BBC Breakfast:
Before you board a plane you would need to show you have completed your passenger locator form, that you have carried out a pre-departure test, that you have got your test booked for day two and all of that needs to be checked by the carrier - the airline usually - before you travel.
So the place to expect queues is the airport you are coming from. Once you get back to the UK all of that is starting to be automated.
People should expect more disruption than usual but I know that everyone is working very hard to minimise those queues.
Transport Secretary Grant Shapps has said the government is “actively working” on plans to accept vaccination certificates from travellers who receive a coronavirus jab in other countries.
On Thursday Shapps announced that travellers from amber list countries who were fully vaccinated in the UK would no longer have to self-isolate from July 19.
Speaking on Sky News, he said he expected to be able to make an announcement “in the next couple of weeks” on extending it to people who receive a World Health Organisation-approved vaccine in other countries.
He said:
The next thing is to be able to recognise apps from other countries or certification from other countries.
It is easier done from some places, like the EU where they have a digital app coming along, than it is in the United States where I think they have 50 different systems, one for each state.
During the first year of the pandemic 25 children and teenagers died as a direct result of Covid-19 in England and about 6,000 were admitted to hospital, according to the most complete analysis of national data on the age group to date.
Children seen to be at greatest risk of severe illness and death from coronavirus were in ethnic minority groups, and those with pre-existing medical conditions or severe disabilities.
The findings, which have not yet been peer reviewed, will be submitted to the UK’s Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) and the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) to help inform policies about who should be offered Covid-19 vaccines or continued to ask to shield.
“This is essentially the first complete national cohort of children and young people affected by Covid-19,” said Prof Russell Viner, at University College London (UCL) Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health, who contributed to the research.
Viner added that although children and young people were known to be at low risk of severe illness or death these findings were the first “to really and precisely, in a very large population, give us clear estimates of those risks”..
Using data on hospital admissions covering children in England under a year old up to 17-year-olds, researchers led by Joseph Ward, a doctor at UCL calculated that 5,830 children and young people were admitted to hospital with Covid-19 during the first year of the pandemic, up to the end of February 2021.
Of these children 251 (4%) required intensive care, equivalent to a one in 50,000 chance of being admitted to ICU with Covid-19 for those under 18.
Read more from my colleagues Linda Geddes and Ben Quinn:
Grant Shapps urged people not to ignore the NHS Covid app if they are “pinged” and advised to self-isolate.
Travel restrictions for people in England are due to be eased on July 19 but rules on self-isolation for people who are fully vaccinated will remain in place until August 16, raising fears that people will delete the app rather than risk having to cancel a holiday.
However, the transport secretary said it is important that people continue to use the app.
He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme:
You shouldn’t ignore this because it is vital information. People should want to know if they have been in contact with somebody with coronavirus. You don’t want to be spreading it around. It can still harm people.
He said the app is being kept under review to ensure it is “calibrated in the right way” for the prevailing circumstances.
He said:
The medical experts will advise us on what the level of sensitivity should be relative to where we are, for example, to our vaccination programme overall.
We will follow scientific advice, keep this under review and tweak the app to be suitable to the circumstances of the time - double vaccination, for example, being at record highs in this country.
Transport secretary Grant Shapps has said there is “no sign” people are deleting the NHS Covid app to avoid being told to isolate.
He told Sky News “that’s not actually the evidence” and that the government is “still seeing lots of people downloading the app”.
He did say, however, that the “sensitivity” of the app is being kept under constant review.
Shapps said it was important that it remained a “useful tool” in the fight against the disease amid concerns about the increasing numbers of people being “pinged” as restrictions are eased.
He said:
As the overall nationwide levels for things like the amount of social distancing and other rules are looked at so we will look at the way that app performs with regard to the new standards being in place.
We keep a very close eye on those things. I did speak to the health secretary about it yesterday. He is very aware of this and we will keep it under constant review because we want the app to be a useful tool in our armoury.
We will keep the sensitivity of it under review with the new guidelines that come in on July 19.
I’m Nicola Slawson and I’ll be taking you through the day’s events today. Do drop me an email on nicola.slawson@theguardian.com or find me on Twitter (@Nicola_Slawson) if you think I’ve missed anything or if you have any questions.
Politics Live has been a mix of Covid and non-Covid news recently and that will probably be the case today. For more coronavirus developments, do follow our global Covid live blog:
