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UK coronavirus live: chief scientific adviser says testing capacity should have been expanded sooner UK coronavirus live: chief scientific adviser says testing capacity should have been expanded sooner
(32 minutes later)
Trial begins for new contact-tracing app while government’s top scientists are questioned by MPs and new Sage papers publishedTrial begins for new contact-tracing app while government’s top scientists are questioned by MPs and new Sage papers published
In the Commons Rosena Allin-Khan, a shadow health minister and practising doctor, asks Matt Hancock if he is committed to maintaining testing at the level of 100,000 tests per day.
Hancock says he has been transparent about how he has achieved this. He says he wants to see the numbers continue to rise. He says capacity for testing is now at 108,000 per day.
In the Commons Matt Hancock, the health secretary, is currently taking questions.
The Conservative MP Bob Neill asked him why care home managers are told if residents test positive for coronavirus, but not if staff members test positive. Neill said this information was withheld from managers on privacy grounds.
Hancock said he would look into this.
A housekeeper who went “above and beyond” in his work is the latest of at least four frontline workers at a single hospital to have died after contracting coronavirus.
Momudou “Mo” Dibba, who worked on Watford General Hospital’s Letchmore and Lengley wards, died on 29 April after testing positive for Covid-19.
Nurses Ate Wilma Banaag and John Alagos and healthcare assistant Khalid Jamil also died while working on the hospital’s front line, and Stephanie Willocks, a former matron and ward sister at the hospital, also died after contracting the virus. She retired in 2005 but had been supporting the trust as a nursing mentor.
West Hertfordshire Hospitals NHS Trust said Dibba would often work extra shifts on reception after finishing his main job in the ward, and at weekends. The trust said in a statement:
Reopening schools prematurely could risk creating a rise in the transmission of Covid-19, teaching union leaders have warned.
The general secretaries of 10 trade unions across the UK and Ireland have written to the education ministers in all five jurisdictions urging “significant caution in any consideration of reopening schools”.
The letter, sent by the British and Irish Group of Teachers’ Unions on behalf of teachers, warns of the “very real risk of creating a spike in the transmission of the virus by a premature opening of schools”. It says:
The coalition of union leaders argues that schools can only reopen and operate safely if there are “significant operational changes” in place to ensure effective physical distancing, as well as strong hygiene routines and appropriate PPE where required.
It follows speculation that schools could be asked to reopen their doors to more pupils before the summer holidays.
Boris Johnson promised to deliver a “comprehensive plan” this week on how the UK lockdown may be eased and suggested that he would set out efforts to get children back to school.
Meanwhile, on Sunday, the Welsh first minister, Mark Drakeford, said schools in Wales could be allowed to reopen their doors from the start of June in a phased approach. And the Westminster education secretary, Gavin Williamson, has said schools in England will reopen in a “phased manner” after the lockdown “when it’s the right time” based on scientific and medical advice, but he has yet to set a date.
At the start of the Commons health committee hearing this morning Sir Patrick Vallance, the government’s chief scientific adviser, sought to clarify the remarks he made in mid-March about about how not totally suppressing coronavirus could allow the build-up of “herd immunity”. (See 9.29am.) Vallance said:
Petrol prices have sunk to a four-year low with the average cost of a litre of the fuel at UK forecourts at 1.08, according to government data. It has not been this low since April 2016.
Diesel has also fallen in price, sinking to an average of 1.15 per litre, which is the lowest level since October 2016.
The drop in fuel prices has been driven by a bruising few months for oil. The price of a barrel of Brent crude fell from $64 at the start of the year to less than $19 in April, due largely to plummeting demand from a global economy hit by the coronavirus pandemic.
However, on Tuesday the price pushed back up towards $30, as lockdown measures start to ease around the world.
The number of UK motorists taking advantage of cheaper fuel is limited because of lockdown restrictions and fewer people leaving the home. Indeed, Department for Transport figures show that road traffic is around 58% lower than in early February.
Nick Stripe, head of health analysis at the ONS, told the BBC it was “reassuring” to see the overall number of deaths had slightly dropped, but cautioned that the number of excess deaths in the week ending 24 April was still the second highest since records began in 1993.
Over the last five weeks where data has been recorded, he calculated there have been around 42,000 deaths above average in the UK.
He said the timing of these death registrations meant these were largely deaths that took place up to around 20-21 April, adding:
These are from Henry Lau, a data visualisation expert at the ONS, with more on today’s ONS report on the weekly death figures.
McDonald’s has unveiled the location of the 15 restaurants it plans to reopen for deliveries next Wednesday, after the fast-food giant closed all its sites in March at the start of the lockdown.
The stores, which are clustered around London and the south-east, will offer a limited menu, including some vegetarian options, delivered within their local areas between 11am and 10pm.
Staff will be asked to be extra careful about physical distancing measures and the restaurants will undergo deep-cleaning with floor markings and Perspex screens installed, the business said.
The following restaurants will reopen on 13 May - Chelmsford Riverside- Chelmsford Westway- Ipswich Cardinal Park- Boreham Interchange- Luton Leagrave- Watford Hertfordshire Arms- Chaul End Lane, Luton- Beechings Way, Gillingham- Sittingbourne Retail Park- Gillingham Bowaters- Tooting- Dalston- Welling- Harrow- Luton George Street
Drivers whose MOTs are due during the pandemic shutdown will enjoy a one-year exemption, a minister in Northern Ireland has said.Drivers whose MOTs are due during the pandemic shutdown will enjoy a one-year exemption, a minister in Northern Ireland has said.
It would not be possible to accommodate the backlog as well as conduct normal business at testing centres, infrastructure minister Nichola Mallon said.It would not be possible to accommodate the backlog as well as conduct normal business at testing centres, infrastructure minister Nichola Mallon said.
Drivers will instead apply for MOTs as normal next year. Mallon said:Drivers will instead apply for MOTs as normal next year. Mallon said:
On 24 March, in the interest of public safety and to tackle the spread of coronavirus, the DVA suspended all vehicle testing for three months, until 22 June.On 24 March, in the interest of public safety and to tackle the spread of coronavirus, the DVA suspended all vehicle testing for three months, until 22 June.
In the health committee Jeremy Hunt, the chair, is wrapping up. But he has one final question.In the health committee Jeremy Hunt, the chair, is wrapping up. But he has one final question.
Q: What are the chances of a second wave? 70/80%, ie fairly inevitable?Q: What are the chances of a second wave? 70/80%, ie fairly inevitable?
Vallance says, if we do test, track and trace well, and maintain social distancing, we should be able to avoid a second peak.Vallance says, if we do test, track and trace well, and maintain social distancing, we should be able to avoid a second peak.
But he adds one caveat; when winter comes, you will have flu circulating, he says.But he adds one caveat; when winter comes, you will have flu circulating, he says.
And that’s it. The health committee hearing is over.And that’s it. The health committee hearing is over.
In lighter news, the comedian Jason Manford has said he was turned down for a job at Tesco that he applied for earlier on in the pandemic “when it looked like supermarkets etc were going to need thousands of extra hands”.In lighter news, the comedian Jason Manford has said he was turned down for a job at Tesco that he applied for earlier on in the pandemic “when it looked like supermarkets etc were going to need thousands of extra hands”.
Q: How far are we from having a widespread antibody test?Q: How far are we from having a widespread antibody test?
Vallance says reliable laboratory-based tests are already available.Vallance says reliable laboratory-based tests are already available.
Q: Why was Atletico Madrid v Liverpool match allowed to go ahead in Liverpool on 11 March when it would not have been allowed in Spain?
Harries says that was not a decision for the chief medical officers.
Good morning everyone. I’m Lucy Campbell, joining the blog for the rest of the day to bring you all the latest developments on coronavirus in the UK. If you’d like to get in touch with news tips or comments, advice and suggestions, please feel free to do so via the usual channels.
Email: lucy.campbell@theguardian.comTwitter: @lucy_campbell_
Q: What is the risk of a second peak being caused by people coming to the UK with infections from other parts of the world, where coronavirus has hit later?
Vallance says Sage looked at this recently. At that point it thought just 0.5% of infections might come in from abroad. But that might change as the case numbers in the UK go down, he says.
Vallance says the idea that you could control this outbreak by stopping travel from one place would not work.
He says the advice from Sage was that either very draconian travel restrictions had to be imposed, or else it was not worth it.
Back in the health committee, Vallance and Harries are asked what they would have done differently.
Vallance says he is sure there are lots of things. He says it is standard in clinical practice to think how you could have done something better.
He says:
But he says Harries was right to say testing on its own does not provide the solution.
He says there will be plenty of opportunity to consider what might have been done better.
Going forward, different countries will try different things. That amounts to an experiment, he says.
But he says different countries have different characteristics.
He says it is not chance that two big, cosmopolitan cities - London and New York - have been hit badly.
What works in Iceland won’t necessarily work in other places, he says.
Harries says the plan was sensible.
But we are in a different world now, she says. She says perhaps we have not thought through the digital aspects of this enough in our planning.
She says we have learned from previous incidents.
As Scotland’s first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, prepares to set out further detail of her plans for easing lockdown restrictions, with specific scenarios for the NHS, schools and businesses, Boris Johnson’s Scottish secretary, Alister Jack, has urged the country to leave lockdown “in lockstep” with the rest of the UK.
“If we can present a simple, clear, united message, it will be much more effective,” he writes in the Scottish Daily Mail.
Re-tweeted approvingly by Jacob Rees-Mogg, Jack goes on to criticise the Scottish government for shutting down building sites, which has not happened in the rest of the UK, arguing it is having “a disastrous impact on the Scottish building industry”, and goes on to “applaud businesses, such as the famous shortbread baker Walkers, on Speyside, who used a brief shutdown to figure out safe working practices and who are now back up and running as best they can”.
Here is our story on the ONS figures, by Matthew Weaver and Nicola Davis.
And this is how it starts.
Turning back to the latest ONS weekly death figures (see 9.39am and 10.54am), here are the figures from the detailed data published alongside the ONS report showing where people died with coronavirus in the week ending 24 April.
Hospital deaths - 4,841
Care homes - 2,794
At home - 423
Hospices - 110
Other community settings - 44
Elsewhere - 25
That means 59% of coronavirus deaths that week were taking place in hospital, and 34% in care homes.
Back in the health committee, Harries is asked why BAME people seems to be dying disproportionately from coronavirus.
Harries says that, once you make allowance for underlying health conditions - conditions like diabetes, that are more prevalent in people from a BAME background - it gets hard to assess what other factors might be relevant.
She says deprivation and cultural differences could be factors.
Turning back to the the ONS latest weekly death figures (see 9.39am), here is the top of the news story from PA Media.