UK coronavirus live: government confirms its contact-tracing app will be ditched

Arlene Foster, the first minister of Northern Ireland, has announced that the social distancing measure will be reduced from two metres to one in Northern Ireland’s schools when they reopen on August 24. She said the move would enable class sizes to return to near-normal levels.

This is significant, because it will intensify the pressure on Boris Johnson to do the same in England.

In Scotland and Wales Nicola Sturgeon and Mark Drakeford may also face renewed pressure to abandon the two-metre rule for schools too, but Johnson is facing particularly difficulties on this point because so many of his MPs are desperate to ditch two metres. Sturgeon and Drakeford are not facing quite the same internal party opposition.

Here is some comment from journalists on the government’s U-turn over its contact tracing app.

From Sky’s Ed Conway

From our colleague Dan Sabbagh

From the New Statesman’s Stephen Bush

From the Evening Standard’s Sophia Sleigh

From our colleague Kate Connolly

The Northern Ireland health minister Robin Swann has confirmed plans to “pause” shielding advice that was issued to people ahead of the peak of the pandemic from 31 July.

From that date people will no longer need to shield but should follow the same advice given to those deemed vulnerable, taking care when out in society and maintaining social distancing.

Swann said letters will be issued in the coming days to all those in Northern Ireland covered by shielding informing them of the planned change, subject to the rate of transmission in the community remaining low.

He said:

I have been clear that shielding would not last one minute longer than it needed to. We have now reached the point where, if the current trends continue, there will be no need for anyone to shield after 31 July.

I have listened to many of you and to the challenges you have faced during this period. I am in no doubt as to the difficulties shielding has presented for a great many people.

It is unrealistic to think these difficulties will just vanish because the need to shield has ended. That is why the letters we issue will provide details of the support which will continue to be available up to and after 31 July.

While my announcement today will be welcome news for many who are shielding, some will view the prospect of an end to shielding with great anxiety. I want to assure them that they should decide what to do at their own pace. Everyone will approach this situation differently.

The Department of Health and Social Care has today recorded a further 135 coronavirus deaths for the UK. (See 3.24pm.) For comparison, here are the equivalent daily figures for the past two weeks.

Thursday 4 June – 176

Friday 5 June – 357

Saturday 6 June – 204

Sunday 7 June – 77

Monday 8 June – 55

Tuesday 9 June – 286

Wednesday 10 June – 245

Thursday 11 June – 151

Friday 12 June – 202

Saturday 13 June – 181

Sunday 14 June – 36

Monday 15 June – 38

Tuesday 16 June – 233

Wednesday 17 June – 184

Labour’s shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth said the app U-turn (see 3.35pm.) meant “precious time and money” had been wasted and that issues with the app had been forewarned.

He said:

This is unsurprising and yet another example of where the government’s response has been slow and badly managed. It’s meant precious time and money wasted.

For months tech experts warned ministers about the flaws in their app which is why we wrote to Matt Hancock encouraging the government to consider digital alternatives back in May.

Ministers must now urgently prioritise building a fully effective test, trace and isolate regime led by local expertise to break the chains of transmission of this deadly virus.

National Express will check the temperature of passengers before allowing them to travel when it resumes services next month.

The firm said its drivers will use contactless hand-held devices to carry out the screenings. Anyone with a reading above 38C will be prevented from boarding and given a full refund due to fears they could be infected with coronavirus.

Other measures being introduced to enhance safety and hygiene include only allowing passengers to sit in window seats, halving the capacity of vehicles.

Travellers will also be required to wear face coverings, while enhanced disinfection of coaches will be carried out.

On 1 July National Express will resume serving intercity routes across Britain with reduced frequencies, calling at more than 180 locations but overall mileage will be around a quarter of the pre-pandemic level until demand grows.

Chris Hardy, managing director of the firm’s UK coach operation, said:

As restrictions begin to ease and people plan to start travelling once again, we are adapting how we operate to help keep everyone safe.

We also appreciate that people are unsure about committing to travel plans at the moment so have changed some of our terms and conditions to give reassurance when deciding whether to book.

National Express is not actively advising its customers to avoid non-essential travel. This is in contrast with train operators, which are urging passengers to “use an alternative if you can”.

Labour has said the figures released today about the performance of the new test and trace system (see 12.34pm) are “hugely worrying”. This is from the shadow health minister Justin Madders.

Expert opinion shows that to defeat this virus we need a fully functioning test and trace system, so these latest figures are hugely worrying.

Having a quarter of those who test positive not contacted is a gaping hole in the system that urgently needs to be addressed. And questions still remain about how the app was hailed as a vital part of the system at the outset, but is now just the ‘cherry on the cake’.

Ministers need to level with the public about how they are going to tackle these real and serious issues as a matter of urgency.

Arguably Madders is being generous in suggesting that only a quarter of cases are being missed.

Today’s ONS figures suggest that in the period between 26 April and 13 June there were on average 26,900 new cases per week in England. In the most recent week covered by the test and trace figures (4-10 June), 5,949 people who tested positive were referred to the service in England. That would amount to just 22% of the entire number of cases (on the basis of the ONS average).

But the ONS report also shows that the infection rate has been falling considerably since April, and so the 26,900 cases per week average figure probably no longer applies for June. Half that (13,450 cases per week) may be a more accurate figure. But, on that basis, test and trace would still just hearing about 44% of the entire caseload. And, given that they are only reaching 73% of these cases to ask them about their contacts, that would amount to just 32% of the entire caseload.

Stormont ministers are set to announce a series of new lockdown relaxations later on Thursday.

The PA news agency understands shielding advice to people in at-risk categories in Northern Ireland will be paused at the end of July.

Schools are set to reopen for key year groups on 24 August. Meanwhile, it is understood hairdressers and salons will be allowed to reopen on 6 July.

An announcement is also expected that church services can resume at the end of June.

Dido Harding, who runs NHS Test and Trace, and Matthew Gould, who heads NHSX, the NHS’s digital policy arm, have issued a statement confirming the decision to scrap the current contact-tracing app. There had been “specific technical challenges” with the app, they said. They went on:

Our response to this virus has and will continue to be as part of an international effort.

That is why as part of a collaborative approach we have agreed to share our own innovative work on estimating distance between app users with Google and Apple, work that we hope will benefit others, while using their solution to address some of the specific technical challenges identified through our rigorous testing.

We will also draw on the invaluable insight from all of those who trialled the app on the Isle of Wight – and the brilliant teams who have worked on it to date – to build an app that can form part of the end-to-end NHS Test and Trace service and this insight will be integral to the next phase of development.

Here is our colleague Dan Sabbagh’s story about the government abandoning the contact tracing app it has been using.

The Open Knowledge Foundation, which campaigns for open data, has welcomed the change. Its chief executive Catherine Stihler said:

Technology can play a key role in the global response to the coronavirus pandemic, but it must take account of civil liberties and ensure that people’s privacy is protected.

There were widespread fears the UK government was losing sight of ethical responsibilities in the rush to develop these tools, and this change in line with other European nations is therefore welcome

But this late U-turn means it is likely the UK will be waiting even longer for an app to be in use, which could pose a greater risk if there is a second wave of the virus.

The Department of Health and Social Care said 42,288 people had died in hospitals, care homes and the wider community after testing positive for coronavirus in the UK as of 5pm on Wednesday. That is a rise of 135 from 42,153 the day before.

The government figures do not include all deaths involving Covid-19 across the UK, which is thought to have passed 53,000.

The DHSC also said in the 24-hour period up to 9am on Thursday, 136,516 tests were carried out or dispatched, with 1,218 positive results.

Overall, a total of 7,7,259,555 tests have been carried out and 300,469 cases have been confirmed positive.

The figure for the number of people tested has been “temporarily paused to ensure consistent reporting” across all methods of testing.

Freelance workers in the UK’s creative industries have spoken of the devastating psychological toll of being “forgotten” and “ignored” after falling through the cracks in government support schemes.

The grassroots organisation Excluded UK estimates about 3 million taxpayers are ineligible for the furlough scheme and the self-employed income support scheme (SEISS). Among the left-behind are thousands of freelancers on short-term PAYE contracts, widespread in the creative industries.

Having received no income or support from the government for three months now, people have had to burn through their life savings, rely on handouts, move back in with parents to survive the lockdown. In a sector worth £112bn a year to the Treasury, workers face having to leave the industry altogether, potentially never to return.

One production secretary, Sarah-Jane Hawkins, 25, from Belfast, and her seven-year-old daughter, were left to rely on charity, universal credit and her dwindling savings when film and TV projects were cancelled. Hawkins, who normally works a 60-hour week, said:

Knowing our hard-earned tax money hasn’t been given back to us because we’re taxed at source, compared to how other PAYE workers have been treated, is really, really difficult.

If we continue to get no help I’ll have to step back from my dream job, leave the industry I love, and find something more stable where I’ll get equal rights. It looks like the only way to survive.

The shadow cultural industries minister Tracy Brabin told the Guardian:

If you don’t support the individuals, where’s the next wave of talent – the next Fleabag, the next Chernobyl – going to come from? Our industry is the least understood, paying the biggest price and will be the last to come back. We need a sectoral deal to support us to return in 2021.

Here is the full story.

Separate modelling published by the ONS and carried out by the universities of Oxford and Manchester shows “a clear downward trend” in the estimated percentage of people in England testing positive for Covid-19 since the infection study began on 26 April.

The ONS said the decline suggested by this model “appears to have slowed in recent weeks”, with the proportion of the population testing positive dropping from an estimated 0.33% on 26 April to 0.10% by 26 May, before levelling off around 0.07% in the days up to 13 June.

Results for the most recent period are provisional, the ONS added, as not all swab test results have been received, and this may result in further revisions to the figures.

The former Tory grandee Lord Andrew Tyrie has resigned from the Competition and Markets Authority saying his powers in the role were limited, PA Media reports.

The outspoken former head of the Treasury select committee will leave his role as chairman of the authority in September.

Lord Tyrie has proposed a series of reforms to the UK’s competition law, which he said in the past is not fit for purpose.

As he announced his resignation, he said:

The government asked me to take this work forward at great pace. I have done so. I now want to make the case more forcefully for legislative and other reform – in Parliament and beyond – than is possible within the inherent limits of my position as CMA chairman.