UK coronavirus live: infection R rate rises to between 0.7 and 1 in England
We reported earlier that the Scottish health secretary has written to health board chiefs warning them that failures to routinely test care home staff for coronavirus will be made public in a weekly league table from next week.
Asked what sanctions were available should this new policy not be met, a government source confirmed that the standard board escalation route – the Scottish equivalent of special measures – would be used to make sure the job was done.
They added it is important to note that many boards are implementing the testing policy but there is a need for consistency and transparency, hence the weekly publication of data.
The Department of Health said 40,261 people had died in hospitals, care homes and the wider community after testing positive for coronavirus in the UK as of 5pm on Thursday, up by 357 from 39,904 the day before.
Department of Health and Social Care (@DHSCgovuk)
As of 9am 5 June, there have been 5,214,277 tests, with 207,231 tests on 4 June.
283,311 people have tested positive.
As of 5pm on 4 June, of those tested positive for coronavirus, across all settings, 40,261 have sadly died.
Some interesting interim findings from a survey of Scottish parents, carried out by the parents’ organisation Connect.
With 2007 responses from 29 out of 32 local authorities, the survey finds that 59% are currently planning to send their children back to school when the next term begins on 11 August, while only 3% were definitely not planing to let them return, which is notable in contrast to the concerns of many English parents about the return of pupils this month.
Scotland’s education secretary has said that the schools return will be based on a blended model of in-school and at-home learning, which 20% said was not possible for them, while 36% said it depended on their employer being flexible.
A whopping 87% wanted more consultation on how part time schooling/nursery will work, while 25% said extra care would be ‘essential’ in addition to part time education.
A University of Oxford clinical trial into an anti-malarial drug will end with “immediate effect” after it was found to be ineffective against Covid-19, researchers have said.
The Recovery trials, which look at potential coronavirus treatments, involve a number of medications that are licensed for use in other conditions, including the drug hydroxychloroquine.
However, after reviewing the data on Thursday, the chief researchers have decided to end the hydroxychloroquine arm of the trial after it was found to be not effective in preventing the deaths of Covid-19 patients in hospital.
The researchers found that 25.7% of patients who were in the hydroxychloroquine arm died after 28 days compared with 23.5% of people with standard care alone.
Prof Martin Landray said:
This trial has moved at incredible speed, there was a huge upsurge in cases if you go back a month or so, we have to base our decisions on the latest data and that came through just last night.
He added:
We never say never, but I think this is not a treatment for Covid.
A senior Northern Ireland police officer has made a strong appeal to protesters not to take part in demonstrations this weekend.
PSNI assistant chief constable Alan Todd said his officers are engaging with organisers of Black Lives Matter gatherings to explain the coronavirus regulations, adding if the warnings are ignored then enforcement will be used.
He made the comments ahead of three planned demonstrations across Northern Ireland this weekend over the death of George Floyd in police custody in the US last week.
Todd described the protest as “valid” but warned that public gatherings of more than six people are against coronavirus regulations, as is travelling for a protest.
Up to 2,000 people gathered in Belfast city centre on Wednesday to express their support for the Black Lives Matter campaign.
The first minister Arlene Foster described it as a breach of the law and urged that there should be no repeat of it, while the deputy first minister Michelle O’Neill said she was fully supportive of the BLM campaign but urged those involved to find other ways to show solidarity.
Todd said:
I have a very clear message to organisers, the best way to resolve this for everybody’s interests is to call off these events.
Large crowd protests are at this time inappropriate.
If people choose to ignore these warnings and with all the advice and guidance from the chief medical officer, healthcare professionals, from police, from political representatives across the spectrum, if people choose to ignore all that and break the law then there will have to be consequences.
People can take my messaging today as being my engagement with them, my explanation, and my encouraging them to obey the law – if they choose to ignore the first three Es they can expect over the weekend to find enforcement being used.
He added:
On any other day as a police service we would be fully facilitating those protests in a peaceful and lawful manner with the organisers, however this is not any other day, we’re in the middle of a pandemic and gathering in crowds, socially distanced or otherwise, is both a risk to public health and a breach of the health protection regulations.
It seems to be somewhat ironic that we would protest the avoidable and unnecessary death of an individual in the United States by risking unnecessary and avoidable deaths in Northern Ireland.
Protesters take the knee in Trafalgar Square in support of Black Lives Matter. Photograph: Justin Setterfield/Getty Images
Wales’s first minister, Mark Drakeford, said the UK government had not discussed its decision to make the wearing of face masks on public transport mandatory in England.
He said he wished the Welsh government had had the chance to discuss it with the UK government before the announcement was made, adding:
That would have allowed us to have some answers to the questions that I raised today before the event rather than after the event.
But while on the bulk of issues we continue to be able to have discussion and co-operation in advance of decision making, in a small number of cases we hear about it only after the decision has been made.
We had no advance notice from the Department for Transport in England that this announcement was to be made.
We’re going to have to use the time we now have to find out from them the extent to which they have got answers to these questions in advance of making the decision, or whether it’s a matter of making the headline, and then worrying about the detail afterwards.
Police will have to abide by the requirements of the test-and-trace system, Downing Street has said.
The confirmation came after reports that forces were intending to carry out their own tracing processes if officers tested positive for coronavirus.
According to Sky News, forces were looking at a different contact-tracing system because of concerns the government’s scheme could place officers in danger, or compromise sensitive information.
But the prime minister’s official spokesman said the NHS test-and-trace system was for “everyone, including police officers”.
And the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) insisted forces were not setting up their own separate scheme.
The PM’s spokesman added:
Any member of the emergency services who has symptoms of coronavirus should self-isolate.
I think what the NPCC has said is that there are ongoing discussions with Public Health England (PHE) about how the NHS test-and-trace service will work for officers in cases where there may be operational or security issues to consider.
No 10 said the NPCC had made clear officers would still be “required to engage” with the tracking system but said the government would not want to “pre-empt” the conclusion of discussions between PHE and the NPCC about how it would work in sensitive cases.
In a statement, the NPCC said:
To be clear, police forces are not setting up a contact-tracing system for officers which is separate to the NHS test-and-trace service.
In order to ensure information about policing activity and the privacy of members of the public is protected, police officers and staff will not be able to disclose sensitive information to the NHS test-and-trace service.
The NPCC is in discussions with PHE to resolve this issue, and has proposed a system whereby police officers and staff in certain roles have their cases referred to a national vetted public health outbreak team.
Officers with symptoms will still be required to engage with the test-and-trace process at the outset.
They will still be able to access appropriate medical advice and treatment if they have tested positive for coronavirus, or are made aware that they have come into contact with someone who has tested positive.
NHS England has announced another 123 deaths of people who tested positive for Covid-19, bringing the total number of confirmed reported deaths in hospitals in England to 27,282.
Of the 123 new deaths announced on Friday: – 19 occurred on 4 June – 50 occurred on 3 June – 23 occurred on 2 June – seven occurred on 1 June
The figures also show 19 of the new deaths took place in May, four occurred in April, and the remaining one death took place on 25 March.
NHS England releases updated figures each day showing the dates of every coronavirus-related death in hospitals in England, often including previously uncounted deaths that took place several days or even weeks ago. This is because of the time it takes for deaths to be confirmed as testing positive for Covid-19, for post-mortem examinations to be processed and for data from the tests to be validated.
The figures published on Friday by NHS England show 8 April continues to have the highest number of hospital deaths on a single day, with a current total of 899.
The R value in England has risen to between 0.7 and 1, according to the government’s latest official estimates with some regions now at risk of seeing a rise in the number of infections.
The latest data suggests that the north-west of England is an area for concern and that some local authorities may have R-values – the rate of transmission – above 1, at which point the epidemic will begin to grow in these communities.
The Government’s chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance told a virtual briefing with journalists on Friday the R-number – the average number of people that will contract coronavirus from an infected person – for England was between 0.7 and 1, while it remained between 0.7 and 0.9 for the UK as a whole.
He said the prevalence of Covid-19 was on a “downward trajectory” in the UK, adding:
The prevalence of coronavirus, according to the ONS, is at 0.1%, with 53,000 people with Covid-19 in the past two weeks.
He said the incidence rate was at 0.7% per week, which meant there were “roughly” 39,000 new coronavirus cases each week. Sir Patrick said:
The latest R-value calculation is between 0.7 and 0.9 for the UK as a whole, it may be a little bit higher in England it may be between 0.7 and 1, and there is a bit of regional variation.
Public Health Wales said a further four people have died after testing positive for coronavirus, taking the total number of deaths in Wales to 1,383.
Another 76 people have tested positive for Covid-19, bringing the total number of confirmed cases in the country to 14,314.
Public Health Wales (@PublicHealthW)
The latest number of confirmed cases of Coronavirus in Wales has been updated.
